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Torque Tube Donut


Ems
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The torque tube donut I fitted to the Manta around 4-5 years ago and done less than 2000 miles has disintegrated.  It was supposed to be heavy duty!  Can anyone recommend someone who can supply one that will last longer or an alternative. 

Thanks

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I bought one from Opel GT Source in the US which was supposed to be heavy duty and it lasted about 3 years and the car was never even driven in that time! Got a replacement  one from Thomas (https://www.edelschmiede.com/) and it seems to be made of a much more flexible compound and he said his are much better than some of the others. All the stuff i have bought off him before have been great so no reason to not trust him on this one.

Hope this helps

 

Andy

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Hi.    In what way has it disintegrated ?    Ive had mk1’s now and since the 80’s and never seen one go bad.admittedly I’m talking totally stock cars all driven as everyday cars and always found original gm rubber items to be of very high quality.( obviously not counting front roll bar post rubbers ,door switch boots and window sills !) 

are we talking b series standard torque tube ( don’t know the set up on an ‘a’)

just curious !

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Thanks for the picture, I think the one on my car is worse than that one.  I'll put up a picture when I remove it from the car.  The one I got was not genuine but from one of the German suppliers, I'll have to find the invoice. 

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3 hours ago, cam.in.head said:

And thats on a proper gm one ? Wow ive never seem that happen before. 

Obviously im not saying it cant or that other people havnt had it happen but i personally havnt.

are they still available new gm ?

Not sure if you can get the GM ones new? This was an up-rated  one from Opel GT in the US and was supposed to be superior to the standard one!

Andy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just removed the one from my car, this was uprated and had opelgt.com in the moulding.  I have a spare I got at the same time - not sure if it's safe to use that one.  A new bearing was fitted the same time as the donut - should I change that as well? 

 

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Edited by Ems
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I would be inclined to sent Gil at Opel GT source an email and show him those pictures.  He is a very fair guy and he should be interested in that's sort of failure of one of his products.

 

As it happens I have a stock of used GM ones,  I used to remove them from the torque tubes and replace them with nylon inserts that were machined down to fit the tube and have the bearing in the middle. Stopped movement but made it noisier.

I washed them, oiled them and stored them in air tight bags in boxes so they are as fresh as when I took them off 20+ years ago.

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Sounds like the nylon inserts would be a better option.  I have some standard ones - just thought the uprated one would be better option as this car has a C20XE and lsd fitted. 

I didn't get it direct from Gil, I got it from one of the German suppliers but it does have opelgt.com on the moulding so could be a bad copy.

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Mine was straight from Opel GT Source and had the same issue.

For what it costs i would replace the bearing as well. And seeing your spec, get the sport one if you get it from edelschmiede.

4 hours ago, Ems said:

Just removed the one from my car, this was uprated and had opelgt.com in the moulding.  I have a spare I got at the same time - not sure if it's safe to use that one.  A new bearing was fitted the same time as the donut - should I change that as well? 

 

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That is bad. Mind you mine never got driven. I only every got push out of the garage and into a new how and mine was pretty bad seeing as it had just been sat there.

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  • 1 year later...

I thought I'd bring this to the top again.  Last year I fitted a new heavy duty donut from Edelschmiede (I also changed the bearing and gearbox oil seal) and just over a year and 2000 miles later the donut has a lot of cracks in it.  There's a lot of free movement in the prop and oil has started to leak out of the gearbox seal again!

Would I better off using the softer donut, or is there a better alternative to the donut available?

Thanks again.

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if it were me id be contacting paulmanta to see if he has any of the proper ones left. as i said last year ive never ever seen a proper gm one do that cos theyre usually good quality rubber. my cavs are still on their original ones and theyre over 40 years old. !

were checked when i de oxed everything 10 years ago and put new 6205bearings in. still perfect now

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Thinking about it I never had any problems with the original donut on my old 1.8.  The axle had a full rebuild before I put it on the car, haven't thought of balancing the prop.  I'll check the universal joints for play.  As the input bearing is noisy on the gearbox there's a chance that the one on the output side has worn too which might create a problem.  Alternatively as said above it could just be inferior rubber on the donuts.  

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inferior rubber most likely i would say.

most of the original rubber parts that gm used is very high quality and seems to last .

pretty much everything except anti roll bar post rubbers,side window ledge seals and underbonnet insulation.

id say,put a std but genuine gm rubber housing on ,maybee reinforce it if you want it a little firmer and your good to go.

another gearbox rear seal whilst its off.

propshaft should already be balanced unless its bent ,lost its balancing weight,or un equaly painted !.and like you say check joints for wear (unusual) and just make sure its postioned cleanly and squarely into the flange recess ( ie the wire bridging strips between cups are straight and not trapped behind one cup .this can definately induce a small but noticeable vibration. 

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