1981 QP III 5 Speed and 1986 QP III Auto

Some more pictures of the strip down stage.

W
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Didn't comment before but it does look really cool!

 

Hi. Motor and Gearbox out. Need to send off the ZF and Mark wants to rebuild the motor at the shop.

Fairly big number attached to this exercise........
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Just posted the motor on the 81 which is out while the car gets painted.

The 86 is still a labour. New suspension all in but for some reason the MIE front shock and spring set seems to sit very high? I have asked if this is an issue or if there is a fix for this. Seems strange though.

Various missing bits being sorted out. I will admit being a bit discouraged at the cost so far. Wish I could do more of the fiddling myself.

Ciao for now
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Another picture of the 86
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Hi I will arrange for some photos of the other side. I was unaware until recently that the motors are so different but only a manual motor will work on a manual car.

 

I had described this in a technical post to ZF and their reply was: "Dear Sir,

I think the gear shift rail or the gear shift fork is broken. For maintenance und repairing please contact our sercvice station in GB"

However, contacting ZF got a negative response for assistance as "they don't service them any more".

Well the ZF is pictured out of the car but is off for repair. Wayne Lee has agreed to do this. He is from MST (Motorsport Transmissions) http://www.motorsporttransmissions.com/home

He specialises in the ZF S5 18/3 but has the manuals etc and has rebuilt the ZF S5 24/3.

He seems a reasonable chap on the phone and is doing some interesting work so we shall see. The other option was to ship it back to ZF but they were very uncommunicative. http://www.schiemenz.com/ Auto Schiemenz could work on the ZF but their email does not work, no one answers the phone that speaks English and I don't%2
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For some reason I lost some text so here is the end of my post.

"Dear Sir,

I think the gear shift rail or the gear shift fork is broken. For maintenance und repairing please contact our sercvice station in GB"

However, contacting ZF got a negative response for assistance as "they don't service them any more".

Well the ZF is pictured out of the car but is off for repair. Wayne Lee has agreed to do this. He is from MST (Motorsport Transmissions) http://www.motorsporttransmissions.com/home

He specialises in the ZF S5 18/3 but has the manuals etc and has rebuilt the ZF S5 24/3.

He seems a reasonable chap on the phone and is doing some interesting work so we shall see. The other option was to ship it back to ZF but they were very uncommunicative. http://www.schiemenz.com/ Auto Schiemenz could work on the ZF but their email does not work, no one answers the phone that speaks English and I don't want to risk shipping the ZF to Bonn and having any issues with communication. Another option was
P&W Engineering
Paley Workshop
Arden Press Way
Letchworth GC
Herts
SG6 1FR
UK
They could work on it and are Aston specialists. It seemed like money no object Aston restoration but they were uber professional and would be a perfect place to go.

I liked the sound of Wayne on the phone and his estimate is reasonable and the process painless so lets see how it works out. He also agreed to do a photo disassembly etc so I can post it which I liked.

Ciao for now

 

Thanks will keep you in mind as work moves forward.

 

Well the long awaited day has arrived. The amazing piece of ZF kit is at MST without a hitch and they have immediately begun to strip it down. Here are some pics to start. No analysis yet.

Ciao
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We are going to set up the suspension and run it a bit and see if it settles. The back looks perfect though. I did ask MIE but no response on a fix yet.

 

Hi I am putting this here also given the discussion. Front end weakness seems to be an issue.

William,

I think you might be best off with the MIE shocks.

While the front suspension technically came from a QP III, it's true source appears to be the Pantera, a rear-mid-engine car with considerably less weight at the front. That suspension with it's coil-over shocks (dampers) was never meant to hold up half the weight of a QP III, with the engine sitting over the front axle center-line, all sitting on a couple of little rubber shock bushings.

We have a set of US-made coil-overs by Vari-Shock on this car. They are machined from billet aluminum, are re-buildable and are externally adjustable for damping and ride height. They also come with a choice of urethane bushings or spherical bearings at the load bearing points. I'm not sure they would be suitable for the QP III. You would have to check with the manufacturer.

On my roadster the bare chassis only weighs about 200 pounds and the engine sits very far back from the front axle center-line. The weight on the front shock bushings is considerably less than on a QP III.

Thank you for your encouragement even though I'm not being very encouraging here.

 

Well it is fully stripped down and the good news is that all of the gears are solid. As Wayne predicted they are so well made that they show no wear at all. Lots of junk and very dirty. A real testament to the quality of engineering.

He also can see why the issues were arising in the ZF which he also says is really good news as what you see you can fix. He has some of the parts required but it will need some bearings from ZF. The parts are all stamped with an S which he advises means they were only ZF made and special.

More pictures shortly.