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Has anyone built and fitted a Rorty DeDion?
John P - 7/6/10 at 03:32 PM

As above really. Just wanted to check there were no known problems and some photos would be good.

John.


andy188 - 7/6/10 at 06:36 PM

Hi, i have built and fitted 1 to mine in use last summer and this, no probs so far fits well, make sure your bolt fixing for the panhard bar is long enough, and there is enough clearence for the bar in all suspension travel, mine is a bit close, shaves a bit of paint off occasionally,(last year) had to pack out one side of the bar, to clear. will try to put photos in my archive 4 u, andy


robertst - 7/6/10 at 06:57 PM

I made an axle out of Rorty's DeDion plans and this is the outcome of it:

making the hub carriers is a massive pain in the neck, so i had to resort to using those from the sierra (which generated some debate in its day regarding whether they were cast or forged and if they were weldable.. but IIRC they were cast so no problem there)

Another problem i found was getting the correct diameter tube for the hub carrier, so as a last resort i cut and expanded a smaller diameter tube... later on i decided to strengthen this by closing the gap..

in my opinion, and considering that now it's too late in the build for me... i would go straight to an IRS setup and forget entirely about de dion... it really is a pain in the neck to align the mounting points for both suspension and trailing ends, and also making the trailing ends themselves... Rescued attachment finaldedion1.jpg
Rescued attachment finaldedion1.jpg


Micael - 7/6/10 at 09:18 PM

I made one last winter and here are my findings.

The hub carrier tubes are to narrow to fit bolted drive shafts. This means that i had to get larger dia tubes. The new larger tube was lager than the measurement between the trailing arms. So I had to move the upper traling arm a good 30 mm.

I use the rear upper traling arm bolt as lower coilover bolt. So now i had to change rear coilover to 30 mm shorter ones.

Otherwise, it was a walk in the park.


nick205 - 7/6/10 at 10:11 PM

IIRC there was a guy on here who had a batch of de dion tubes bent/formed to suit this set-up. he used one and was looking to sell the rest at cost. could be a good head start