Needed a front turrett for my 26....so I made one.

[gus]

Make a jig consisting of 2 sheets with holes drilled for all four suspension pins.
Cut the crossmember off of the chassis leaving the chassis as intact as possible.
Cut the old towers off and cut the old crossmember closing plates off and replace
bolt the towers and crossmember to the fixture*
weld
remove from fixture then set the chassis on a perfectly flat surface[!] measure and weld the assembly to the chassis

* my chassis the lower pins were so out of position from the factory we had to cut the drivers side lower pin out and reweld it to get it to fit in the fixture

[TomMull]

Nice work on the turrets. I wonder if you might have pictures of the chassis after the old turret had been cut out and/or of the new ones tacked or being welded into place.
Tom

[deadline]

Some pics

New turrets

New turrets

[deadline]

Vacuum box repair

remove old

fit repair

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Weld weld weld

New Turrets

Now on to the rest of this frames issues.

We can make new turrets and get then back on in place as per the specs. If anyone has a need please reach out.

[billwill]

Might have been an idea, for while the vacuum tank is open and definitely free of fuel fumes, to fit a 'drain' plug through which in future you could vent compressed air to clear out any fuel fumes through the little entry tube.

You still can do it of course, provided that you do it before running an engine and vacuum system.

[deadline]

Bill, what is the recommended type of 'drain plug' for that? Like a radiator drain plug or something like a schrader valve?

[billwill]

Bill, what is the recommended type of 'drain plug' for that? Like a radiator drain plug or something like a schrader valve?

Dunno, it's just a suggestion, I don't know of anyone who has actually done it, but then until your messages I had never heard of anyone rebuilding the front suspension turrets.

If I was doing it I would use the same kind of drain as used in a fuel tank, but probably mount it on the side (front?) then you could stuff a thin air pipe in (to wave it about inside) and have it exhaust through both the usual inlet and also around the edges of the air pipe.

It was brought to my mind by this topic and realising that I had not informed the welding bloke that there was a small chance of fuel fumes in the vacuum chamber when I asked him to weld some strengthening plates on the bottom of my turrets.

Fortunately if you always have a non-return air valve near the carburettor intake there is actually very little chance of any fuel fumes getting into the vacuum chamber or staying there (and mine didn't explode).

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=16727&hilit=turrets

[nmauduit]

Fortunately if you always have a non-return air valve near the carburettor intake there is actually very little chance of any fuel fumes getting into the vacuum chamber or staying there (and mine didn't explode).

When I welded a front tow hook to the crossmember of my S4 I tried to empty the crossmember first by filling it with compressed air and let it vent out : quite a bit of oily gunk came out (mostly in my face). A small hole evenually let most of it out, but I figured that over the years, fumes eventually made it through the valve, which originally was connected on #4 with the head breather... I now have connected the vacuum valve to #1 cylinder.

[deadline]

We will definitely be adding tow hooks as they are required for vintage racing.

Not sure about the vacuum tank drain. I can find no pictures of a drain on any of the spider frames. Also not sure that we need a vacuum tank as we would run either fixed lights or no lights at all in racing.

[types26/36]

We will definitely be adding tow hooks as they are required for vintage racing.
Not sure about the vacuum tank drain. I can find no pictures of a drain on any of the spider frames.

I had an S3 which had a Spyder frame (reconditioned Lotus type) not the space frame.
It had a round vacuum tank with drain plug, towing hook and removable wishbone fulcrum pins.