Adams Probe 16 Restoration Project...

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Wayne 962

Check out this craziness on braking
-Wayne

That looks like way too much movement for bushings or ball joints...

(4"-8" movement to my eye. Very significant.)

It must be the sub-frame to body and/or A-arm failure.

Something that big should present itself soon and be obvious.
Look at the underside.
Lift it up and lever those parts. They should not move. Not at 100mph.

[KFC911]

That cars sounds awesome .... and Wayne has gotten HUGE!

"01 Project For Your Adams Probe 16" - Wayne R. Dempsey

Thanks for sharing!

[Don Settergren]

Looking awesome. You are getting soooo close!

Find a way to get the fan shroud around the cooling fan. It'll cool a lot better if the fan can move the air through the radiator and not outward from the blades.

Cool Zagato. Now I get to spend hours on the web learning more. A perfect lunch break!!

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by javadog

Wow…

More than that. I've never seen that on anything. Curious as to the find.

[Wayne 962]

Broken heim joint way in the front, buried under the spoiler. I wasn't strong enough to make it move when it was up in the air. With the video underneath, it was easier to find...

I ordered a super-duper one from Summit Racing that I think matches the specs of this one. This one also appeared to have a material defect (see the dark spots on both broken parts) that probably contributed to it. This new one will hopefully last another 50+ years.

-Wayne




On this one, I'm holding the two broken pieces together:

[stevej37]

Great to see you found the problem.
Anxious to see what it drives like when fixed.

[astrochex]

It sounds like a bad guy car, imho.

Great to see a simple fix to an odd problem.

The picture from the Peterson is stunning, the Probe 16 looks alien.

[javadog]

If’n I were you, I would probably replace any Heim joint and associated hardware that’s still remaining on the car. That one was well past its useful life, it’s obviously never had any love since it was installed.

Are used to have a Lamborghini that had heim joints all through the suspension. It got a thorough, annual inspection of each and every one of them, and we replaced them proactively, before wear got to be an issue.

[Tobra]

That's not right, and pretty freaky moving like that, tough to reproduce on a lift

Interesting appearance of the metal where it sheared

[Wayne 962]

The plan is to get the car running and driving, and then to start going through the other suspension components. The car only has 3,000 miles on it, so the assumption (accurate or not) is that the mechanical / wear components on the car are not worn out.

Having said that, nearly every part on this car has been looked at or touched. Just to give an idea of the difficulty with this:

- Every brake component has been replaced

- The front part of the wire harness was reconstructed and replaced

- All the weatherstripping seals have been replaced

- The tires were replaced (good luck finding 12" performance tires these days - that took about 15 hours).

- The engine has been completely gone through

- New shocks

- New hardware in many places

- Electrical switches cleaned or replaced

- Headlamp motor / assemble rebuilt

- Accelerator linkage bolt custom made (took 3 hours tonight - the original was too small and broke)

- This suspension thing

- All fuel lines replaced - tanks cleaned, etc.

- Accelerator linkage rebuilt / replaced

- Heater core / blower rebuilt

- All new heater hoses (run down center of car)

- Ignition switch and turn signal switch rebuilt

- New stereo speakers

- Installed seat belts

- Rebuilt hub configuration

- Fuel pumps replaced, fuel console constructed and replaced.

The list is endless. There are no manuals, no documentation, no nuthin'. Every part is off of a random car from the 1969 era, and a big challenge is figuring out what exactly it is. This is indeed a huge time sink - one can't simply check the "parts diagrams" like you could do with a 911. Man, that would be easy for sure...

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by javadog

I can’t get over how small that thing is. How does it compare to something like a 914 in size?

Believe it or not - not my smallest car. Not even the 2nd smallest...

Actually, not even the 3rd smallest!

-Wayne

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Tobra

That's not right, and pretty freaky moving like that, tough to reproduce on a lift

Interesting appearance of the metal where it sheared

Classic failure point. My guess is the heim joint froze up and it wasn’t allowing the relative motion it was designed to facilitate. It put some severe bending forces on the shank of the thing, and it failed where you would expect it to.

