Author Topic: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q  (Read 19330 times)

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Offline BDA

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #75 on: Tuesday,October 18, 2016, 08:43:55 PM »
How did you do that (especially the first picture)!? You must have floored it when the rear wheel was locked solid! You certainly know more about the wall thickness of the half shaft than I do, but I've never heard of a failure like that (which means very little) but Jensen's competition manual doesn't mention any mods for the half shafts.

Offline EuropaTC

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #76 on: Tuesday,October 18, 2016, 09:55:03 PM »
another  :huh:  on the twisted shaft.

Is that a standard shaft or one that's been made out of thinner wall section ? Looking at the amount of twisting it looks thin wall, but even so you must have some very sticky tyres on that car !

Brian

Offline Lotus 47

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #77 on: Wednesday,October 19, 2016, 02:15:16 PM »
It's just a picture I swiped from the internet to illustrate a point, but it has happened to a friend of mine.

There is a great photo of a Lotus 12 or 16 with a twisted shaft . I think it is in the "Theme Lotus " book tracing the history of Lotus Formula 1

The original shafts (tubes) are small in diameter. I had a replacement made more than 25 years and they couldn't source tube that small. The replacement felt twice as heavy, suggesting the wall thickness of the originals was "light". Lotus wouldn't have it any other way!

A small increase in diameter gives a large increase in torsional stiffness. The stiffness increases to the power of 4 v's radius.

I first saw twisted prop shafts like these when I worked at Kenworth trucks. More recently there has been a spate of prop shaft failures on our local rear drive Holdens and Ford Falcons. With 300kw off the show room floor, and heaps of additional power available with a few tweaks, prop shafts have become the weak link. Our drive shafts take a lot of torque (the diff and gearbox is a torque multiplier) so drive shaft failure and U/J will occur with high horse power.

Our historic race cars do standing starts, and there is nothing like a day of 1/4 mile drags to give your rear end a good work out!

A few years ago I went to a country drag meeting. they had two categories. Below 10 seconds and above. I chose the later.  :beerchug:

Pretty sure I was slowest time of the day at around 14.5 seconds  :trophy:
 



Offline Rosco5000

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #78 on: Wednesday,October 19, 2016, 02:48:43 PM »
14.5 seconds is pretty darn good for a Europa.  Was that a 1/4 mile, what sort of HP do you figure you are getting to get that speed?  160?
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Offline TCS4605R

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #79 on: Wednesday,October 19, 2016, 03:13:59 PM »
Richard,

Is there an inner CV flange from another car that will fit the Lotus output shaft flange spline and roll pin location or do you take the stock Lotus inner U-joint flange, cut off the U-joint portion and weld on a CV flange?

Tom

Offline RoddyMac

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #80 on: Wednesday,October 19, 2016, 03:40:54 PM »
Tom,
I dont think there is any "bolt on" (or pin on in this case) adapter other than what Banks sells.  I thought about measuring the diff output shafts in terms of spline count and diameter, then going through the books to find a suitable FWD hub, but I'm fairly certain I wont find a match. 

The thought was to take an existing FWD hub and re-drill it to suit the Lobro joint.  At the moment, I'm on the look out for a dead Renault CV axle to butcher for the inner CV joint splines then machine and weld to a set of VW output flanges.

Rod

Offline Lotus 47

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #81 on: Wednesday,October 19, 2016, 04:16:26 PM »
Richard,

Is there an inner CV flange from another car that will fit the Lotus output shaft flange spline and roll pin location or do you take the stock Lotus inner U-joint flange, cut off the U-joint portion and weld on a CV flange?

Tom

My flanges are flat mild steel plate. I cut off the Renault CV bit from the hollow spline, true up the end of the spline on the lathe, then bore a recess into a bit of mild steel plate to accept the spline. Weld the two, then hold the spline in the lathe and machine a nice true flange to suit the CV joint.

I could machine a flange from solid bar like the Banks part, but it would be very time consuming, and then I'd have to send out the flange to have a spline cut. That is a very expensive solution.

I am lucky I suppose because here in Melbourne they assembled Renault 16's back in the day, and there were thousands of Renault 12 around. Heaps of cars to supply donor splines - however that supply is drying up as these cars are now 40-45 years old.

Offline TCS4605R

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #82 on: Wednesday,October 19, 2016, 05:47:58 PM »
I have looked on the Banks Engineering website, but do not find the inner CV hub in his parts catalog - has anyone been able to find it?

Tom

Offline andy harwood

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #83 on: Thursday,October 20, 2016, 05:49:00 AM »
The CV hub/flange is not listed on Banks website. The photo I posted showing 2 flanges is what Richard sent to me. Price (then) was 396GBP/set

Offline Lotus 47

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #84 on: Thursday,October 20, 2016, 03:23:46 PM »
14.5 seconds is pretty darn good for a Europa.  Was that a 1/4 mile, what sort of HP do you figure you are getting to get that speed?  160?

My current engine is around 1765cc, achieved using 81.75mm bores. It has the capacity to produce 160hp, but on the day of the drags it was running lean at the top end and not pulling properly. It was stumbling around 6500-7000rpm but previously my engines would all pulled well into the 8000rpm rang. It was a straight 1/4 mile. It was disheartening to launch the wee beast at full song, and then have a monsterous V8 fly past at about the 1/8 mile and blow me into the weeds. 

I should start a new thread on a few of the engines and mods I've built.

Offline Bainford

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #85 on: Friday,October 21, 2016, 08:32:21 AM »

I should start a new thread on a few of the engines and mods I've built.

Yes please!
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Offline Lotus 47

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Re: RICHARD MANN'S UPPER LINK AND REAR SUSPENSION MODS TO 7004100119Q
« Reply #86 on: Monday,October 24, 2016, 07:27:16 PM »
I have started another technical thread relating to Renault engines.

It will take awhile to record my experiences, and dig out lots of photos