Curborough was awesome as always. I picked the car up from Stealth on Thursday, chucked it in the garage and went out for dinner. Heard a funny scraping sound when parking but couldn't see anything. I fitted the studs on Friday evening. While doing that, I noticed two things. The scraping noise the night before was the tie rods just catching on the wheels on full lock. I also realised Stealth had fitted the spacers that come with CompBrake tie rod ends. I'd forgotten to tell them to fit the tie rod ends up against the hub. This means the car will be bump steering quite a bit. Unfortunately I didn't have the correct sized allen key to undo the bolt. I didn't think that would be a problem, as I'm sure the garage would when doing the wheel alignment. However, they didn't. They weren't great, really struggling with understanding what I wanted. They were only able to get 1.5 degrees of camber on the left, but were able to get 2.5 on the right. I hope Stealth get their wheel alignment machine fixed soon. So that was prep done. Sunday arrived, and the weather was perfect. Loaded the car up and headed off. On the motorway, I could really feel the bump steer. The car was nervous, and constantly darting about. Not dangerous, but not comfortable. Arrived early, unpacked, helped with a bit of set up, did drivers briefing, and it was time to get on track. We were doing the new figure of 8 first, then back to the old B layout. Took it easy, just feeling the car. Half way around the lap, I heard the lift pumps get noisy. Great, I need fuel. I went to the nearest Shell, which wasn't far away. I then went back to Curborough, picked up my wallet and went back to the Shell to put some fuel in. lol By the time I got back, they'd switched to the B layout already. I went out and did a lap that turned out to be my fastest of the day. The next lap I over cooked it in to the Molehill, bit of a Scandinavian flick, but it still cost me a couple of 10ths. Lap 3 I out braked myself in to the hairpin at the end of the straight. Then it was lunch time, so I fitted the 15mm spacers all around to see if there was a difference after lunch. A few of us went for a track walk to see if we could work out better lines. I'm not sure if it helped. First run after lunch, and the difference the spacers made was massive. Turn in was far more aggressive, so much so that the back suspension was just falling over. So I decided it was time to work out how to adjust the damping. Turns out it's really easy, there's an allen key in the top of the struts that is turned, simple as that. The rear was 4 stops off hardest, so I turned them up to 1 less than hardest. That made a huge difference. Full hard on the next run felt just a bit too hard, so I turned them back one. I decided to check the fronts, only to find they'd shipped from the factory with one 4 stops off hardest, and one 5 stops off. I set them to both at 4 off hardest. Ever since the cars been on the road, I've had a knock that sounded like it was coming from the left front. I'd checked, and checked, and checked all the suspension bolts, and they were always tight. I'd noticed it again during the week, and a couple of times during the day. The car had also started pulling left under breaking at the end of the straight. Not much, just enough to have to leave a bit of extra room. But it was getting worse. On the last run I completed, it was definitely pulling more, and I'd heard the knock as well, so I decided it was time to investigate. Again, all the bolts were tight, so I started levering the suspension around, while it front was in the air. I found the problem straight away. The bolt going through the rear of the subframe into the passenger footwell was tight, but I was able to move the suspension arm up about 1mm. I pulled the bolt out and found the threads were full of crud. I figured the bolt was going nearly all the way in, then tightening on the blocked threads. So I tracked down a wire brush (Thanks Noel), lock tited it up, and refitted it. Still the same. So I tightened it up some more, until the play was gone. I tidied away, and then tried to close the bonnet. It wouldn't latch. Very bizarre, I'd not touched anything there. Trev spotted a dent in the slam panel, suggesting something was moving, but there was nothing under there. Must have happened in storage. With nothing else to try, I decided to tighten all the cross member bolts. It was a good thing I did! The two small bolts holding the two cross member pieces together were half undone, and the 4 big bolts through the bumper weren't properly tight. The only two bolts done up correctly were the two smaller ones through the cross member in to the chassis legs. That would explain why it felt like the whole engine was shuddering when pulling off occasionally. It was. I tightened up the 4 big bolts, but one has stripped. It was tight, but wouldn't lock. The other three were fine, as were the two smaller ones. The bonnet still wouldn't close. I tried a couple more times, and suddenly it worked again. Most bizarre. Fitted everything, tidied up, and went out. As I pulled off there was a clunk. I was kind of expecting that as the bolt was slightly worn where the arm had been moving. This fits through two aluminium top hats, which are probably worn too. On power, bit of a wiggle side to side, and everything felt good. Then I braked. The car dived left, and the brakes felt like they weren't working propertly. Limped off the track, back to the pits. Trev suggested he sit in the car and try to move the car on the clutch. I went around to the passenger side, and everything looked fine. Tried again on the drivers side. Looking at the car, it appeared the wheel was a bit too far back in the arch. As Trev released the clutch, the wheel moved foward in the arch! That's not good. Pulled the wheel off, expecting to find the camber bolts loose, but quickly spotted the problem. The rose jointed wishbone has two plates joining the two parts of the wishbone together, and the top one had sheared. This is the one that was bent in the crash. We straightened it out, and I remember thinking I need to get it plated/replaced. However, I