Hard to tell from the pictures, without holding it in my hands, but that thing may have started failing some time ago, and then it let go completely when Wayne took his test drive.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Wayne 962

Believe it or not - not my smallest car. Not even the 2nd smallest...

Actually, not even the 3rd smallest!

-Wayne

I always really like those original Alpines, no idea why. Not a classically good looking design, but it just works for me. Interesting mechanicals, too.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Wayne 962

The plan is to get the car running and driving, and then to start going through the other suspension components. The car only has 3,000 miles on it, so the assumption (accurate or not) is that the mechanical / wear components on the car are not worn out.

Having said that, nearly every part on this car has been looked at or touched. Just to give an idea of the difficulty with this:

- Every brake component has been replaced

- The front part of the wire harness was reconstructed and replaced

- All the weatherstripping seals have been replaced

- The tires were replaced (good luck finding 12" performance tires these days - that took about 15 hours).

- The engine has been completely gone through

- New shocks

- New hardware in many places

- Electrical switches cleaned or replaced

- Headlamp motor / assemble rebuilt

- Accelerator linkage bolt custom made (took 3 hours tonight - the original was too small and broke)

- This suspension thing

- All fuel lines replaced - tanks cleaned, etc.

- Accelerator linkage rebuilt / replaced

- Heater core / blower rebuilt

- All new heater hoses (run down center of car)

- Ignition switch and turn signal switch rebuilt

- New stereo speakers

- Installed seat belts

- Rebuilt hub configuration

- Fuel pumps replaced, fuel console constructed and replaced.

The list is endless. There are no manuals, no documentation, no nuthin'. Every part is off of a random car from the 1969 era, and a big challenge is figuring out what exactly it is. This is indeed a huge time sink - one can't simply check the "parts diagrams" like you could do with a 911. Man, that would be easy for sure...

-Wayne

So a typical weekend fix project!

I know a friend that started off with an 42 Ford coupe, and kept finding bodge fixes. He tore it down completely, and when he was done he had thousands of hours of labor and parts in a car that was worth a fraction of what he had invested. At least your new toy is a legitimate museum piece and has intrinsic value above the pile of parts and labor invested.

[herr_oberst]

Sidenote, then back to the Adams; '42 Fords are pretty rare because of the war. Not as rare as the Probe, but a definite touchstone in history.

Back to the Adams, I did a rabbit hole dive into that front suspension. As Wayne said, there is little to no information on it, at least that I could find. The closest I could find to a similar thing was an Alfa Romeo of similar vintage, but the designer of the Probe definitely had his own working theory.
Good luck Wayne. That thing is in good hands, I can't wait to see pictures of the final build!

[Wayne 962]

Success! Drove the car today. About 7 miles. That makes 7 miles in the last 40+ years! Getting ready for Monterey!

On the suspension, the heim joint was installed incorrectly (without any beveled spacers), so I made some and then shimmed down the front mounting brackets by an appropriate amount. This also had the added benefit of now preventing the suspension from impacting the fiberglass when the car was raised up.

-Wayne

[astrochex]

Congrats, Wayne!

The car should be a hit at Monterey.

That seems like such an odd chassis configuration. Granted this is a very unique car, but why would someone put a pivoting joint in that location?

[john70t]

Originally Posted by astrochex

but why would someone put a pivoting joint in that location?

I'm guessing that it is like a wishbone or a floating quasi-solid front axle?

But why hasn't the "V" been twisted apart?
That looks seriously dangerous and would be catastrophic if it failed under speed..

[Tobra]

When are you taking it to Monterey, I may drive down for that.



That thing has a heater, seriously?

[Baz]

NICE work, Wayne. And thanks for sharing with us! What a remarkable car & project. As much as we have advanced in our vehicle technology - for me nothing is more exciting than the classics!`