More TCI chassis "woes" ! ( will they ever end?)

Topsterguy · June 08, 2006, 11:29:33 PM

I was getting a weird rattle / cracking noise for the past year and no way could I find it, but had it narrowed down to the front left side! Turned out to be a crck in the boxing plate around the motor mount! TCI mounts their motor mount, when using a Vega box, with the gusset on the underside of the mount ending half way down the boxing plate! There's nothing in behind the plate so all the weight of the engine is pretty much going into the boxing plate right in the center. The crack in mine was a U - shape right around the pointed end of the gusset. There's more - a friend here has a 34 with the same setup and his broke completely exactly the same and his engine fell in! Had to pull it to fix it. I sent TCI an email explaining it and haven't heard a thing. Don't really expect to either. I had LOTS of fit problems with that chassis way back when, and I wouldn't use another of their chassis if it was free! Y'got a TCI chassis using a vega box?.........might be an idea to have a look, cuz you can sure see why it'd crack / break!

2rods · June 10, 2006, 02:24:33 AM

I have heard several people say TCI frames are junk and the welds are very poor. Buy it at OCC? They say they are the best

Good luck fixing it.

nzsimon · June 10, 2006, 03:38:01 AM

The braketry as you describe would be illegal over here and wouldn't pass certification process oil canning is a well known phenomenon I am surprised they make it like that

abonecoupe31 · June 10, 2006, 08:44:21 AM

Quote from: "Topsterguy"I was getting a weird rattle / cracking noise for the past year and no way could I find it, but had it narrowed down to the front left side! Turned out to be a crck in the boxing plate around the motor mount! TCI mounts their motor mount, when using a Vega box, with the gusset on the underside of the mount ending half way down the boxing plate! There's nothing in behind the plate so all the weight of the engine is pretty much going into the boxing plate right in the center. The crack in mine was a U - shape right around the pointed end of the gusset. There's more - a friend here has a 34 with the same setup and his broke completely exactly the same and his engine fell in! Had to pull it to fix it. I sent TCI an email explaining it and haven't heard a thing. Don't really expect to either. I had LOTS of fit problems with that chassis way back when, and I wouldn't use another of their chassis if it was free! Y'got a TCI chassis using a vega box?.........might be an idea to have a look, cuz you can sure see why it'd crack / break!

I bought a TCI Model A front crossmember to replace the busted stocker in a 31 A frame I had. It turned out to be shortened so you could butt weld to the inside of a boxed stock frame, or repro rails made from 2 x 4 rectangular steel tubing.

I bought one from Roy Lewis at Chassis Engineering in IA. This member was full width...

I hate the idea of just riding on a weld. Especially a weld that I didn't do.

This one was a lot better.

Topsterguy · June 11, 2006, 12:25:38 AM

Interesting comments folks! Yeah, I've read and heard of a lot of horror stories about TCI chassis since I bought mine and like I said, I wouldn't use another one. They seem to have the idea that "hey, we're TCI, a leader in chassis development, one of the big names!" but they've fallen behind a lot of other builders in the eyes of a lot of people. I noticed a major diference in that style of motor mount today on a chassis built by a young guy from Sechelt here in BC ( and a REALLY nice chassis I might add!) Where TCI's top piece of the mount comes right off the frame level with the floor ( which is wrong because that's what causes all the force to go down on the short gusset) his was angled slightly upward to the mount on the engine, so the force would go outwards as well as downwards taking some of the load off the gusset. BIG diference. Do you think I even got acknowledgment from TCI on my email and thoughts? 'course not - I'm just "joe home hot rodder nobody" from Victoria somewhere up in Canada - they're TCI !!!

Topsterguy · June 11, 2006, 12:28:36 AM

Quote from: "nzsimon"The braketry as you describe would be illegal over here and wouldn't pass certification process oil canning is a well known phenomenon I am surprised they make it like that

Well, as far as they're concerned it's worked for them for a long time so Y'know they're not going to change it! All you have to do is look at it and you can see where all the force is going to go with nothing there to back it up.

Corn Fed · June 11, 2006, 12:43:34 AM

In my 29 Coupe I too have the motor mount style that has 1 gusset going vertically down the boxing plate. It has developed a crack at the lower point. I'm going to cut these out and put in a pair of the Chassis Engineering kind that use the Flathead style biscuts.

Because of this problem in my Coupe, when I built my 28 PU, I made my own mounts (using the biscuts) but welded the lower brackets all the way into the outer rails. Then I boxed the frame.

Charlie Chops 1940 · June 12, 2006, 03:10:37 PM

As a matter of practice I do all my mounts and crossmembers my attaching them into the c-channel and then boxing around them. Granted, it's a lot more work but everyting is more secure.

I can't remember the last time I saw a commercial chassis done that way.

Charlie

abonecoupe31 · June 12, 2006, 11:08:42 PM

Quote from: "Corn Fed"In my 29 Coupe I too have the motor mount style that has 1 gusset going vertically down the boxing plate. It has developed a crack at the lower point. I'm going to cut these out and put in a pair of the Chassis Engineering kind that use the Flathead style biscuts.

Because of this problem in my Coupe, when I built my 28 PU, I made my own mounts (using the biscuts) but welded the lower brackets all the way into the outer rails. Then I boxed the frame.

Corn Fed, I've made similiar mounts (for mounting a 2.3 Ford Pinto with C4 automatic in a stock Model A chassis) to what Chassis Engineering uses, after reading Roy Lewis's forward in his catalog. I believe that it's better to put the force downward, instead of at an angle, wedging the rails apart.

And the Ford mount is designed with rubber on both ends to put the torque of the engine working against a rubber mount, instead of twisting and wedging the rails apart.