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New Bloke - daft front suspension question!
Jumpy Guy - 9/5/03 at 03:33 PM

Half built book Locost- needs front suspension. What are the best/worst/easiest options? help much appreciated!


stephen_gusterson - 9/5/03 at 04:00 PM

follow the book.......is easies.

alternatively, buy sierra bones and hubs converted for a locost from someone like MK engineering.


worst.....use the front end of a tesco shopping trolley

atb

steve

[Edited on 9/5/03 by stephen_gusterson]


GO - 9/5/03 at 04:05 PM

Jumpy Guy,

You'll find many long discussions about the front suspension and the fact that the book dimensions are incorrect.

I think the general consensus (someone please confirm/deny this) is that the best aproach is to move the top suspension mounts back by approximately 10mm so that you can then can use book standard dimension wishbones from any supplier and get the correct castor angle. However, you may need to look out for the coilovers fouling on the wishbones with them slightly further back.

There are also issues with the strength of the mounts where Ron places them in the book. Several people have their own solutions for this which are also discussed.

Finally, the biggest issue, and the most difficult to get right, is ensuring that the mounts are all parallel and correctly aligned with each other. The general solution seems to be to build a jig to ensure correct alignment of the mounts. Again people have different solutions for this.

Hope I haven't scared you!! Anyway, have a good search through the running gear section and you'll find all the answers in there.

Good luck!

PS. I cheated and bought a chassis!


James - 9/5/03 at 04:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
follow the book.......is easies.

alternatively, buy sierra bones and hubs converted for a locost from someone like MK engineering.


worst.....use the front end of a tesco shopping trolley

atb

steve

[Edited on 9/5/03 by stephen_gusterson]


LOL!!!

Nice one Steve!


Jumpy,
Bear in mind the MK wishbones are wider than the book ones (wider as in the distance between the bush tubes that is). So you'll have to worry about moving your FU1 and FU2 rails (and all the associated issues with this). Although MK may well be willing to make you book standard wishbones on request.

I believe that the w/bones supplied by Luego are standard in width though. Not that cheap though I thought.

HTH,

James