Tiga Half Shafts

[DUNCAN]

I understand that many FF/CFF manufacturers will use an O.E.M half shaft from what ever car was available at the time. I am trying to figure out what car the half shafts on my 78 Tiga are off of. Any help is appreciated.





Thanks

[Todd TCE]

Unobtanium Motor Co. (ltd. of course!)

If these are the age old part known to have axle nuts fly off and hubs shear they are no longer avaialable. And good thing too.

If you want to attempt to have new ones made for this that are better, but not solving the hub problems, you might try contactin Fastforward and see if Doug would or has made copies.

Or the option is to do a complete conversion of the drive to VW axles and FM drive parts etc. which I and maybe others have done. Costly but a one time deal.

You might get lucky and find an axle for it here and on racecars.com if you post for one off a crashed car or converted one. Good luck.

[Will Burton]

Que Pasa, Brian? The pictures you show are identical to those sent to me by an F. Olivier from Belgium, who was asking the exact same questions. I referred him to Roger Andreason (Chevron-Tiga USA) who has set up operations in Jupiter, Florida and has all the original Tiga FF and S2000 jigs, molds, etc., as well as knowing the complete history of Tiga bits.

[lenhart05]

Brian,

If you are not ready for the expense of the FM conversion and just need to get back on the track, I would concentrate on finding a used halfshaft. In cendiv, there are a few Tiga's that are already converted and hopefully, the owners didn't sell these parts yet. Try to get the word out and many tigas race midwest council. Also of note, the widetrack '80 tiga is not the same axle as the 77-79. These axles look like a swift db-1 set up (complete with lightened inner CV's), but are also from Unobtanium Motor Co. LTD.

Tad Lenhart

[Todd TCE]

I think there is still on pic on the FM conversion on lmy web site too. If not I have a few if you want them. Don't recall the cost of it as it was about six years ago, but I think it's still running...

I could reproduce it again I think.

[Henrik]

Hello,
The inner part of the potjoint is from the BMC1800 princess. http://www.leylandprincess.co.uk

Someone said that the outer CV is from the BMC1800 MK2 "Landcrab" (Not verified)http://www.landcrab.net/mainframes/main_production.htm

I run a 1977 Tiga on wich the outer nut 1"x12TPI (I think, not UNC!) always worked lose until I made the spacer between the 2 wheel beerings in good material and have them between the two inner races of the bearing, not like original between inner and the CV. After this I have raced 3 seasons and had no problems. Finding the outer nut can be a problem but I found some in Greensboro, NC. SPX have them in their catalouge but wouldn't quote me on 4pcs.....
I bought new shafts from Jack Knight Dev. LTD @ £130 for 2 aprox $200. htttp://www.jackknight.co.uk/
When I looked for mine Roger Andreassen did not have them in stock and would have to make them locally. I checked with GKN and they never made such a short shaft for a std car.

There is a guy usally advertising on http://www.racecar.co.uk/ who bought 6 old Tiga school cars and scrapped them for parts! richard.parkin@tiscali.co.uk

If you decide to buy spares from him make sure what you get, because some of the school cars were modified to use some Rover Montego? CV. Also some of the Tiga Rear uprights were remanufactured and were solid. Engines were all std Escort with cast manifolds.


Henrik Hansson

[Larry]

...don't know if this would help, but I have two Hewland Mk 9 gearbox sideplates and yokes for a standard CV joint setup.

Larry Oliver
International Racing Products
703-759-0567 most evenings until 9:30 eastern

[Craig Taylor]

Gentlemen,

To add fat to the fire, we have done several Tiga conversions to standard Lobro CV joints using the Mazda stub axles. We also have in stock halfshafts to work with these kits. The conversion does require special wheel spacers to maintain the correct offset. We like to make these spacers with centering spigots to center up the wheel (the stock spacer has no centering spigot, and depends upon the wheel studs to center). We can also make the conversion using a center-lock (single wheel nut) if you would like.

The Tiga is one of the best Club Fords ever built. In one season (1981) we won 9 nationals in a row with the car, including the Sprints. What a great car! (oops, that shows how old I am. Nearly as old as Todd C.)

Craig

[DUNCAN]

Thanks for all of the useful info on these half shafts.

Will, That guy in France actually asked me about these shafts and I thought that I ought to get a jump on the availability or conversion possibilities before I wind up needing them.

Craig, I'll probably be calling you soon to get more info on the conversion. I'm a little lost on the centering issue you bring up.

Henrik, You mention that you designed a spacer that substitutes the stub shaft sleave that spaces the hub on the stub shaft with a sleave that spaces the races of the inner and outer bearing. I had a sleave made out of S.S. and am using it in the original configuation (Hub/stubshaft spacer). The old one was made of mild steel and showed signs of "mushrooming" on one side, probably from countless torquings and eventual slop as the spacer wore smaller. The previous owner of the Tiga said that the rear wheel bearing had been replaced recently and it was already bad due to too much side load tightening it up on a shorter shaft sleave.

Thanks for everyones input. I have learned quite a bit reading and posting here

Duncan

[Todd TCE]

That Craig, funny guy. lol

The fit of new shafts to your car is only half of the problem in the eyes of an 'in the know owner' who has seen the hubs come off the car! The second problem centers around the hubs and their related flange fit to the bearins (about as bad as it gets) and the retaining nuts. Equally as bad if not at least attempted to be done right.

