Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: kram350kram on Friday,November 10, 2023, 09:20:42 AM
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Thinking out loud, the stance I have on the car is pretty low in the front so the steering arm geometry is not anywhere correct. Can 't lower the rack so I thought of reversing the outer tie rod joint, inserting from the bottom v top. Of course the taper is wrong so could re-ream as there appears to be sufficient material in the arms. Any thoughts?
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What about spherical rod ends and using spacers to adjust bump steer? You would just have to drill the arms out.
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What about spherical rod ends and using spacers to adjust bump steer? You would just have to drill the arms out.
Ditto that. Did vented rotor swap that required rod ends 20K miles ago. Very pleased as my Europa is lowered a lot too.
As noted you need to drill out the tapered steering arm hole.
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If you don't want to drill out your steering arms, Kelvedon has what they call "steering arm to rose joint adapters" (https://kelvedonlotus.co.uk/product/steering-arm-to-rose-joint-adaptor-top-hat-spacer/). I'm pretty sure I've seen them other places but a quick search only found similar pieces for Ford and GM.
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Thanks to all, I did think of the spherical path. The thought re-reaming would just be easier. Anyone know the taper? Appears to be 6 degrees?
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You can’t ream from the opposite side and get a full taper without going oversize
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You can’t ream from the opposite side and get a full taper without going oversize
I agree, my first thoughts were that doing a reverse taper might end up with the hole just too big for the joint and it bottoms out without ever gripping along the taper. Maybe there's another TRE that has a beefier taper section (Land Rover ? off roader ?) that would fit the oversize hole and that would sort it.
But for my money, if you really need to alter the steering geometry then I'd go for rose joints and washers myself. It's a well worn path and very easy to get it exactly where you want it.
Brian
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Was thinking of welding up the hole ,redrill and ream it or machine up a pressed in adapter bushing. The rod end solution may be better though, as it avoids having to cut the disc brake shield to clear the stock TRE knuckle when flipped around. Thanks for all the input.
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The weld will be stronger than the base metal. Not easy to redrill. You will also, most likely toe out with more suspension compression under braking. I wouldn't want to hard stop that at speed.