Running Gear

Whilst I was at Tony Thompson's I left the LSD Diff to be checked, he stripped it, fitted new steel half-shafts and an alloy 'nose' (To save weight). A stronger locating bracket was also supplied - See image below.

The Bearings have been fitted to the front hubs, even though the old ones were in remarkably good condition.
New adjustable shocks and narrow springs (1.9" front and 2.25" rears - with adjustable platforms) have been trial fitted. A spherical bearing in an alloy housing has been used in the rear turret in order to achieve a more positive location for the Koni adjustables.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Suspension

Once the chassis was on it's trolley (Chassis info here), it was time to try a test rebuild.
The components were sourced from Tony Thompson - This is a fully adjustable system and consists of TTR drive shafts and new inboard and outboard half-shafts.

New driveshaft & halfshafts Click on each image to see a larger version.

I set too, to assemble the uprights and associated components. This is not a case of "bolt it on, it'll be OK"!
Suitable shims for spacing the suspension arms were made (Washers can be used, but look untidy). The shims allow the castor angle to be obtained at the front and the correct alignment at the rear. 'Top Hat' shims are used inboard at the rear inside the spherical bearings.

Front suspension shims. Click on each image to see a larger version.

New Upper & Lower front  suspension arms. Click on each image to see a larger version.

Fitting the 26R fully adjustable suspension - at the front, I had to use shims to obtain the castor angle.
This was an approximate setting which will be adjusted when the car is fully built and loaded.
All the joints have been replaced with spherical bearings with the exception of the lower trunnion, here I used Superflex PUR bearings with a Shore ‘A’ hardness of 95.
The rear suspension was straight forward. Again I used shims on either side of the alloy suspension housing, making sure the unit was hanging vertically from  the top mount. I machined some ‘top-hat’ shims for the inboard Spherical Bearing joints because the internal diameter of the joint was greater than the locating bolt. (The other option would have meant drilling the location mounts and fitting larger bolts—not good engineering practice).

The steering rack needed shims below the solid mounting brackets, but this can only be done accurately at the final geometry check once the car has reached its running stage. Because the car sits much lower than standard, bump steer can be eliminated by careful checking and selecting the correct shim value.

Running Gear 2