Handy home made tool

[ttaunton]

Attached is a picture of the rear N/S suspension of my Spyder chassis being assembled. The clamp you see clamping the whole assembly is a home made device made from 2x Im lengths of 20mm studding and 2 lengths of 4" x 2" steel channel. Total cost about ?20. The pressure it can exert is amazing. I have used it, in conjunction with various bits of pipe etc etc to press in all the bearings and bushes in the wishbones, rear hubs and the diff. It has worked flawlessly. It is very precise and you never need to bash anything in with a hammer. I also used it to compress the front springs, keeping them compressed using 1" ratchet straps, while I installed them onto the Spax shockers. The rear springs were similarly compressed before being installed onto the rear shocks. Ratchet straps are great for this kind of thing; you can buy 1" wide ones in packs of four from Machine Mart in the UK. The set-up you see in the photo is the whole spring and shocker assembly being compressed so that the drive shaft is in alignment with the diff so that the doughnut can be bolted up. This was not as easy as it should have been as the clamping band around the doughnut was slightly wrong giving an incorrect pitch circle. Perhaps I will use Jubilee clips next time as I can adjust things then. The blue 2" wide ratchet strap is in position to maintain the tension and keep the spring compressed so that when the clamp is removed the net deflection on the doughnuts is zero. The strap will stay on until I get some weight on the chassis when it has wheels on the ground. Anything to keep the deflection down and give the doughnuts an easy start in life. The whole procedure now needs to be repeated on the other side. The Spyder chassis is beautifully made and well thought out. I last rebult this car in 1978, when the front uprights rotted out, so I replaced the chassis with a Lotus one. I welded closing plates across the front uprights to stop the mud getting in (why did Lotus not do this?) and it lasted well (the headlights stayed up) for nearly 30 years with increasingly sporadic use until I decided to treat myself to a Spyder chassis. The old chassis is on ebay at the moment, if anyone is interested. A pat on the back also for Paul Matty, who have delivered all my parts, down to the last nut and bolt, utterly reliably the next day. A brilliant service.

[wojeepster]

Good idea!