Axle F(inished)

Measuring the rear axle showed that there was an alarming amount of toe out (0.5deg), so we attempted to straighten it. First off we tried to just apply some strips of weld which in theory contract the metal and cause it to bend. We tried this with no bending moments applied and nothing happened. So then we lashed up the setup shown below

So by pumping up the bottle jack the pressure was applied to both ends of the axle via the chains and would bend the axle. We attached laser pointers to each hub so we could then measure the movement of the axle on the roof of the work shop as we applied pressure/heat. The difference in the starting width and required finishing width was calculated to get the correct toe. We noticed that applying just pressure seemed to do the trick as the axle wasn't springing back, and so (we thought) the axle was setup with 0.4deg toe in

Unfortunately the patches of oil you can see in the photos (taken the day after the "axle straightening" session") weren't from the diff breather as we first thought! When dad started to clean up the axle he noticed that there was a huge crack in the back of the axle casing!! This had obviously been caused by the bending of the axle and explained why it moved so easily. But in our defence, the axle had actually cracked along a horrible welded up repair on the axle casing which had been previously hidden by some foam that protected a brake pipe!!! It also suddenly became obvious that the camber i had measured may have been at the desired 0.5 degs negative, but it was all on one side, the axle tube was very badly bent on the offside, no wonder that bearing always leaked!!!!!!  So the axle casing was scrap and we needed to build up a new one, eeeeek!!!

Suspect suspension

I have always struggled with the car understeering when trying to get out of the corners coupled with high roll angles by trying to run the car soft to keep the rear axle under control . I have tried various settings and springs but felt that this was the biggest downfall of the car in its present state. Family friend John Bentley offered to look into the geometry of the car and see if he could come up with some improvements. After a few hours of measuring and putting it all into his suspension program he could easily see why the car was rolling so much and suffering from understeer. The roll centre was far too low and moved around a great deal during roll. Also the geometry meant that at 2.5 degs of chassis roll, the outside wheel was over 1 degree in positive camber. We didnt want to start from scratch with the suspension, and wanted to keep the escort uprights and existing dampers (to save cost). We also didn't want to be hacking off the complete front end and remaking everything, so john started to look at what fairly simple changes would gain us benefits. He calculated that by dropping the upper wishbones to the lowest and most outboard pivot holes on the existing pickups would be beneficial in on all counts, in fact actually keeping the wheel in negative camber during roll. It also meant no changes to the lower wishbones, or damper pick up points. The only new items required would be upper wishbones, and these again only needed minimal changes, leaving the outboard parts the same as standard, and just modifying the angles and lengths of the inboard parts. This would also give the opportunity to gain a rising rate spring rate during compression.

We ordered some wishbones from Fury, but asked just for just the outer parts, we could then add our own inner geometry. After setting the ride height f the car using some blocks under the chassis, we used some MDF and blocks to set the uprights at the same height as if the wheels were fitted. We could then check the movement of the wishbones and the associated positions and movement of the dampers during bum and droop.

With the pivot point decided upon and marking it on an MDF jig fitted to the wishbone we built up the inboard parts and tacked them in position.

We then added a brace and made the the otherside. The picture shows the difference between the old and new wishbones. The tacked up wishbones where then sent off to the Tig welding man and powder coaters.

The rear axle links after the powder coatings and new bushes

Shiney and radiant

Since the r1 install the engine temps have never been as cool as I wanted, so thanks to dad a nice new thick core aluminium radiator was ordered at the Autosport show. Its the same size and fitting as the standard polo radiator and is used in lots of road and race kits cars. A number of people have said it will drop temperatures by about 10 degs, which will get the car down to my "happy" operating temperatures. It will hopefully mean i can also put a floor on the engine bay again, something i had to remove (and cut up to use for other bits) when temperatures were rising after the new front end was added. I will definitely fit some mesh to try and save the fins this time

The new rad dropped into place, but was 40mm narrower than the original unit as i had forgotten i had fitted the slightly wider polo version last year. This was easily fixed by adding a couple of small aluminium brackets.

I had been advised not to bolt the radiator directly to the the chassis brackets as the contraction and expansion of the radiator would cause the aluminium sides to separate or split from the core. So i drilled some oversize holes in the steel mounts and inserted a small length of rubber fuel pipe, and sandwiched this between 2 washers and bolted into the radiator mounts through this.

If you read my blog on a regular basis you may wonder what has been happening to my posts recently, well i decided to try and keep up to date by posting pictures via my phone as and when i take them, along with a bit of a description, then when i get 5 minutes jump on the pc and edit the post. I find leaving it for a few weeks then trying to catch up a bit daunting and end up never doing it. So if you see a short post, try coming a back a couple of days later and it may have grown (like this one)