needed the arm on the car to keep it moveable, and completely forgot about it. The pulling during the day was obviously it flexing and then breaking. You can't see in the picture, but the upper plate is completely detached from the arm, and only bottom plate is holding the arm together. Day over. But how to get home? I remembered chatting to Steve a bit earlier. Never met the guy before, but he was happy for me to take the car to his, and he'd try to weld it to a driveable state. I borrowed a couple of JCS Hi-Grip clamps from Ram (rambow), and tightened them up as much as I could. This made the car driveable, but I could still feel the arm shifting if I braked. Very disconcerting. Drove slowly to Steve's, and had already made the decision to leave it there, rather than try to drive it home after repairing it. I called my neighbour to see if his trailer was available, and it was. I was then just left with getting home. Steve then offered to drive me home! A full two hour round trip for him. So grateful. I got home, put the girls to bed, and then John decided he would accompany me to collect the car. Another two hour round trip, left just before 9, and the car is now back in the garage. All in all, an interesting day. Really positive in that the car was definitely better with the new suspension set up, and I was able to play with spacers and damping, and really feel the difference. Also really pleased to have tracked down the two problems that had been bugging me. A personal best on my first proper lap of the day shows the car is quicker, and there's a lot more to come Frustrating with the breakage, but that's the way it goes. I now need to get the car ready for Donington at the end of October. To do list: - Fix suspension arm. Fairly simple fix. Two new plates welded on. I'll probably cut the current ones off and replace them like for like. They did their job in bending under impact, saving the rest of the arm. - Replace bumper iron - Add another silencer. The new one is smaller than the old one, and the car is now 101dB static. Loads of space for a back box similair to what was there before, just a few inches shorter. It will be a 9 x 4 inch oval, 19 inches long instead of 24. - Sort the camber. - Remove the spacers between the tie rod ends and the hub, and get the tracking done again. - Check wheels to see how much scraping there was. I scraped them a bit again during the day. - If I have time, I want to order and fit the harder rear spring. - Try again to redo the camera mount. Onwards and upwards.
Prep for Donington starts in earnest now. The suspension arm is being fixed. I'm just plating over the existing plates, rather then removing everything and starting over again. They should be ready by the weekend. I've had a chat with the organisers of Donington, and there is no static test. I know the car is quiet enough on drive by, so the exhaust has been left for now. This freed up some funds to fix the rear brakes, as discussed here. The rear brakes are locking under braking with the Polo discs and Mk4 Golf rear calipers. Turns out the Polo calipers have 34mm pistons where the Golf calipers have 38mm pistons. So I used my GSF discount to order some. Massive saving thanks to the wholesale discount. I also found a rear brake reducer from a Mk1 I believe. No part number that I can see: This will be fitted in line in front of the bias valve. It's the easiest place to fit it. New rear springs, a bit harder than the current ones: I've also fixed the stripped hole in the bumper iron, as well as picked up a spare bumper from drunkenalan. Also to do: oil and filter change, as well as new spark plugs. Remove spacers on tie rod ends As long as the suspension arm is ready, I'm aiming to get a good chunk of this done on Sunday
Are you going to fit the reducer AND smaller rear calipers, or just the calipers first and see if that fixes the issue ? May switch to the 34mm myself if it does
You sure that's a good idea?? A lot of force on suspension components. Do I once, do it right. IMO. [emoji6]
I'm planning on doing both. I don't have much rear droop, so need to reduce force as much as possible. I need to compare mine to yours and Eddie's, . Don't worry, it's being done properly. This way the existing plates get used as a template, and we don't interfere with the tube itself when removing the existing templates. It will be seam welded all around, as well as welded in the middle to the existing plate for strength.
I'll bring my welder to Donni and if it brakes we can stick or tig Are you reinforcing the other side as well ?
Thanks. The other side wasn't damaged, so doesn't need any repair. This only broke as it was bent in the crash, which fatigued the metal. It was straightened, and then forgotten about.
I'd forgotten all about those, I must have couple in box somewhere it will be good to see how much it makes a difference to the pressures
Thats very interesting then - we have a load of variable bore very high pressure stainless tube at work thats about the same external diamater as brake hose - used for high pressure chemistry separations pumps (15K PSI plus) - it wouldnt take much work to make an in-line restrictor with swap-out variable dia holes.....
Repaired arm: The original top plate couldn't be saved, so that was completely removed. The bottom one was, so that's still there. Very pleased with the work, he came recommended, and he's really good. The welds look better than the originals. Currently in primer, ready for a coat of paint, so that it can be fitted soon. Hopefully I can paint it tonight and fit tomorrow.
I bought them from a member on here. I believe they're from AW Tracksport, but haven't been able to confirm it. AW Tracksport don't answer their phone at the moment.
X2 ....Like its just mad how much time it takes to get them four buggers in with out punching the car the dog the tumble dryer etc
I'd have made a sailor blush today. lol I watched the F1, so only had a couple of hours. Fitted the suspension arm and front bumper, test drive this evening and it all feels fine. I've taken Tuesday off work, so will have some of the afternoon to work on the car.
