Top Link Trial Fit

Managed to get another set of top links welded this week so I thought I'd trial fit them on my own car, the plans to get them on to Dave's Vitesse never materialised as he had to prep his Lemon for its MOT.

They certainly give the much needed wheel arch clearance required, the first photo shows how much the wheel sticks out past the wheel arch, had to run the front end fairly high to try and avoid my tyres being shredded.


The next photo is with the new top arms fitted.


With the spring and damper removed I was able to jack the wheel up well into the wheel arch.

This may look close but those are 215 tyres that are being stuffed in.....

I was expecting to have to modify the shock towers on the inner edges to clear the new arms. The attached photo shows the flanges bent back, I will probably end up removing about 5mm of material from the front edge to make sure there is enough clearance.

It didn't all go to plan, the top arms are very close to the spring when the suspension is unloaded, the brass adjuster and inner end of the top ball joint can touch the spring so careful positioning of the spring is required. Not good news as I was hoping these would be a direct replacement.

The following picture shows the car at its normal ride height with 1 degree of negative camber with no lower shims fitted - all clear.

The next photo shows the suspension unloaded, the brass adjuster will touch the spring. It is unlikely it will ever get to this condition while driving but I would have liked a bit more clearance.

I have a couple of options apart from living with it as it is, make the track rod end fit similar to Caterham, they have the top tube threaded and one lock nut on the outside, the down side of this is that you need to split the ball joint to alter the camber.

Or the second, would be to try it with 2 1/4" ID springs, after some very rough measurements were taken, I reckon they are about 3/8" smaller in diameter than the springs I currently have fitted, this should give me the extra clearance I need.

The good news is that Dave's Vitesse is already fitted with 2 1/4" ID springs so we can hopefully check them on his car next week.

Type 9 Gearbox

Managed to get myself a reconditioned Type 9 gearbox as a favour for doing some engine management work, its seemed a shame to start hacking around within it so I also got myself one off eBay, bargain £30.

My plan is to try and fit it without modifying the gearbox tunnel. I had been told that you can shorten the remote by 75mm, this still leaves me around 60mm short of the original gear lever position.

My first bell housing adapter is 30mm, once I am happy with the positioning, I will have another made from 25mm, In fact I ordered 10 billets so if your considering fitting a type 9 get in touch, I am currently having it drawn up in CAD so that I can have a batch CNC machined.

I have cut the tail housing as far as I can, with some major surgery I think I can shorten the remote by 105mm.

I have cut the rear casing almost back to the selector shaft seal.

The original remote housing has also be cut down as far as possible, the front section needs to be welded back on and then machined flat, I will also fit a small bush to support the selector shaft. This will then be welded to the tail housing.

The cast selector lever will need to be cut down by 10mm to fit into the smaller housing.

Hopefully this will give me a gear lever position 25 / 30mm backwards from current position, not sure if this will fit under the tunnel, that's a job for another day.

Top Arms

Still not yet got around to trial fitting, hopefully that will be sorted when I fit a set to Big Dave's Vitesse.


Fairly confident these will go on without a problem and hopefully create the required clearance, Dave's car is probably worse than mine for tyre to arch contact.

Managed to win an eBay auction for an adjustable tool post for my lathe, wasn't a straight forward fit but eventually got it sorted. I have modified one of the tool holders to hold the tubes so that I can cut the angles more accurately.

Now using a milling cutter which gives a much better finish, quick rub over with the file is all that is needed.

This set should be getting tigged up this week, need to order up some material to make the adjusters, going to have a go at using brass.

If these turn out ok, I will consider making a number of sets to sell on, I have been contacted by a number of people expressing an interest.

If you are considering ordering a set of these, please bear in mind that they are a critical suspension component, they will be made to the highest standard but I sugest they are inspected on a regular basis.

If you wish to fit these to your vehicle it will be at your own risk.

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Update

Cant beleve its been 3 months since I last updated the blog, even worse not really done any work on the car, taken me a while to get going this year.

To get me into garage mentality, I agreed to help a friend restore a Mini, this has meant putting my car in another garage.

Having said that, it has got me back in the garage so I've been tinkering with other bits and pieces.