Ford Transit Chassis Cab Extra LWB for MOT Welding.
This Ford Transit extra LWB (Long Wheel Base) had been specially adapted for the customer many years ago to enable it to carry extra long loads. It came in to us for its annual MOT, whilst carrying out the MOT it became apparent that the extension section of the chassis which makes this van an ‘Extra LWB’ was made from a lower quality steel than the original chassis and was in very poor condition.
After removing the body from the chassis we could see what we had to deal with and realised we would have to completely replace the cross member as well as repairing the chassis legs.
The structural integrity of the the chassis legs was still very good and it was just the thin outer skin that was holed and corroded so we decided to sleeve the complete chassis leg to increase the strength of the existing legs.
“MOT Welding on Transit Van”
Once both chassis leg sleeves and tops had been welded into place it was time to align and fit the new cross member, the cross member also supports the prop shaft so needs to be perfectly in line as to not cause any vibrations.
Next job was to weld the top onto the cross member and seem seal and paint the chassis to help keep it protected.
After completing this section there were a few plates to be made for the rear section of the chassis then the welding would be complete and we could refit the body.
What do you do when a van that has failed an MOT on a rear cross member being excessively corroded (not much left at all) and requires a new one only to find the Dealers are on inevitable back order and non of the motor factors list the part?
Well, in our case we make one.
A sheet of steel and a bit of patience and ‘voila’ a new cross member for the van.
Once welded in place its just a matter of sealing and painting the new cross member and its a job well done.
If your car or van fails an MOT on welding don’t hesitate to give us a call for a quote.
Do you know if your car has a Dual Mass Flywheel? Do you know what a Dual Mass Flywheel is? Here’s the basics.
A Dual Mass Flywheel is basically what it says, it’s a Flywheel in two parts (Dual). The two separate parts are allowed to rotate slightly to create dampening when you release the clutch and to reduce engine vibrations being passed through to the gearbox.
This is done by heavy duty springs in between the the two separate parts of the Flywheel which allow the slight movement.
However, with all moving parts, especially ones under stress they wear causing noises, vibrations and lastly drive line failure!
Vibrations or Rattling?
This was a Dual Mass Flywheel we replaced recently on a Citroen C5, as you can see from the pictures when the old Flywheel had failed it was allowing the clutch to sit off centre causing vibrations. Once the new Flywheel and Clutch Kit were fitted it sat central again.
Once replaced the car was road tested and all vibrations and noises had disappeared.
If you have any concerns about vibrations or noises feel free to give us a call on 01332 205070 and we would be happy to help.
As some of you may know we decided sell our beloved Clio Cup race car and move up to a Honda Type R which will make us able to race in higher class’s.
Over the last few months we have been testing the car to make sure it doesn’t have any issues and for us to get some well needed seat time to get used to the new car, many thanks to Chris from Circuit Days for the track time and his input into how the car handled.
The first test day was at Donington Park which is our local circuit and would be good to see how it compared to the old Clio, after the test day we realised that in general the car was very good but the suspension seemed a bit to soft for how we wanted the car to handle.
After doing plenty of home work we opted for the Yellow Speed Racing coil overs (as used in the Civic Cup) with bespoke spring rates, we managed to get the kit fitted and setup before our second test day which was to be at Rockingham Race Way.
The test day at Rockingham was a great success, the new suspension had transformed the car into exactly what we wanted, the car was now planted, balanced and very controllable, we even managed to get a few laps with one of the cars we will be racing against next year and realised that even though the car was more than capable of keeping up we needed more seat time!
Our third and final test day of 2018 was at Oulton Park and it was wet, ideally we wanted a dry day to see if our times were good but we also new we needed to test in the wet so it wasn’t all bad, with our wet tyres on the car handled brilliantly and we were getting more and more confident as the day went on.
In the afternoon the rain had died off and there was a dry line appearing on the track so we decided to try our dry tyres to see how it would handle on a drying track, the car behaved in general but was a little twitchy on the back end which was to be expected.
In conclusion we are very happy with car and have managed to get it to a point where we are happy to race it.
Now for the strip down over winter and over to the bodyshop for our new paint scheme for next year, stay tuned for more updates.