Slow re-birth of a Sprint

[alexblack13]

Hey Ian.. You going to the Inverness show? Mid may?

AB...

[slowsprinter]

AB
Please tell me more I know nothing about it?

Ian

[gordont]

Innes

Great picture, and 100% agree on the colour. My S2 is this Blue and although non original looks great.

[alexblack13]

It sure does..Must be great to be able to enjoy all year round too.

Enjoy it..

AB

[gordont]

looking forward to getting my hardtop this week then really will be an all year round car Alex. Getting cooler here (for Oz) around 19 degrees C today...

[slowsprinter]

Gents
A bit more work completed. A freshen up of the rear suspension ready for installation. Its a 2.25 ins conversion from Spyder waiting for me now to clean and spray the rear wishbones which are also Spyder and fit. Photos added to my Flickr page on link below.

It prompts me to ask you guys some questions. I have bought new lotocones from Sue Miller as my old ones showed some signs of splitting and been in a draughty Scottish barn for years. When I come to assemble and I push the legs through the lotocones with springs held in place by compressors! (A job I am a bit scared of!) should the castellated nut on top have a washer between it and the top of the lotocone as I don't appear to have any?

Can anyone recommend a brand of spring compressors that would do this job successfully bearing in mind they are 2.25 ins? I do have some draper compressors but they are too big for the radius of springs.

Spyder provided 2 poly bump stops when they sent my legs back, are these ok as they are? (See photos). As Alex suggests earlier in this thread I will set the lower spring seats to the midway point when I install. I hope that will give me a ball park ride height for that point in time when I get 4 wheels on my wagon.
Regards
Ian

[alexblack13]

I'm not sure there are any washers used Ian. From memory. (I've not checked the book) I think my castellated nuts had a small recess machined in and these located onto the lotocones.

I didn't use spring compressors as I have 'lost' mine for now. I threaded a wire through the rod and up through the cone then ratchet straps to pull the springs up tight into place.Dropped the nut down the wire and threaded it on. Tightened and finito...

Great work by the way! And you did not make it to Inverness I noticed.

Keep it going mate. Its looking fab' ..........

Al' ......

[slowsprinter]

I did not notice I had a PM Alex so missed you at Inverness....Gutted.

That way of doing the springs shows ingenuity I just don't have! That is the Mechanical Engineer in you. I just had to pop out to my workshop to check my understanding! Let me get this straight. I pass a piece of wire through the cone through the eye hole for the split pin on the top of the rod attach to a ratchet strap connected to something solid above the chassis and ratchet up remembering to put the castellated nut on the wire to slide into place. Is that correct? I am a bit thick! I would be worried the wire would break, I take it you used some sizeable wire? I need to secure my chassis to the floor by ratchet strap too I guess.

Thanks for the encouragement
Ian

[collins_dan]

Ian, I am about to strip my current chapman struts and install an adjustable rear platform exactly like yours. How far down from the top of the strut is the threaded/adjustable section placed? Your pictures are very helpful. Thanks. Dan

[alexblack13]

My fault Ian. I did not explain properly...

When you have the springs etc all assembled and ready to attach to the Lotocones... I passed a PC of wire rope through the cone and down and through the hole in the top of the strut rod. This is to pull up the rod and hold it up whilst you do up the nut.
put the nut onto the cable and allow it to sit on top of the cone.

Now.. What I had was a PC of square steel tube which straddled across the rear turrets (clamped on) and allowed me to wrap a ratchet strap down round the bottom of the strut ass'y and also round the steel tube. Working the ratchet strap then compressed the spring(s) both sides. When compressed enough I pulled the rod up through the 'cone and threaded on the nut.

Remember your bump stops. I had to do One side twice..

I left the square tube across the turrets with the straps tensioned and the springs compressed to normal ride height. This kept the tension off the rubber couplings (Spyder drive shafts have these at the diff ends) until I was ready to drop the body on.

There is a picture or two showing this in my posts 'new car arriving' when I told everyone what I was up to.. Have a wee look..


Hope this hepls

Al' .......

[slowsprinter]

Thanks Alex that explains it. I take it you did this with the wishbones attached at both chassis and strut ends?

Dan
Just nipped out to the garage and took some measurements for you. I am envious you have the skill to do this yourself. I had to get Spyder to do it for me!

I measured the full strut length from the top of the aluminium bearing housing (painted grey in my photo) to the top of the strut (painted black) to be 260mm.

From the top of grey casing to the mid point of the weld on the bottom of the threaded sleeve is 76mm.

From the top of the strut measuring down to the top of the threaded tube is 33mm (centre of the weld).

The full length of the threaded tube is 150mm. I hope this helps.

Ian

[collins_dan]

That's perfect thanks. As to skills, I don't know about that, but I would like to give it a try. Cheers, Dan

[slowsprinter]

Dan

Just noticed you are across the Pond. I should have done the measurements in cubits and furlongs!!

Ian

Alex
I have to say I think that is a brilliant solution to doing this job. I bet you can do a Telegraph crossword? I love this site it is an amateur restorers dream.
Looking forward to giving it a go now
Ian

[collins_dan]

I was just looking over my parts in comparison to Ian's and I only have 1 pair of bump stops. Was I supposed to have ordered 2 pairs, one for each side? Dan

[alexblack13]

I have to admit that crosswords are not a fav' of mine. Way to busy footering with things mechanical.

My day job consists of selling, installing, and commissioning woodworking machinery. Quite big stuff. I design the tooling and how the products will me machined etc. And fix them if they break down. So there is hardly a day goes past where I am not involved in something quite interesting. last week was Dornoch where a CNC Mortising machine had stopped Calibrating. Turned out to be an encoder fault / adjustment. Nice overnight stop though and the client is a good friend.

It has its benefits too. We have many Italian suppliers and an office close to the top end of Lago de Garda... Nice. I'm there normally a few times per year with clients various...

Remember to set the platforms for the springs down to minimum also when you are assembling. I found when I did that I did not need a lot of compression on the springs to get the rods up into position to allow screwing on the nut. Remember the copperslip on the threads and a new split-pin. And the Bump Stops are a forget me not..

And yes, I had the A frames fully assembled at the strut and chassis ends, but not tightened. All with Polybushes

Did you look at the picture??

Al' .......