Skew Rail Explanation

The chassis came welded incorrectly. It was out by 6mm at the gusseted end but because there is a knock on effect to the wishbone by the time you try to fit the upright it is more like ±30mm out. I found a way to make it fit by turning the top wishbone upside down but it was still out by 5mm and caused the wheel to have a bad Toe-out.

In the end the only thing to do was cut and re weld it.

Suspended-sion

Last Night I reassembled the rear hubs with new seals and grease. They were taken apart because of a problem with the rear bearings being crushed when tightened up to 200nm+. To fix this we had some spacer washers made so that the pressure was on the splined parts of the hub instead of the bearings, this is how it is designed to work on the sierra.

The reason for this problem was the rear uprights from Locost SA had a larger flange in between the bearing cups then the original sierra part. All new uprights bought from Locost SA do not have this problem anymore.



I then put the rear suspension together and test fitted the shocks for good measure.




I have forgotten up till now that the front uprights need to be modified. The lower ball joint hole does not have the correct taper so it will need to be machined.

There is also still a bit of work to be done on the braking system (flexible hoses), then we can have it on its wheels.

Painting r us

Right the re-welded bits have been painted. Also painted are the drive shafts, steering rack extenders, steering rack mounts, engine mounts and the second diff. Who knows when I will get another chance to work on the car :( but I'm glad that the chassis is fixed.

Cut and Welded

Right, so we had a friend round last night who was able to correct the skew rear suspension mounting rail. He took the long way round and decided to cut the gussets off and move the rail 6 mm outwards. The whole job 2 and a half hours and he used a Arc welder to do it.




Oh one other thing, I have named my Ka Yimmy!

New bits

On the car front there are a few pictures to show of parts that arrived round about the 14th of Dec last year.

This is a spacer made up by a friend its solid Ali and is really well finished.

The same friend is making our fuel tank. its made from marine grade Ali, he brought it round to test fit before he puts the baffles and sides on. Its capacity should be around 37l. Then there is the old diff I have started cleaning it off but stopped due to the oil spill when I drained it (smells really interesting in the garage.)