Manx Club

OK, for those that remember, a little bit back, we were on the Lone Pine run. The day before the main run, several of us were out on a trip to the race track in Death Valley N.P. At one point I heard this big "BANG." A couple of miles later, I went to stop, but couldn't as something had kicked up and taken out a steel braided hydralic brake line in back. So going for door number two, I pulled up hard on the E-brake. That got us stopped, and we were able to repair the hydralic line and get on our way again. The next day, I noticed the E-brake was not sitting square anymore, and I was having difficulty getting the rachet teeth to catch so I could set the E-brake when we stopped. Thought maybe I broke a brake cable or something, but it didn't effect any of the runs we went on. Well today, I finally went to check to see what damage I had done. The cables appear fine but I found something else that appears to be the trouble. It took me a moment to figure out what I was looking at. Seems that one of the heater control knob pivot points had broken off. Since I don't have a heater, this is no problem. As I look further, seems that the area that the E-brake ratchet teeth hooks to is also broken or cut. Finally, it looks like there are four cuts, one at each end of the heater control knob channels. What kind of problem(s) am I looking at here? Could this be related to the body flex that I began feeling during the Anza Borrego run? Would re-welding these area fix the problem.... Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks

I don't see why some creative welding wouldn't fix your problem. It's amazing what you can do when the adrenalin kicks in

I just checked my pan, which was cut and welded following the clubs posted instructions, and I welded the heater lever slots closed by welding a piece of flat stock over them. It appears that this is a weak area, after you repair the tears in the pan, it would probably be good to weld the slots closed. Good luck.

Go to the garage section of the Manx club site, go to "How to shorten pan", go to page 4, and here it talks about how to strngthen the heater slots, and strengthen the pan.

Bossman: I had a problem with that portion of the pan, just plain wearing out. You have to remove the seats & the E-Brake handle system, to do it right, then remove, grind or cut out the torn areas, and weld in a new piece of plate, a little thicker than the pan, like Joemama says. It looks difficult, at first, but it will be a simple fix, but time consuming. Also consider beefing up the ears or uprights that hold the pin for the E-Brake handle, they are a weak spot also, they will twist and the keepers and pin will fall out eventually. :2cents: Jimbo

Thanks for the feedback. I looked at the Garage part of the site and will be fabricating straps to weld this week. I think I will have the current cracks re-welded first, so when I weld on the straps, it will be as strong as new (not that "I" will be doing ANY welding on my own... ).

Hi Mike, I'm continuously rewelding in that general vicinity, but the stress cracks have spread upward to where the top of the hump actually begins to split apart. I can always tell when it's time to reweld the tunnel: When I come off the top of a hill at an angle with one front wheel in the air and the other still on the ground, the pan flexes so much that the shifter moves over and hits my leg. As soon as I reweld the tunnel, the shifter stays straight. Rewelding should fix your problem.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Would never have thought to look in the Garage section of this site. I went with Bruce's recommendations, but since I don't have extra pan sheet metal just sitting around, I got some 12 guage (1/8") by 1 1/2" wide metal straps from the local hardware store. Once I got everything cleaned up, modestly re-aligned and properly modified to fit (straps cut to size, cross tunnel strap bent into shape, and heater control pivot points cut off leaving just the E-brake handle pivot point), I took it to a local welder who re-welded the stress cracks, and welded on the straps ($70.00). Here is a pic of what it looked like just after it was welded. I cleaned up the welds, repainted everything, and reinstalled the E-brake and seats. Better than new! (I hope )

Nice job!!!! :drinking: