Canley uprights

[TomR]

Hi all,

There was a thread back last fall about Canley making an upright with a spherical joint replacing the trunnion. I ordered one in December and have not seen it yet. I've inquired about once a month and it is always a few weeks off.

Has anyone on the list received one of these or know anything about the supplier or whether they'll ever come in? No problem with Canley, I'm sure they just aren't getting them from the supplier, but it is hard to plan without some idea of when they might show. Any info appreciated.

Tom

[garyeanderson]

http://www.canleyclassics.com/products. ... atkit1.xml

[Foxie]

I'm seriously interested in going to fully ball-jointed front uprights for the +2. I've actually seen a trunnion-type break (not on my car !)

Spyder (used to ?) do a conversion, (what's on the Zetec ?) and there's all those Caterhams. There's also the brake option involved.

I'm hoping to see what's available, one reason I'm going to Donnington

I haven't seen the Canley type before, but looking at the photo, the single bottom bolt which isn't in line with the ball axis does not seem to be an optimum design.

[SimonH]

I looked into this a while ago.

Spyder offer the uprights to take a normal ball joint, as per the Zetec conversion. Unfortunately it then means going over to 4 stud hubs as they dont do them to fit the Lotus wheels. It works out very expensive as it then needs new calipers, discs and then all the rear hubs to match.

The Canley one is exactly the same idea as Caterham. The Caterham one has the ball joint at the end of the wishbone rather than in that bolt on part as they have welded wishbones.
The stub going through the ball joint looks quite a lot stronger than the normal trunion thread as its solid with no deep threads cut in it, just fine threads at the bottom.

The main issue with them will be as with the Caterham design. They tend to get dirt in the ball joint and then wear the ptfe liner, sometimes rather too quickly it seems.

[Elanman99]

I might be missing something here but I cannot see how the Canley bottom ball joint will work with standard Elan bottom wishbones. Maybe there is another part that stops the housing from rotating around the bolt?

Ian Phillips

[SimonH]

The area above the bolt has a flat overhang to stop it rotating.

[TomR]

I'm fine with Canley's design for my application, I just have been waiting on delivery for many months and wondered if anybody had seen these for real Looks like SimonH at least has seen one on an Esprit, so they must exist. Guess I'll just keep waiting until I decide to make one from scratch.

Tom

[garyeanderson]

If I were to upgrade to this upright I would want to upgrade the stub axle and front hub too.

http://www.canleyclassics.com/products. ... atkit3.xml

[Elanman99]

[quote="SimonH"]The area above the bolt has a flat overhang to stop it rotating.[/quote]

I can see that now.

I presume these are for racing use? since there does not seem to be any dirt seal.

Ian Phillips

[SimonH]

I presume these are for racing use? since there does not seem to be any dirt seal.

These are for road use.
That is the problem, they get dirt and crud collecting in the top area and eventually it gets into the joint. That wears the ptfe seat and you have to replace the joints. They are generally significantly more than a pair of trunnions too.

You can get seals that would do the job from most race type catalogues, Demon Thieves etc, that sell spherical joints for racing.

[bcmc33]

I also looked at this some time ago and Canley answered all my questions by return of e-mails. Until, that is, I asked what testing had been done to prove the spherical bearing design and why there was no dirt protection ? question asked three times without reply.

It?s still interesting, though. I may look in at them on the way to Donnington on Saturday.

[TomR]

bcmc33 - Thanks! If they have some on display at Donnington tell them to send them to me:-)

Gary, I have Lee Chapman CrMo stub axles but want to stick with knock-offs for now and haven't found a stronger hub without going to 26R hardware (and wheels) nor did TTR think it was needed. I have his stronger rear hubs.

I wouldn't think an alloy bolt-on is obviously stronger than the knock-off anyway, although I'd love to save some hub weight.

Tom

[TomR]

bcmc33 - Thanks! If they have some on display at Donnington tell them to send them to me:-)

Gary, I have Lee Chapman CrMo stub axles but want to stick with knock-offs for now and haven't found a stronger hub without going to 26R hardware (and wheels) nor did TTR think it was needed. I have his stronger rear hubs.

I wouldn't think an alloy bolt-on is obviously stronger than the knock-off anyway, although I'd love to save some hub weight.

Tom

[bcmc33]

As promised I went to Canley Classics on the way to Donnington.

Canley buy them from some other seller of the same parts who in turn get them made from a local machinist. Apparently this company has plenty of forgings (500+), but they are stuck in a queue at the machinist who is clearly not interested in doing small quantities while busy with other work.

Canley told me that they have tooled-up the machining but cannot get the forgings from this other company and cannot afford to get forging tools produced.

The Canley people are very frustrated but can?t do anything about it ? apart from waiting.

[Foxie]

I was at Donnington over the weekend, and had a good opportunity to inspect the Spyder all-ball-jointed front uprights. Unlike the Canley type, the Spyder bottom ball joint socket has short arms, enabling it to be secured not only by the lower wishbone end bolt but also by the lower shock bolt, thereby countering torsional stresses on the socket. A simple but effective improvement on the Canley design, IMHO.

Sean Murray