I have started thinking about the front wishbones etc on my 442 now (ok ok I can hear you all groaning).
Having drawn the mc sorely plans out on the cad i can see a few problems that I will need to overcome
First of all the converging points of the tubes LA and FU2 where the top bracket goes is higher than the book by 47mm between the pivot points ( i.e. 251 instead of the books 204mm) will this mean I have to either alter the angle of the threaded tube for the transit track rod. Or keep to the book dimensions for mounting points and make alternative brackets to suit.
As I'm making my own bones I will set them to get 5.5 degrees castor but when the bottom wishbone is level (ride height) how much should I allow for in droop and rebound, when designing, if I use the book track width.
Should I try and make the bones to suit the rear axle track width or not ( I'm not fussy but what are your opinions) a mark 2 rack with std bones would be less work than making it wider I think.
I also presume that the coil over shock open and closed lenghts will change but I'll do a search on that as I think I've already seen it somewhere.
Thanks in advance folks.
Gary

You wil have to stick with 204mm and pack out the front bracket so the line joining the brackets is parrallel to the car centre line.

Without drawing the Mcsorley plans I don't know how much packing out the front bracket will need but I have seen one chassis with a 18x36 rhs running back from the outside LA to the front of FU2. This mod moved the front upper wishbone pivot out by 20mm and gave the bracket additional support.

I have actually come to the conclusion the book chassis from E forward is a mess mainly due to modifications made in the westfield chassis when it changed from MG Midget suspension to Cortina based.


[Edited on 17/9/05 by britishtrident]

I was thinking if this was the wat to go then i would get 2 new brackets folded and re drill the holes farther out. After doing a search and reading some of the results it looks like there is quite an issue with certain makes of top ball joint binding. I think for a first build I'd be as well to stick with the std book bracket mounting points and wishbone lenghts so that really only leaves the shock lenghts to sort out ( or alter the mounting points.)

On the drawing it only needs 6mm of packing so I'll make up a jig and try it out on the chassis sometime through the week.

[Edited on 17/9/05 by omega 24 v6]

Ok I've set up the suspension points on a jig as per the drawings on page of the book (2nd edition) and surprise surfeckingprise they are miles out. From the attached photo's you will see that the bottom and top/rear front mounts are 10mm off of the tubes and the bottom rear mount is barely where i would like to see it at.
As I see it I have the following options.
1 make new mounting brackets with the holes to suit where they are now. 2 bring everything towards the chassis centre line by 10mm ( As I understand it this could affect the bump steer as the inner knuckles of the mk2 rack will not be on the same centre line as the suspension joints. I have not got the rack here to try it anyway at the moment and am going by what i've read in other posts.
3 pack both the front and the top rear mounts with a 10mm plate And make a gusset type bracket for the rear bottom mount.
Please do not be too critical of my suspension jig as it was only thrown together to give me a rough idea of how far out everything was.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=showphoto&photo=2upright%20dims.JPG

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=showphoto&photo=10mm%20gap.JPG

OK I've packed the brackets with 10mm flat bar and will put photo's in my archive tomorrow when the cameras recharged (how do you insert images).
Basically I have now got the dimensions as per the book page 63. However I've had to do a bit of fabricating for the bottom rear mounting and would like comments on it's strength and any possible SVA issues.
I still can't get the sizes that Gremlin hadwhen he poste the picture in this thread (how do I import it) http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=4652&page=2
the best I can do is to change the top front mount size to 70mm instead of 95.03. leaving all other sizes the same
As I see it this should not be a problem as I am making my own wishbones and will allow for 5.5 degrees of castor.
I would welcome any comments please as there are plenty veiwing the posts but not a lot of replies


[Edited on 28/9/05 by omega 24 v6]