This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.
I have the Alifin drums on my Ribble, they are very nice but took an age to turn up as I think they are made in batches and only when they have enough orders to make a batch. Looking good BTW
Mac
(Viatron "...but took an age to turn up"); well its taken a month but disc conversion, swing spring conversion and alfins are on their way!
I'd done with the renovation (reconditioning!) of the rear axles, bearings in, I used loctite 641 on the outer race to housing interface as i had movement there. This should hold it. More pics when there's more to show!
thanks andy, yeah its made it too hard to bolt on anything ugly so its all getting the treatment!
Why do people say "don't try this at home" on fun stuff like cooking with C4 but never say it about things that would be useful, like, you can replace the rear wheel bearings on a small chassis triumph, but dont try this at home...
rears practically done now, brake back plates on, just need to buy the rest of the freelander wheelstuds and put them in then i can finish the job.
Its been a while (hols in NZ, easter etc etc) but i have the swing spring and disc kit and am industriously putting things together. can't upload pics at work though
sadly I broke a rear trunnion bush jamming it on with no lube, lesson learned for the fronts, and antiseize liberally on the bolts that go in there this time. when the replacement turns up i will get the rear axles back on the car, and my freelander studs will be here soon (thanks auskellian) and that will mean the rears can be completed!
the secondhand front hubs from rimmer required a bit of cleaning up thats for sure, but they are ready for their bearings now. I used bearing housing loctite 641 (or 642 i cant remember) which worked a treat on the rears- probly use on the fronts too.
I'm not going to worry about ride height until i get the frame on and weigh the body and sandbag simulate it, then sort out the size of rear lowering block i need.
I am worried about the stiffness of that rear spring - anyone with knowledge/experience there?
Its been a while (hols in NZ, easter etc etc) but i have the swing spring and disc kit and am industriously putting things together. can't upload pics at work though
sadly I broke a rear trunnion bush jamming it on with no lube, lesson learned for the fronts, and antiseize liberally on the bolts that go in there this time. when the replacement turns up i will get the rear axles back on the car, and my freelander studs will be here soon (thanks auskellian) and that will mean the rears can be completed!
the secondhand front hubs from rimmer required a bit of cleaning up thats for sure, but they are ready for their bearings now. I used bearing housing loctite 641 (or 642 i cant remember) which worked a treat on the rears- probly use on the fronts too.
I'm not going to worry about ride height until i get the frame on and weigh the body and sandbag simulate it, then sort out the size of rear lowering block i need.
I am worried about the stiffness of that rear spring - anyone with knowledge/experience there?
I built a Triumph based Marlin Roadster many years ago. Donor was a Spitfire. Using a brand new spring I had to remove one of the leaves to get the ride correct. If you leave all of the leaves in and just use a spacer block to adjust the height I guess that the ride will be a bit on the hard side...
I, as well as a few others who did their builds at the same time as me went for a 1" lowering block AND Swing Spring conversion and we generally found that gave a very good ride height with a not too bumpy ride.
But i'll admit that it wasn't the cheapest of solutions!!
I've kept the swing axles as they came out of the factory. I've been through a few different setups, but I've now settled (excuse the pun) on removal of the top three loose leaves from the stack, plus one leaf out of the next stack down (the one that's clamped to the main spring with 'U' clamps and bolts underneath), with no lowering blocks fitted at all. That's given me the right ride height for my tyres and a very compliant ride. The handling is also spot on with no discernible roll, while you can drive it much faster than when it had hard suspension because the tyres stay in contact with the road instead of jumping off all the time.
Martin when you took a leaf out of the swing spring stack what did that do to the "hat" that the 4 studs bolt through - removing a leaf will reduce the thickness of the stack and does that leave too much "slack" in the stack? with the herald stack removal of leaves was easy, but not sure about the swing setup - if i did i am thinking of the middle leaf (third from top and bottom). do you have a photo?
Mr T i have already bought the swing spring kit so i'm going to use it!! when you removed a leaf that was u-bolted on, what did you then do with the u-bolt - shim it or sleeve it or leave it?
Dave did you need longer studs with a +1" block?
I also have no backplate for my front spit3 disks - problems? i dont really want to pay 45GBP for each back plate from my friends who bring primer and oxford such amusement.
...when you removed a leaf that was u-bolted on, what did you then do with the u-bolt - shim it or sleeve it or leave it?
Hi Tim, I used the leaf that has the 'U' clamps riveted to it so that they act as guides to keep the rest of the stack lined up, but I didn't bother putting any bolts back in underneath, as I'd had to cut them off due to corrosion. Hasn't affected the handling so it'll probably stay that way.
As for getting the right length securing bolts for the spring stack you end up with, below is copied from my build thread dated 16th November 2011 (page 7) -
A while back I asked if anyone knew what thread type the rear spring to differential mounting bolts were. I got a couple of different answers Gary J said 3/8" UNF while a couple of others said 3/8" UNC, so I identified a 3/8 UNF bolt removed from my chassis and it didn't fit. By a prociss of elimination I ordered enough 3/8 UNC threaded rod to make new studs for my extra lowered lowering block.
When the UNC rod arrived it didn't fit. I tried a new UNF bolt and it fitted. Checked the supposedly UNF bolt from my chassis that I'd used as a gauge and found that someone had used a UNC where it should've been UNF.
I can confirm, therefore, that the studs/bolts for the rear diff are 3/8" UNF.
No harm done, though, I'll be using the spare UNC rod in my handbrake mechanism.
Good luck getting the stance/ride/handling how you want them.
time for a question; the disc brake conversion stub axles are about 1/4 inch longer than the old ones which means the greas caps dont engage with the hub due to not clearing the axle and nut. does anyone know of hub grease caps that have the same base as the herald/spit caps but a higher 'dome'?
