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Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 8:34 pm
by wolfie
Evening all. Can somebody point me in the direction of the way to fit the watsons coils on the subframe. Thanks

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:26 pm
by Stuart
wolfie wrote:Evening all. Can somebody point me in the direction of the way to fit the watsons coils on the subframe. Thanks


Here's one viewtopic.php?f=55&t=1598

I've always thought the forum has far too many sections for the limited number of traffic it gets.

my post from May 2009, given the experience that Rich and David had getting the standard set up to work

Stuart wrote:Adding a collar to the top of the tower before welding the top plate on would help. The A-series tower is shorter than the K-series one, and the Watsons kit is designed for the K-series frame.

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:48 pm
by wolfie
Thanks stuart. Gave up on trying to find a coilover solution so going to go this route. Spent ages looking on topics....I knew there was a post somewhere

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 10:49 pm
by Rich
Hans solution in the link is much nicer than the one I used. That's the way I'll do it next time.

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 12:34 am
by wolfie
maybe I'm being a bit paranoid but welding an aluminium collar to a steel subframe seems a bit risky for the type of stresses going through it. mIssus is going to use the car every day and the roads of afghanistan are better than the ones around the midlands

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:23 am
by Hans Efde
wolfie wrote:maybe I'm being a bit paranoid but welding an aluminium collar to a steel subframe seems a bit risky for the type of stresses going through it. mIssus is going to use the car every day and the roads of afghanistan are better than the ones around the midlands


Obviously the collar is milled from steel.

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 1:41 pm
by wolfie
what thickness was the steel hans? Need to start ringing around to get a few quotes

Re: Watsons front suspension conversion

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 2:37 pm
by Hans Efde
wolfie wrote:what thickness was the steel hans? Need to start ringing around to get a few quotes


Dimensions were in the previous post:
It's the Watson spring set. You have to order the set from him. The bushes can be made by any local machine shop. Mine are 40mm high, outside diam. is 108, internal diam. is 101mm, halfway up the internal diam. decreases to 95mm. I paid 70 euro for the bushes. when I got them, I just had to drill 2 12mm holes and make 2 sleeves with an angle grinder.