Steam Car Developments
ENGINEERING, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Traction-Avant enthusiasts all over the world, who are serious about restoring their car to a high mechanical standard have found their way to a small engineering workshop in East Yorkshire, ENGLAND where new Traction parts are manufactured to the highest standards, often exceeding the original specifications.
Take for example, the Citroėn Traction-Avant gearbox. Imagine the option of installing a new crown wheel and matching pinion shaft with to achieve a higher final drive ratio, along with all new bearings, and new bronze bushes sized to take existing wear and tolerances into account. In this way your gearbox is transformed into an engineered component, allowing the engine to run at lower revs while keeping up with modern traffic. Of course the 2nd and 3rd gear syncros are renewed as well. A tempting proposal indeed!
SCD driveshafts are available in a variety of forms, but basically use an outer CV-joint with an inner cardan and thus look similar to the original article. All the parts are new, and the design life of a modern inner cardan is more than 150,000km, so the problems associated with the original inner cardans are a thing of the past.
In addition, the SCD engineered outer CV-joint axle increases the steering angle from the original 34° to 42°. The additional 8° provides a dramatically reduced turning circle. Along with the use of high-tensile materials and induction hardening, it all adds up to a smoother driving response in the curves.
There are additional types of axles available, such as:
-
renewed inner CV joints
-
for those who have damaged the tapers of the brake drum, a special splined stub axle version is available that can reuse your damaged brake drum.
With the increased speeds of modern traffic, being able to stop safely becomes an important goal, a task for which the original style braking system using a fixed anchor at the bottom of the brake shoe is extremely difficult to adjust properly. With modifications made by SCD to the existing brake shoes (which can be reverted to the original system if needed) provides a modern 'floating brake shoe' system. The shoes are lined full length, and skimmed to match the diameter of you brake drum and the only final adjustment is on the eccentric-snail cams located at the top of the brake shoes. In summary, the braking efficiency is improved, adjustment is simplified, and wear is more even. Oh, and your safety and driving confidence is increased substantially!
Contact Mr. Williams at Steam-Car-Developments for assistance with updating the mechanical features of your Traction series vehicle.
