Diffs are us

When is a FIAT not a FIAT any more?

Probably when you do this... but I like to think of it as a refinement...

So  here we go again - we have the diff rotating now - thanks to the RHS bearing block and eccentric being machined. The Pictures below are of teh second dummy assembly - not much to do now - bushings and oil seals, diff "muff" , and shim spacers plus some bolt holes and a pinch bolt on each side. But most importans you now get to see the drive side more or less how it should look. I ended up using the evo 1 lower mounting cradle as a spacer in teh dummy assembly hence the odd bits of tube getting in to shot.

For those who havent twigged yet - thats not a Fiat engine in there ..... and last I checked the other  two 128s I raced never had this drive arrangement :-)

Still you should have a good idea by now this is a Yamaha powered Fiat hybrid running chain drive and 6 speed sequential gears and about 155 bhp in a package that weighs in at under 80kgs with the same tourque as my old 1300 FAZA 128 - but in a car weighing 300kg LESS. I havent cut the car and a good 1600 SOHC iron block fiat and 4 speed can be dropped back in the whole in an afternoon and be running by morning a few hours later.....

The precsion maching and welding on this engine install is the work of Graeme Sutton - with me in support doing the time consuming roughing out and drilling/tapping/fabrication tube notching layout stuff - time consuming for me that is!

Neat little package eh!

So there you have it - full exploded view next time - plus throttle cable and pedal and either wiring or headers....

So whats the Plan....

Well - since I have been just uploading a bunch of photos of late perhaps some explanations of progress are in order:

So here we go -  The diff build is consuming a mammoth amount of time  - to get from  raw billets to the drive stack seen in the photos has taken 4 months of sparodic effort and a machine shop with enough kit to make your eyes water - do not try this at home! Unfortunately I lost the shots of the raw material stage... 

So we stareted with a Toyota Celica Torsen diff - machined the ring gear mounting circle down and sliced off one bearing snout - then took the drive outboard with a couple of big billets of 1045 steel. The drive side bearing runs on these held in an eccentric mount on the side plates - the alloy bits below are the start of the eccentrics -  and on the right a hairy arm and teh eccentric in place - 0.300 or 7.8mm of tensioning for the chain

Diff

Inital stack

Sprocket drive flange

Final stack eccentric is the lighter colured piece

All pretty simple really - I will take some detail shots of the whole exploded unit prior to final assembly!

Update photos - Interior panels/gear shift/Diff

lots and lots of stuff going on Interior panels and bias adjuster plus the diff coming together

Gear Shift

Bias Adjuster

Door Panels

Photo Essay 31 January

Okay - as of today




Doors are light - because.....

Sequential shift - cockpit side - with hot rod knob

The fiat inside door handles were way to heavy

Bonnet fits over carbs.... just

funnily enough the shut lines were fine last weekend

She who knows everything

Race engine and painted mounts plus shift Linkage (Mocked up only)

Headers Half finished - next big project

Radiator and sealed cold air box - ram air from head light aperture

Keihen FCR 41 Flatslides

Nothing to see move on

It fitted last week honest

Pedals with V2 throttle (not quite finished)

Picture of the artist in his studio (Pi$$ Artist that is)

Plans for the next month is to finish the diff and drive shafts finish the headers and wiring run the fuel lines and shroud the cell - finalise the reverse gear arrangements put the front suspension back in assemble the brakes run the clutch

feck thats way to much work...

Public Health Warning

Summer Work

Really need to keep on top of all this... and some of these are a month old...
radiator is in

headers are 1/2 in

Race engine is in

Wiring is - well lets not discuss that

diff is coming along

Now these are VERY special 11 and 12 Tooth Front Yamaha r1 Sprocket anyone??