Front springs on a Gold
Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:55 pmRight, inspired by David fitting a Watson Mini kit to the front end of his coupé, I set about doing something similar but reversible to the front end of my convertible.
My initial shopping list consisted of a pair of Watsons springs (£65 posted), a pair of hi-lo type adjustable trumpets from Huddersfield Mini Spares (£30 posted) and a pair of Mini knuckle joints (£6 at local factors).
The first impression is that the trumpets are far too long for a Metro application, if you look at Geoff Watsons versions you'll see they are much shorter. I'm aware that David only just got the height he wanted by removing the locking nut from the threaded adjuster when using these so there's no way on Gods green earth that these are going to fit if the upper spring seat is going to be anywhere near the top of the frame.
Looking at it, rather than move these trumpets on via Ebay there is potential to turn the trumpets around and fit them inverted whilst giving the lathe some exercise at the same time.
Going back to Davids experience and the lack of adjustment available to him I decided to thin out the bolt head and locking ring on the threaded adjuster.
Because of the removal of material the locating hole in the adjuster needs a few mm extra depth.
Going back to the trumpet the chuck jaws were changed and a parallel machined into the 'thin' end of the trumpet which will allow me to chuck it the other way around when working on the 'thick' end.
That done the spring seat was cut ensuring that the spring seats snugly onto the trumpet. The trumpets are cast rather than turned so I trued them up as I went along, it probably won't change the function of the trumpets but it makes me feel better about it.
With the spring seated the jaws were changed again and the surplus material that used to be the spring seat, machined away.
This is the first of the converted trumpets compared with the standard one.
As it stands there is no loss of thread surface on the modified adjuster, obviously this creates a risk of the nose of the trumpet hitting the upper spring seat on full compression, though the near 4000lbin springs might have something to say about that! Just to cover the base though I'll probably have a hole in the upper seat to reduce the risks.
The next update could be a way off yet, spare time is limited.
My initial shopping list consisted of a pair of Watsons springs (£65 posted), a pair of hi-lo type adjustable trumpets from Huddersfield Mini Spares (£30 posted) and a pair of Mini knuckle joints (£6 at local factors).
The first impression is that the trumpets are far too long for a Metro application, if you look at Geoff Watsons versions you'll see they are much shorter. I'm aware that David only just got the height he wanted by removing the locking nut from the threaded adjuster when using these so there's no way on Gods green earth that these are going to fit if the upper spring seat is going to be anywhere near the top of the frame.
Looking at it, rather than move these trumpets on via Ebay there is potential to turn the trumpets around and fit them inverted whilst giving the lathe some exercise at the same time.
Going back to Davids experience and the lack of adjustment available to him I decided to thin out the bolt head and locking ring on the threaded adjuster.
Because of the removal of material the locating hole in the adjuster needs a few mm extra depth.
Going back to the trumpet the chuck jaws were changed and a parallel machined into the 'thin' end of the trumpet which will allow me to chuck it the other way around when working on the 'thick' end.
That done the spring seat was cut ensuring that the spring seats snugly onto the trumpet. The trumpets are cast rather than turned so I trued them up as I went along, it probably won't change the function of the trumpets but it makes me feel better about it.
With the spring seated the jaws were changed again and the surplus material that used to be the spring seat, machined away.
This is the first of the converted trumpets compared with the standard one.
As it stands there is no loss of thread surface on the modified adjuster, obviously this creates a risk of the nose of the trumpet hitting the upper spring seat on full compression, though the near 4000lbin springs might have something to say about that! Just to cover the base though I'll probably have a hole in the upper seat to reduce the risks.
The next update could be a way off yet, spare time is limited.
), anti roll bar to lower arm bush replaced and all the bearings cleaned and relubed. That's been in between rain and lots of real work. The other side is pretty much stripped and the CVs rebuilt so fingers crossed tomorrow will see the beast back on it's wheels, though I'm going to have to glass in a few new stainless bolts for holding on the nosecone as the rusted ones fitted have finally given up the ghost.....