Roller Bearing Bell Cranks - RBBC's

[Bruce Fielding]

Ah...

Obviously a graduade of the Andy Smith School of Engineering!



Mine's never come loose and only a very few that I know of actually have.

If you feel like going for the belt and braces approach, I don't see that it would do any harm, though.

[RichardR]

Jon

I went for the stainless steel exhaust but not the 'polished' variant. Reason being that I'm planning on changing to a race system asap and thought the extra cost of polished would be wasted. The exhaust has done 300 miles:



When the linkage dropped out, initially I tried pulling it back up with fingers - but these don't reach unfortunately. Likewise there's no way of getting under the car to reach. To pull the linkage back on you need a hook or similar to reach down and pull it up with some force. If you can't reclip the linkage you can put the car in gear manually by pulling on the arm on the engine block attached to the gear linkage cable (see photo below). You won't know which gear it selects - and if you get a crap one like reverse 1st or 2nd you have to get out and click again. Cable ties are tricky to get under the linkage cable, and then it's hard to get it tight enough to hold the linkage in in bottom position ie. 2nd,4th, 6th, reverse, whilst not being too tight on the top gears ie. 1st, 3rd, 5th so that it keeps jumping out of gear or the cable tie breaks!



I'm convinced I've got a 'special' car. I estimate it's pulling as hard now in 4th as the 220 did in 3rd. when she spun up in 4th the other day it was damp/greasy, but even so I'm going to change over to some Yoko's in the next month.

[Alec]

I may be wrong but that silencer doesn't look like stainless to me.

Not being polished should mean it just has a dull, silvery surface and as far as I know it wouldn't have a coating of any sort, which is what yours looks like it has.

You could do a quick magnet test I suppose.

[Driver]

Replace the clip with a small bolt or even a keyring. Something that is not open ended and can't come loose on you.

[RichardR]

[quote="Driver"]
Replace the clip with a small bolt or even a keyring. Something that is not open ended and can't come loose on you.
[/quote]

It's not actually that end that causes the problem. It's where the linkage joins onto the bottom of the gear lever (shift stick?). It's a ball joint type thing. Apparently you can get them with little spring grip covers on the ball joint which stops them coming off.

[coxm]

Bruce crawling under an Atom.......

THAT, I would like to see 

MC

PS, Bruce, I really will be there for lunch on Friday, promise.

[Bruce Fielding]

I'll believe that when I'm tucking into some of Sr. Locatelli's finest!

[Atom120]

With MC being Atom-less, I suspect its taking him a little longer to get places than it used to 

[sportyking]

Another Atom converted to RBBC's.  Definately a major improvement on the road but I am more overwhelmed by the razor sharp and deadly accurate steering brought on by a new rack and steering bushings, my car had always felt a bit imprecise and floaty before this.  The renewal of all the rose joints may have helped as well.  I think I now know what an Atom feels like when new and why the service mileage intervals are so low.

Just need to hide from the Bank Manager for a while now.

[dazzas-atom300]

[quote="RichardR"]
[quote="Driver"]
Replace the clip with a small bolt or even a keyring. Something that is not open ended and can't come loose on you.
[/quote]

It's not actually that end that causes the problem. It's where the linkage joins onto the bottom of the gear lever (shift stick?). It's a ball joint type thing. Apparently you can get them with little spring grip covers on the ball joint which stops them coming off.
[/quote]

Mines done this twice now... its a bit of a crap coupling and really any hard\fast changes are likley to over extend the ball from the socket, I've managed to get some tie wraps around it so it pulls the linage upto the ball when fully extended, and its been fine now for ages... its not really ideal though and the socket could do with being a better job, I may try to pop a spot of weld on the socket to hold the ball in....

[jon b]

[quote="dazzas-atom300"]
[quote="RichardR"]
[quote="Driver"]
Replace the clip with a small bolt or even a keyring. Something that is not open ended and can't come loose on you.
[/quote]

It's not actually that end that causes the problem. It's where the linkage joins onto the bottom of the gear lever (shift stick?). It's a ball joint type thing. Apparently you can get them with little spring grip covers on the ball joint which stops them coming off.
[/quote]

Mines done this twice now... its a bit of a crap coupling and really any hard\fast changes are likley to over extend the ball from the socket, I've managed to get some tie wraps around it so it pulls the linage upto the ball when fully extended, and its been fine now for ages... its not really ideal though and the socket could do with being a better job, I may try to pop a spot of weld on the socket to hold the ball in....
[/quote]

Dazz, maybe you could take a few photos and post them showing the issue and your current fix (most people won't have access to weld equip) - would be appreciated.  Am waiting for this to occur and can see it happening in the most awkward circumstances 

[RichardR]

Apparently this is something that happens most often when the car is new. The Factory make an adjustment at the 1st service - though crucially I've no idea what that adjustment is!

I used the cable-tie method, but it is very difficult to get it tight/loose enough so it lets you change gear without snapping , but still holds the linkage in palce.

[sportyking]

One of my cables has recently come off, less than a 100 miles after having the tub removed/replaced at the factory.  It has knackered the cable and brass cup fitting (both kinked).  Car is stuck up on ramps and stands currently waiting for Tom to get back to me.  Looks to me like the outer cable got out of the horseshoe clamp somehow and the inevitable happened.

[MonsieurX]

Back to the RBBC's, my Atom is now 6 years old - and im wondering if i dont need to revise my RBBCS.

I've had snap oversteer (in the ring of all place!!!) but when i drive otherwise, all seems ok. I've been to other circuits and didn't notice any more snap oversteer - which made me conclude it might have been an innocent oil slick  . But who knows...

Having dismounted my dampers for refurbishing, i want to check if my RBBCs are ok. Should they be smooth or loose, heavy to move or? How can i check?

[Richard Marler]

Obvious question, but are you sure they are rbbc and not pbbc?