Diff ramp and diff cover location

[SteveW]

Having completed my rolling chassis, I've now started on the wood frame and I have a question.

The bulls horn bolts through the diff ramp and then through the front rail of the diff cover frame. The location of the bolts holes in the diff ramp are such that the top edge of the bulls horn is flush with the top edge of the diff ramp. However, due to the angle, if I locate the diff ramp (and bulls horn) to be flush with the side rails of the cover frame and then drill through, the holes would come out too low (through the bottom edge of the frame rather than through the middle of the back). They would only be in the right place if I adjust the diff ramp to be higher than the diff cover frame. Is it correct to position it like this?

The side rails of the diff cover frame have a 3/8" lip cut into them for the lid, so I'm wondering if the correct way is for the lid to be made from 1/2" ply with a lip to go over the side rails (covering the countersunk bolt heads) and sit flush with the top of the diff ramp.

Put simply, should the diff ramp be bolted on to be slightly higher than the side rails as shown in the following picture or should it be flush with the side rails? If the latter then how do I get the drill through holes for the bull horn in the right place?

[SteveW]

Having slept on this and gone back to it today, I have managed to resolve the problem by reference to the original body timbers (which I kept) and by making some slight adjustments. The diff ramp is now flush with the sides of the box and the holes through the bulls horn come out in the right place. The box lid will be 9mm ply as it should. I'll post some pictures when I get to the end of stage 1 of the wood frame build.

[Marv]

Keep the info and pics coming Steve, I'm close behind you on TC5141. Info and experiences from others are priceless! Where did you source your wood. My compound curve and more detailed body wood is from Craig Seabrook, I made all the straight cut and plywood pieces. Door wood from Abingdon Spares. I too, have saved all the removed timbers for later reference.

Marv TC5141

[SteveW]

Hi Marv, will do. I've been a little slow to start to use this forum as I couldn't get pictures to post properly. Now that I've sorted that out, I'll do more regular progress reports.

I got my wood parts from a guy called Fred Body in the UK who has personally restored some award winning cars. A lesson learnt so far is if you are working off TC Forever, most of the locations of the holes to be drilled in the wood are correct, but check against your metal parts first. E.g. the screw holes through my bulls horn were in slightly different locations by up to 1/4". I suspect that the original factory workers just offered the bulls horn up to the frame and drilled 5 approximately evenly spaced holes.