Suspension : Steering :Blog

[BiggestNizzy]

Shocker mounts arrived today praying for some decent weather now

[BiggestNizzy]

Started making the new steering arms today, decided to go with aluminium so I have beefed them up a little

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[BiggestNizzy]

Finished the new aluminium steering arms on sat and they look good.

But as I manufactured them on a HAAS CNC mill and didn't have a 14 degree cutter for doing the tapers for the balljoints I used a ballnose and machined them in a helical pass with 0.2mm stepdowns I also slowed the feed down to 1000mm/min, unfortunatly because it's a HAAS and it is prone to missing points out when it runs with any speed it missed some points and created what can best be described as a slightly square hole and the balljoints don't fit well they go in but they rock about and this is clearly unacceptable so I have been put back a little and they have to be remachined (luckily it's metal on) so a reprogram and a surface speed of 250mm/min or paybe slower to be sure I get a good fit.

next I have to get them hard anodised in Blue

[BiggestNizzy]

Well as my steering arms are being reworked due to my error, the angle of the ball joints is 7 degree's not 14 degree's. oops so I am making a special cutter to do the job.

today I thought I would get some of the little jobs done, so that when the big push comes I am not going to spend time chopping the head off screws etc, so here I am at my maws and I have forgotten the car keys. not wanting to waste my day I decided to remove the battery and see if it will take a charge. I had to chop some of the bold heads off the water bottle bracket to do this only to find the battery is bigger than the hole in the top! so the day has been reduced to cosmetic work.

I have been putting some thought into painting the callipers as they will have to come off when I change the hoses. what paint is best ? another wee job would be to replace the brake fluid while I'm doing this. what is the best way to do this ?

and just to make things easyier the car only has it's rear wheels and it's parked on a hill.

and while putting the thing together as the snow was getting to heavy I found that the plastic cover for the heater matrix has fallen off and is now bellow the battery! so the battery will have to come out (tommorow's job) I also removed my number plate plinth to find another crack in the front clam

So before I add the stripes I will have to get the bodywork to a proffesional.

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and it's not plagiarism it's inspiration

[steve_weegie]

Cant help with painting the calipers as i find brake dust is a highly attractive way to decorate them, but the fluid is straightforwardish...

There are 2 ways you can do it; one with an ezbleed, one without. I've tried it both ways and I prefer the oldskool 2 person method.

1. Drain as much fluid as you can from the resevoir. I use a the nozzle bit from a plant watering skooshy thing for this. Stick the base in the fluid and squirt out into a suitable container. (available for loan)

2. Fill resevoir to brim with fresh fluid.

3. Attach non-return valve tuby thing to bleed nipple (available for loan)

4. Open bleed nipple and get 2nd person (available for cups of tea) to press the brake pedal down. Tighten bleed nipple. Raise brake pedal.

5. Repeat until you get fresh fluid out the bleed nipple, checking the resevoir every 5 or so pushes.

6. Move onto next wheel

Its important not to get any air in the system, especially when doing the front calipers, else you'll have to pop them off and invert them to get all the air out.

You should probably do the clutch too while you're at it....

HTH

Steve

[BiggestNizzy]

Sounds like a plan for when I get all the bits.

Free Tea+beer+Chinese to everyone who is interested

I will pop the front callipers off and give them a clean up and paint.

[Rich H]

Halfords caliper paint. Works just fine.

[Victor Meldrew]

Halfords caliper paint. Works just fine.

Pimp my ride whore....

[Rich H]

Actually it was to stop the porker caliper returning to their natural state - again...

[BiggestNizzy]

Actually it was to stop the porker caliper returning to their natural state - again...

Iron ore ?

White does sound cool though

going with metalic silver

[Rich H]

I think the brake fluid had done the same, its natural state is snotty lumps. Brakes work alot better now though

[BiggestNizzy]

quick question as I am rebuilding at a furious pace (ish) ready for kames. I have an near infinate supply of cap head screws at my disposal but they all all 12.9's am I likely to have any problems using these ?

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[Rich H]

I would avoid them for suspension parts, because they are more brittle (More likely to break rather than bend) and I want the bolts to give up before it damages the chassis.

I could do with some long M12 Porker head bolt's actually....

[BiggestNizzy]

I would avoid them for suspension parts, because they are more brittle (More likely to break rather than bend) and I want the bolts to give up before it damages the chassis.

I could do with some long M12 Porker head bolt's actually....

thats a point is their anything special about head bolts other than the length ? I know they are "stretch bolts" but if spec's are known they can be ordered, probably easily

[Rich H]

I wouldn't bother with Elise head bolts, the porker ones are a bit less critical