Goodbye Kansas

[ERA2076]

ATS (Speed Tech) AFX Spindle 30002

Wilwood Caliper 120-11778/9
Wilwood Hat 170-11902
Wilwood Bracket 250-8917

Cut and paste as needed - the caliper may not be stiff enough for track work. They almost worked on my 3800 lb SVT. I am counting on the weight difference of the cars.

Spindle / Brake Assy (33.6) + 225 Avon + Minlite = 80.1 lb

Still need half of the linkage. A magnesium wheel should offset that weight which would leave me with a at 20% reduction in un-sprung on the front and geometry much better suited for the intended use.

chr

[ERA2076]

[ERA2076]

Beautiful - 20 lbs with cover.

[ERA2076]

I was unable to source steering arms for the ATS spindles. We took one of the Gen 1 steering arms and cut the webbing out of the ball joint relief so the arms would be oriented outboard.

I have spent some time with Tony Woodward learning how to properly locate one of his racks. I want to raise the rack and rotate it down some if I can. In the process of learning this we also discussed steering arm length and it's relationship with steering ratio. That led to some study on Ackermann which is still in process.

I took the cut up arm to one of our machinist's and had a prototype machined. He re-modeled the cut up with 100% Ackermann, 4 3/4 arm length, and 5/8 thru for the linkage bolt.

They fit very nicely. A little rework in order, but I may finally order the rack

[ERA2076]

3.5"

[ERA2076]

Oil Lite Bronze

[ERA2076]

The Minilites only come in a 4.5 backspace. The replica stuff is 3.8. I have the Minilites modeled with a .5" spacer.

He have tooling ordered to run the following on our 5 axis. This will get rid of the spacer, decrease the scrub radius, and slow roll center migration. There is no stabar mount yet. We want to relocate the front stabar possibly mounting in the bottom center of the arm. We are going to use 7050 aluminum for the arms.

Also (my car) the rear radius rods are not square enough to the shells to run bronze bushings. With no give in the bushings the rod ends rub the mounting tabs at the cradle.

[strictlypersonl]

Originally Posted by ERA2076

Oil Lite Bronze

I absolutely DON'T RECOMMEND this. It's putting a nasty bending moment into the arm and lower pivot shaft. As the suspension goes through its travel, the arms don't remain perpendicular to the hub carrier. Some compliance is necessary.

If you want "solid" on the outer end, use rod ends or spherical bearings.

[iismet]

Originally Posted by strictlypersonl

I absolutely DON'T RECOMMEND this. It's putting a nasty bending moment into the arm and lower pivot shaft. As the suspension goes through its travel, the arms don't remain perpendicular to the hub carrier. Some compliance is necessary.

If you want "solid" on the outer end, use rod ends or spherical bearings.

Yes - I found that out when I cycled it. We are working on rod ends.

x-chr

[ERA2076]

I ran my control arm by some race car engineering type's and they were less than impressed. A Ford GT control arm was presented so we copied that form around our pickup points. We will cut one next week, but still plan to run FEA. Compare the two - this one is built as an I beam rotated so it's strength is against braking force.

2.2lb with no hardware.

[ERA2076]

We pulled the engine and are final fitting the bell housing and transmission. We got the housing to block to .002.

We are going to run an electric fuel pump so we have been working on the plumbing. We have been round and round over the fuel cap situation. I do not want to run the internal cap, but I cannot risk spilling fuel at the track. We cut a new riser, offset the inlet, and were able to include a return in the riser. We found a suitable cap and vent from one of the racer supply places and we will drill the top of the cap and screw the vent into the top of the cap. I wanted to run it recessed into the body, but was voted off so we are cutting a new riser which puts the top of the riser at the top of the body.







The cap seals with an o ring -they won't like the roll bar

[ERA2076]

Powder coat it flat -

chr

[DanEC]

And to think, this all started with cutting a hole in the drivers side floor. Is there an ETA (date) for when this thing hits the asphalt again?

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by ERA2076

I ran my control arm by some race car engineering type's and they were less than impressed. A Ford GT control arm was presented so we copied that form around our pickup points. We will cut one next week, but still plan to run FEA. Compare the two - this one is built as an I beam rotated so it's strength is against braking force.....

Can't beat FEA for suspension components. A massive amount of 'development' going into your car....great to see. Is ERA interested in any of your seemingly logical improvements?

Cheers,
Glen

[ERA2076]

Originally Posted by DanEC

And to think, this all started with cutting a hole in the drivers side floor. Is there an ETA (date) for when this thing hits the asphalt again?

Yea it's a lot of study and a lot of work, but a great hobby. The track opens back up in March and we have a lot of areo stuff we want to try on the Mustang so we are really moving right now on the FIA. Gene thinks we can have it by the end of summer, but I am a huge obstacle. I still don't have a complete widened front suspension, widened rear suspension, raised steering, new rear end, or aero to hold it down. If I can't get the control arm thru FEA I will be kind of screwed and will resort back to steel, but it will take more time to come up with one. The modeled arm with the ATS upright has a really good motion ratio.

We are going to try and start it up soon so that will be kind of cool.

We'll get it

chr

[ERA2076]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Can't beat FEA for suspension components. A massive amount of 'development' going into your car....great to see. Is ERA interested in any of your seemingly logical improvements?

Cheers,
Glen

nah - ERA builds beautiful Replicas - I got a hacked up track car.

chr

[ERA2076]

Our Diff finally arrived. We start re-assembly tomorrow.



We cloned the rubber engine mounts into solid ones.



Finishing up welding in the down tubes



We are working on widening the rear track back to it's original width without using wheel spacers. We need to move it 1/2 inch. We put the upper trailing link in double shear which allows us a little movement outboard. The gusset tying the main frame rail to the 1" body support has to be relieved else the rod end will bind against it as it moves outboard. We just drilled a clearance hole in the gusset. Once we can cycle everything again we will space the trailing link to the best fit location.



I checked the weight thread and the 351 setup we pulled weighed 520

351w w Lakewood & clutch 520 lb

This Engine, Bell Housing, Clutch, Transmission, & Diff weigh 510 lb.

I'm expecting the rear cradle assembly to come in around 252 ready to bolt in. That would be a 92lb reduction in the rear cradle assembly.

Can't wait to reassemble and weigh. Last time I weighed with steel wheels and no fluids we were at 2088.

Been talking to Watanabe - another science project fraught with risk ($$$) - LOL. If they would just publish basic dimensional data it would make things so much easier.

Really enjoy working on your car Bob.

chr

[ERA2076]

On the way home it occurred to me my numbers maybe a little optimistic. Brent installed the flywheel when he assembled the motor. The Quick time bell housing was a disappointing 33 lb and the rest of the clutch should have been 10 so all of it bolted together should be around 550lb.

30lb heavier than the 351 with bell housing and clutch.

chr

[ERA2076]

We got our control arm thru FEA. A few tweaks and we will cut.

We are relocating the sta-bar so the shock and sta-bar bolts are co-planar.

The arm is 3.1 lb and uses Aurora RXAM rod ends (3/4 shank - 5/8 bore)

.043 deflection aft with 2 g brake 5 g bump. It is modeled with .100 web. We are going to run one more iteration with a .125 web to see if we can get any more deflection reduction.

[RRRuiz]

Wow, nice separation of the pedals. Real nice set up.