Front End Modifications

I've decide a while ago that I was going to convert the front uprights to Canley Classics / Caterham front uprights, primarily for the stronger stub axle as well as doing away with the lower trunnion. I had a stub shaft fail on the motorway a couple of years ago, initially thought it was a wheel bearing until I stripped it all down and found the shaft had broken at the start of the threads.

Anyway, that started me thinking about the front end, as I use quite a large wheel and tyre, I cant lower the front end too much as I end up with contact between the tyre and arch, while looking at various kit car set ups I have decided to fabricate my own adjustable top arms and do away with the shims on the lower arms. Hopefully this will pull the top of the wheel in a little more and give me some more tyre / arch clearance. If I need more I will fabricate lower arms that are slightly shorter and adjust the tops to compensate.

I have borrowed a home made tube notcher to get the right angle and profile

This made light work of cutting the tubes

As a couple of friends have shown interest I decide to knock up a jig to aid with the fabrication.

Just need to find a good local tig welder

Knocked up a couple of adjusters that will allow me to adjust the camber without having to remove the top ball joint.

I will hopefully get these welded together in the next week and then I can make sure they fit ok. I have used 25mm x 2mm wall thickness for the bush holders, 20mm x 2mm for the rest, all seamless tubing.

Got some drawings ready for the bottom arm, just need to see what effect the top one has before I make anymore jigs. The lower arm will be made to hold a spherical bearing.