Car 52 Update

[Darren Sharp]

Thanks for the replies and good wishes guys . I have some further News  that may be of interest.

A few weeks prior to the run I finally had my O/D gearbox fitted and it was working fine . It was fitted by my best mate who rebuilds these things and complicated autos of all types . I had no doubt  about his work as it is always of the highest standard . He did not supply the gearbox in any case . When i described the incident to my pal he refused to believe that it could be attributed to speed as he says I drive like a granny and rarely go fast enough to skid ( I was second last at the first halt and I thought I was caning it, I probably wouldnot have finished until Tuesday afternoon) Strange because my co driver also thinks I was slow . Secondly about 1minute before the accident the rear of the car shimmied on a straight road with no obstructions Anyway Andy, my friend insisted that before I take anything mechanical off the drivetrain I should get the car safely up in the air and do some basic tests . Low and behold turning the wheels revealed some weird behavior in the diff it would appear that the planet gears have lost some teeth and there is no motion transferred to the  the prop shaft. The gearbox however is not locked as the propshaft revolves when in neutral but does not turn the wheels . Catastrophic failure of the Diff seems to have been the reason then that the car went out of control.

The moral of this story is that if the back of your spitty suddenly twiches without provocation STOP.

Cheers
Darren ??)

Stop press

Once in bits it all became clear , well clear blue anyway.  A diff full of blue metal indicating that it got hot and seized. I was confused by the fact that it now turned (although reluctantly) but my engineer friend pointed out that this was because it was no longer hot and had freed off

[Jason]

The first diff failure I ever had in a Triumph (and as a teenager with a Vitesse I had several) was on a nice straight road when I decided to go from pootling mode to warp factor 9 - I dropped too many cogs and floored the throttle, the back end gave a series of twitches and I was off into the distance - for about 5 yards whereupon the diff went BANG and the wheels initially locked then rotated then locked again, I ground to a halt with that sickening metal on metal sound we all dread. There were some nice black tranlines behind me and I was pressed up against the steering wheel wondering what the hell I'd done.  :'(
Investigations revealed a hole in the casing and what I now know to be far too small a pool of oil!  ??)
Fotunately the only damage was to the diff and the car had come with a spare but now I think about it, if that had happened at the bend at the end of that road, I would not be here today!
Didn't stop me going on to wreck another 2 diffs and a gearbox in that car - oh happy days, living with parents, working, having disposable income and no sense or respect for the car!