In any case the overall 're engineering' of them is your only proper answer to the total package. Anything else is just buying time...

[sjhearn]

I know I am reviving an old thread, but I am having this exact issue with my '78 Tiga FFA. Both rear axle nuts are continuing to loosen up. I have to tighten them multiple times during a race weekend.

My burning questions are:
1 - What it the proper torque? I am using 125 ft-lbs.
2 - Who out there is currently making a solution for this problem?

Thank you,

Sean

[Bill Bonow]

In any case the overall 're engineering' of them is your only proper answer to the total package. Anything else is just buying time...

Todd's suggestion is still very true, even if it's 13 years old.
This is the one serious weak spot of the Tiga FFA.
Torque will not fix it, the bearing spacer is soft metal and more torque will only compress it more.
I converted my old Tiga FFA 78 (Chassis # 60) back in '95 to use VW CV joints and 20 years later, the current owner is still driving the car on the same parts.
It won't be easy, but this is the only way to permanently solve this issue.

[Tigaman]

Both rear axle nuts are continuing to loosen up. I have to tighten them multiple times during a race weekend.

Sean

Torque will not fix it, the bearing spacer is soft metal and more torque will only compress it more.

It won't be easy, but this is the only way to permanently solve this issue.

Correct on all accounts.

[cgscgs]

On my FFA-81 we made new spacers out of some hard steel tubing (4130). The old spacers had the length (to the thousandth) written on them with a Sharpie. We machined the tubing to that length. Checked torque on the big nuts occasionally, only found one a bit loose twice. After 4 years we made new ones as part of winter PM, never loosened. Five years later, I plan to make new ones again this winter, again for routine PM.
Chuck

[sjhearn]

Thank you for the responses. I will it apart this weekend and look at the spacers to see if they are too far gone. It is more than a little nerve racking to come back in the pits and find that I must tighten the axle nut every other race.

I looked back in some of the records of the car and it does appear to have VW axles in it, but the uprights are Tiga. So, I am assuming that the bearings are just a different size and it still use a bearing spacer.

[Tigaman]

Having done this on more than a dozen early ('78-'82) Tiga SC's (same assembly as the FF and FF2000), once the end of the spacer are no longer true, the entire assembly is compromised. It is not only the distortion (loss of parallelism between the race contact surfaces of the spacer) but also the reduction of the critical dimension (width) which causes a loss of preload in the sandwich of the hub and the stub axle, in whatever form.

To make the stock assembly work, I had thick wall steel spacers made, then had them ground to the critical dimension needed for the recommended preload (can't be exact fit, HAS to have SOME preload, I'll see if I can find the measurement), then heat treated afterwards.

A real PITA, but a must for safety.

[Bill Bonow]

I looked back in some of the records of the car and it does appear to have VW axles in it, but the uprights are Tiga. So, I am assuming that the bearings are just a different size and it still use a bearing spacer.

Don't assume anything. You have a 38 year old car that likely has seen it's fair share of use, abuse and mods. As you have noticed, there is a ton of "old knowledge" here at ApexSpeed. In specific, a number of people have Tiga FFA rear drive axle experience. Take a few photos and post them. This will likely lead to a basic ID of what is on the car.

Either way, I agree 100% that loosening axle stubs are a safety issue no matter what is on the car.

[HayesCages]

A friend of mine used a Subaru half shaft and drive flange. Don't know what year or model though.

[fshort]

Having done this on more than a dozen early ('78-'82) Tiga SC's (same assembly as the FF and FF2000), once the end of the spacer are no longer true, the entire assembly is compromised. It is not only the distortion (loss of parallelism between the race contact surfaces of the spacer) but also the reduction of the critical dimension (width) which causes a loss of preload in the sandwich of the hub and the stub axle, in whatever form.

To make the stock assembly work, I had thick wall steel spacers made, then had them ground to the critical dimension needed for the recommended preload (can't be exact fit, HAS to have SOME preload, I'll see if I can find the measurement), then heat treated afterwards.

A real PITA, but a must for safety.

Hi Peter:

I'm facing the same issues - my bearing spacers are mushroomed & shorter than the labeled/measured dims. What material did you make the new spacers from & what did you heat treat them to?

Thanks for your help!

Regards,
James

[Tigaman]

Hi Peter:

I'm facing the same issues - my bearing spacers are mushroomed & shorter than the labeled/measured dims. What material did you make the new spacers from & what did you heat treat them to?

Thanks for your help!

Regards,
James

James, I’ll have to look that up and see if I still have it. It was at least fifteen years ago. Now I run a later model, separate stub axle centerlock car!

[fshort]

Hi Peter:

Any info you might share is great!

Thanks!

Regards,
James

[DanW]

My Zink Z10 also used VW stubshafts and Type 3 hubs. The bearings in my case were stock VW ball on one side and roller on the other. The spacer was seamless 4130 AMS 6360 / AMS T-6736 Condition N. Steve Lathrop at ICP provided the dimensions in my case. YMMV

[fshort]

My Zink Z10 also used VW stubshafts and Type 3 hubs. The bearings in my case were stock VW ball on one side and roller on the other. The spacer was seamless 4130 AMS 6360 / AMS T-6736 Condition N. Steve Lathrop at ICP provided the dimensions in my case. YMMV

Hi Dan:

Do you think that I can go up on wall thickness to gain the strength needed w/o heat treat? The issue is the high minimum charges at heat treaters in Seattle...plus the 2 hour drive each way.

Regards,
James