Chrysler Sunbeam - Road Car Project - V6/6 Speed

Absolutely love this build, its gonna be mint when it’s finished, keep up the good work.

Ah ha.

Having finished badly painting the suspension parts i decided to have ago at the back axle.

The back axle is a sort of smaller Salisbury type and has been referred to as a 3HA but i don't think it is. Traditionally people considered them weak due to the diffs failing this mainly because in the old days people didn't use LSDs so the centre pin or the spider gears failed.

Driveshafts are quite strong but will fail in the rough. Skip Browns always said that the axle will take 190hp if used in a rally car.

The next failure point is the pinion but this only gets unreliable below 4.7 ratios it seems.

So with potentially north of 260 from the V6 what did i choose?

Luckily i have a dana 30 and two Volvo 1031/1041 axles in narrow and wide.

So i snored these and built up a standard axle.

First thing was to find the later more beefy drive shaft

Not this one

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This one!

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As can be seen the flange is thicker.

I had a standard axle with normal tubes so used that rather than the thick tubed Lotus axle. It also had a 3.9 CWP which i think is the sweet spot.

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Taking off the CROWN Wheel to put on this.

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This the Quaiffe torque bias diff. I have used it before and apart from being quiet i don't really rate them but it was in a drawer doing nothing so.....

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Fitted the 3.9 CWP and then set the back lash and check the engagement with Engineers Blue

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Seemed all ok.

The proof will be if the axle holds together of course! But i will be using 185/60 x 13 so they should break traction first.......

The quaiffe is not a slip limiting device. If one wheel gets away from it then it will just spin away.

Therefore it is difficult to do a proper donut.

I like doing donuts.

Therefore i don't rate it.

But it was hanging around so it got used.

SO i had done building the axle and had it ready to fit the shell.

Trouble was the shell was on the Spit, which meant breaking out various methods of lifting. My favourite being the block and tackle my dad let me have years ago:



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Then at the back i used the trusty engine crane ( i say trusty but has tried to kill me recently)

Not quite ready for the lift as the chains aren't on yet but i forgot to take more photos:

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Front off


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Back off and on stands

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Might as well fit the back axle and get it out of the way, the bowls are either protecting my head as i hadn't removed the hanging irons or a trial for super light weight bumpers - i can't remember.

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And in

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But what a pain in the ass it was. I bought a few years ago a complete set of Stainless bolts for the suspension off of a friend who was doing sets for the Sunbeam. What i didn't realise was the nuts were some sort of mad one use only affair and because they rn tight caused about 50% of the bolts to spall and seize. Didn't even know the Stainless fixings have this issue and hadn't come across it before. This led to some furious Googling and now i know its a thing. So i have purchased a whole bunch of Nylon nuts and use di -something sulphate grease to alleviate the issue. Copper ease in is insufficient apparently to completely cure it. Anyway my new battery - or cordless - grinder got me out of trouble. Again.

Now that is some very interesting information! Cheers

I only went for Stainless as i thought it might increase the longevity of the car!

Any way the next car, which will be another Hillclimb is going to have a rifle drilled bolts...... I have even managed to get a lathe and mill to fulfil my dream od complete self sufficiency. Apart from not knowing what i am doing of course.

But learning about the Stainless bolts issue has been interesting.

I used to work for a company designing and restoring high end shop fronts and doors. The first time I saw the effects of galvanic corrosion it put me off from using stainless bolts on a vehicle, even in non-structural applications. We had in a restoration of aluminium frame (without a barrier coating) and stainless clad doors, this along with added salts over time from people urinating on it in the shop doorways made the ali blow and delaminate like wet MDF does

Your doing a fantastic job on that wee car hats off to ye

Time for a bit of fabrication.

In the old days when i was first getting into Avengers and Sunbeams one of the best things to do was drill the TCA mounting hole 10-12mm further out. This gave the car some decent negative camber which helped all round. What it didn't do was improve the already bad bump steer. But the gains from increased camber and a slight increase in castor worked well.

The best solution is to keep the hole where it should be. Move the rack back by an 'amount' and lengthen the TCA its self.

Thus, i found some old TCA's and cut the end off.


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Then after cleaning them up i welded a bolt onto it like so:


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Please note that small decorative paving slabs make excellent cooling pads.


But just a bolt wouldn't be strong enough on its own so


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Untitled by Nevtiger, on Flickr

Which gives us this

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Time for some paint.

Progress is slow on the Sunbeam at present due to the Tiger and next door. I have sold the engine from the Tiger and i am building a Big Ass shed next door to put all the stuff from the garage that shouldn't live in a garage, like bikes, bbq, lawn mower etc.... Then i can instal the lather, Mill, Saw, Drill etc.

With the car back in the open i can get on with where i left off :-)


I last was thinking about raising the inlet plenums up by 15mm. Therefore with a block of 15mm alloy i started making some raisers.


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With the inlet ports made and the raiser all shaped up i needed to ensure that the inlet plenum, the raiser and the inlet ports all align! I clamped up the two pieces and drilled 2 4.2mm holes.


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Then i tapped the holes M5

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And then bolted the inlet plenum to the raisers and achieved repeatable alignment. I suspect these two will stay attached to each other.

Untitled by Nevtiger, on Flickr

Untitled by Nevtiger, on Flickr


That leaves the gasket to make and the alignment with the original lower inlet manifold. There is an original sealing gasket that incorporates alignment dowels so i shall replicate these. But before i do that i need some nylon dowel delivered.


in the mean time i made up the inlet plenum support pieces. In the MX5 kit these are obviously the correct height. I need to raise them by 15mm. I used some offset Carbon Fibre sheet i had. These have been bolted and Voodoo glued......

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Then i needed to add the elbow. I found that the throttle body would sit in the correct orientation but not the cable mounts so i mounted them 90 degrees round. These are mocked up with black racer tape.

Untitled by Nevtiger, on Flickr

Untitled by Nevtiger, on Flickr


All i needed to do then was mark the angle and Voodoo glue the elbows on properly.


I then moved to the Near Side. curse word 15mm isn't enough. I mocked up 30mm and found that will allow the elbow to fit with minor modification and still fits under the bonnet. Just. Its because the Near Side bank of 3 are offset rear ward.

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So need Alloy block, nylon rod and some Flexed gasket material and i can finish off the inlet arrangement.