looks like another summer lost as out taking my boy for a 10 minute reward spin round the block and doing 50ish changed down a gear and bang....rumble....bang....clatter....clatter...lost engine power and electrics and steam and locked rear wheels..... now stuck in middle of road....

A quick bonnet off reveals prop adapter has come off final engine final drive and the loose prop and adapter have reigned chaos in the engine bay.
1. ripped off brake master cylinder.
2. loosened ( yet to investigate properly ) clutch master cylinder
3. bent and twisted crank case over output shaft
4. battered the gear change mech down tunnel and on gear shaft on the block.
5. got a grip of the loom at some point and whipped it round the prop like spaghetti and all wound round the prop down the tunnel and pulled all the electrics from dash, clocks, front lights-horn-rad etc, engine bay and totally disconnected everything and in the process loom has tightened round to cooling pipes and pulled them off too. hence steam. loom is so tight round the prop it is that which had locked the back wheels

I had to remove tunnel top and handbrake and gear lever in middle of road to get to the VERY TIGHT rear bolts on the prop to get them undone so it would at least roll.

Bit of a mess, gutted really as didn't do the electrics on the original build had some one else do them who is too busy now to commit the time so am starting again from scratch to try and learn this and fasten it all together again.
Fellow LCB's please standby for lots of questions.
some pics of original damage below




to add insult to injury my recovery wouldnt tow me home as i dont have homestart and although i was 1.3 miles from home by road i was only 0.8 as the crow flies so therefore not covered. Something to watch out for in the future. So towing it home was a pig of a job too.

Did manage to get 2 looms one for a carb bird and one for injection bird for £30 though to cut up and use for bits as most of my plugs and relays etc are destroyed.

first 2 questions are. In this picture below is this the spped sensor on the top of gearbox as the plug to go on here has gone from mine ad is not on the 2 looms i bought, any ideas where to get one from??





and secondly, This is the water temp sendor i assume, does it normally have only one wire. And again where can i get one from??









Oh one last thing, the wires for the alternator have come out from right inside the cover. Do I have to drain the oil to open this and will i be able to connect them once i open it????



[img]
speed sensor??? [/img]


[img]
coolant sensor??? [/img]


[img]
tangled mess 1 [/img]


[img]
tangled mess 2 [/img]

[Edited on 14/8/09 by pif]

[Edited on 14/8/09 by pif]

oh fook what a disaster

pics arn't working but scared to look

certainly make me think twice about putting brake pipes and wiring down the tunnel

[Edited on 14/8/09 by Mr Whippy]

You were lucky i think. There was a post a couple of years back where the prop had made it into the passenger area.

That's terrible luck.



[Edited on 14/8/09 by David Jenkins]

What crap luck - Thankfully no one was injured.

quote:

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Originally posted by pif

speed sensor???



coolant sensor???



tangled mess 1



tangled mess 2

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Oh man that is bad luck.

Mike

Tim Hoverd's racecar was burnt to a very bad state by something similar. It could have been a lot worse!

Good luck. If the 'Bird is a carbie, it looks easy.

I was working on a Locoblade recently and noticed that it had a propshaft catcher (big 'U' bolt) around the front propshaft where it exited the tunnel.
Definitely a good idea in light of your recent experience with a flailing propshaft in the engine bay.
Hope you get everything fixed soon.

For a minute I thought it was going to be photos with claret everywhere.

As bad luck as that was it could have been SO much worse

That's a pisser!

Could have been worse; There was a race Fury that did the same thing on a test day last year but split a fuel pipe and went up in smoke!

Give me a call if you need a hand. Not familiar with the Blackbird though.

adrian

PS. Pictures not working here either.

I don't know about it being bad luck, I actually think you were both very lucky. It really could have been so much worse and you should count your blessings. There will be loads of help/advice about the car forthcoming on here but I don't think we would have been too great at helping to reattach lower limbs!

quote:

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Originally posted by speedyxjsYou were lucky i think. There was a post a couple of years back where the prop had made it into the passenger area.

