Help with rear suspension.

[marklowe]

Hi
I?ve spent all afternoon struggling and am back to were I started.
I?m trying to build up the rear suspension on a new chassis, and decided this was also the time to fit Mick Miller driveshafts.
When I?ve fitted the original driveshsfts with donuts before I?ve done it with the suspension all connected up, and jacked up the upright till everythings in line and then fitted the driveshaft, no real problems.
I have assumed that as the Mick Miller shafts have studs permanently fitted that they will be to long for this method.
I?ve connected the new CV drive shaft to the outer shaft on the upright, connected the top of the upright to the lotocone , then intended to jack up the upright and connect the lower wishbone to the upright, and the CV drive shaft to the diff output shaft.
As far as I could see it should work, but it has been a right strudel and I?m back to square one.
I?m sure another of those jobs that?s easy when you know how, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me how.

Mark

[elansprint71]

Mark
You've not said exactly what the problem is- does the shaft assembly appear "too long"?
I fitted the MM shafts with a Spyder twin-wishbone set up and it literally all fell together.

Is the body off the chassis?

[alan71]

I would remove the adaptors from the CV joints, by undoing the socket head screws, and bolt them to the inner and outer drive shafts. They can be quite a tight fit you may need to open up the holes slightly. Assemble the rest of the suspension and then replace the CV joints and intermediate drive shaft.

Alan

[marklowe]

Hi
I think the problem is that the upright and CV shaft as an assembly is just to unwieldy to control, as the chassis is bare it has no weight and moves about when trying to jack the upright.
Jacking the upright and trying to line up the drive shafts and the lower wishbone at the same time, even with two people its like trying to fight an octopus.

Mark

[AussieJohn]

I found it was easier to compress the spring a bit then jack it into position, cheers, John.

[alexblack13]

Hi Guys,

I used a pair of those ratchet straps to position the suspension where it needed to be. Just ratchet the 'A' frame up to the position you need. I.E. Level. My drive shafts as you can see are Spider.

Remember.. The CV joints will 'plunge' for the want of a better word. The length can be varied when fitting. This allows for your suspension travel whilst moving.

Hope this helps.. Ratchet straps like these are V cheap and great for all sorts of jobs. I bought them to Hold down my Honda Pan European Motorcycle on the North sea ferries.


Alex B....

[elansprint71]

Mark,
I understand the problem- of course with the twin wishbone set-up, I just disconnected the lower wishbone.

Alex's solution looks a good one.

[marklowe]

Hi
My problem is that the CV drive shafts have studs fixed to the ends, although I haven?t tried it I imagine that they are to long to fit the gap between the inner and outer drive shafts.
I think there is a need to disconnect the upright and swing it out slightly, locate the CV drive shaft then close in the upright and reconnect it.
The drive CV drive shafts do have some ability to expand and contract, can they be wiggled in with the suspension connected and raised to the correct height?

Mark

[garyeanderson]

A photo for those of use the at verbably chalanged

[jimj]

Yes Mark, you connect up the Lotocones etc. just leaving the 2 bolts out of the bottom of the upright and swing the whole thing out an inch to clear the studs.
Jim

[marklowe]

Hi Jim
Thanks for confirming what I thought, this is what I have been trying but without the body on the chassis.
I think I?ll find it a bit easier to control with the body fitted to the chassis first.

Mark

[elansprint71]

Mark,
I assumed that you had disconnected the wishbone!

Nice logs Gary.

[alexblack13]

Those look like susan Millar's logs! Might not be though!

Alex B....

[garyeanderson]

Mark,
I assumed that you had disconnected the wishbone!

Nice logs Gary.

You see pete, I did a search on google for "Mick Miller drivershafts"

and it gave me a list of 10 items that matched, the first one I clicked on was

http://www.mickmillerlotus.com/images/p ... otuscv.jpg

I simply put a [img]

in front of the HTTP

and [/img]

after the JPG and it shows the photo over here. Wonder of wonders a photo of a driveshaft with logs no less.

[marklowe]

Hi Gary
Yes I was assembling onto a bare chassis and hadn?t connected the bottom of the upright to the wishbone. I?ve always managed to fit donuts before with the wishbone connected but I was pretty sure that the new CV shafts wouldn?t go in the same way.
I had clamps on the springs and was trying to jack the upright into position to line up the drive shafts and the wishbones at the same time. Difficult to control everything at once especially as the chassis would move around when you pushed against it hard.
I?ll fit the body back on before I attempt it again.
Thanks to all for there advice.

Mark