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Makes me think about fitting a prop catcher, but Mines a CEC, I think on a BEC it's even more important due to the two-part prop...

thanks guys, believe it or not making me feel a bit better actually. I do remember a prop coming through into someones passenger footwell a few years ago and when i put my floor on i brought it forward to the leading edge of the bulkheads to keep the prop off the road if it ever came of. the prop catcher sounds like a good mod for this rebuild.

Forgot to mention that over the winter i stripped a lot of the car down to check it over as it had been 2 years since SVA and wanted to ensure everything was tight. Didnt do the bolt in the middle of the prop adapter as ......... i think i must of forgot it was there. Take heed. out of sight out of mind...

thanks for thoughts so far.

Going back to your original questions.

I am looking for a Blackbird speed sensor myself at the moment so will let you know if/when I find them.

Second question.
Yes, only one wire. I will have a look this evening to see if I have a spare connector for this for you.

Third question.
Yes you do need to drain the oil to open the alternator cover. You can get away without draining if you tilt the car up away from the alternator end.

The bike boys lay the bike over, but it would need to be mighty high at the front to achive this on a seven style car.

With all the other stuff you need to do, draining the oil seems the simplest way forward to me.

The magnets on the rotor make pulling the casing off a little difficult (mind your fingers particularly when re-fitting)

If the wires have been ripped out of the alternator, chances are they have been pulled out close to the windings so may be very difficult to repair.

The stator and windings are all contained in the cover part so I would look at getting a replacement unit from the Bay of e, or someone like Cheshire Motorcycle Salvage who I have used in the past for bits like this.

Don't forget to get a new gasket (about £8)

The best of luck with your repairs and hope you are back on the road soon.

Mike

[Edited on 14/8/09 by Mike S]

This won't help you now and I am sorry to see the mess, but it has been standard practice in Drag Racing for years to put a hoop around the prop shaft so when it breaks it is contained.
I have one in my tunnel, car engine.
On a bike engined Locost I would have one below the scuttle and one in the tunnel.
The hoop is usually made of 1" X 1/8" flat stock with brakets going to the chassis, some are split so they can be placed over the propshaft then bolted to retain their oval shape.
I had the front universal break years ago and the propshaft found a pot hole and lifted the hole back end of a full size American Ford three feet off the ground.

quote:

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Originally posted by Canada EH!
This won't help you now and I am sorry to see the mess, but it has been standard practice in Drag Racing for years to put a hoop around the prop shaft so when it breaks it is contained.
I have one in my tunnel, car engine.
On a bike engined Locost I would have one below the scuttle and one in the tunnel.
The hoop is usually made of 1" X 1/8" flat stock with brakets going to the chassis, some are split so they can be placed over the propshaft then bolted to retain their oval shape.
I had the front universal break years ago and the propshaft found a pot hole and lifted the hole back end of a full size American Ford three feet off the ground.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by sucksqueezebangblow

quote:

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Originally posted by speedyxjsYou were lucky i think. There was a post a couple of years back where the prop had made it into the passenger area.

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And JohneTurbo's car burnt to the ground in minutes when the prop shaft came loose and severed the fuel pipes.

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Rescued attachment broken prop.jpg

.
Rescued attachment broken prop pic 2.jpg

sorry to hear that mate! feels sh*t when all your hard work goes wrong, best of luck rebuilding mate hope things go smoothly!

Sorry to hear that. I remember a story of a Mallock that threw the prop into the drivers thigh and smashed his femour.

Bad luck, but good in a way!

Cheers

Ian

Sorry to hear that. I remember a story of a Mallock that threw the prop into the drivers thigh and smashed his femour.

Bad luck, but good in a way!

Cheers

Ian

Billys went at high speed and luckily did'nt pole vault the car in the air



THREAD LINKY

Think you were real lucky really! Same thing happened to mine but I got a small warning before it completely went.

Make the winter project bigger and better