Sunday 30 November 2008

X-mas present for Het Kreng

Ordered a new set of suspension uprights for ‘t Kreng this week from a firm called AST Suspension, which means I am going to adjustable coil overs on all four corners of the car. The great thing about this company is that they take pride in making one-offs for a rather reasonable price.
As space for the top mount is a bit limited at the rear;


I can’t use one of their standard top mounts. So at the moment I am working on the dimensions for the rear top mount. They will have to make up a pair for me, should look more or less like this;


Another advantage is that they can supply rather slim 50mm springs. This is rather convenient as clearance with their standard 60mm springs is a bit tight all round;


The set should be ready just before Christmas. Depending on the progress with the body work on the DHC, I am tempted in doing some welding on ‘t Kreng too. Thinking of welding on a pair of mounting brackets to change the front suspension lay out a bit, thus getting rid of the combined function for the anti-roll-bar. Just might combine this work with the fitting of the new front struts.
Needless to say the front coil overs from ‘t Kreng will find a new home under the DHC.

Monday 24 November 2008

Brrrrrr ...

This weekend saw the first snow of the season!




Only a few inches and sadly though it didn’t last long! But more important is that I will go to a fairly local but respected suspension manufacturer this week to see if they can make up some new struts (front and maybe even some rear coilovers) for a TR7. So I have been busy collecting and dismantling a good set of front struts over the weekend.



Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Saturday 15 November 2008

The 20th Nachtrit, a pictorial review

Two weeks ago we had the 20th edition of our “Nachtrit”. Due to the fact that I broke my car slightly on one of the trips to map out the run, I didn’t drive myself this year. Which gave me time to take a few photographs at the start;

Mr. Bear doing some running repairs on his GT6.

Some of the many Triumph entries.

Some of the British entrants, Michael’s TR6 alongside Paul’s TR7-V8.

A nice variety of different Triumph models.
Sadly Ron’s TR6 (top left) had to stay behind with what later turned out to be a blown head gasket.

René (on the right) instructing one of the entrants on the (non)availability of fuel during the 280 km run.

Team Burner heading into the darkness of the Belgium/Dutch night.

GTRoger at the start, here the car was still doing fine.

Robbie’s Mk1 Escort RS2000.

Nice Dutch autumn weather.
Luckily the rain didn't persist so the road conditions were relatively good.

The last car to leave, but the first to finish.

Sorry for having a slight preference for wedges!

Sunday 9 November 2008

Great news, I got it wrong!

When I drove ‘t Kreng for the last time three weeks ago it handled like a drunken pig, constantly trying to turn right of the road. First inspection showed that the complete front suspension had moved to the right a fair bit. But it also felt like the RH side shock absorber wasn’t working properly. So time for some work.
After re-alignment of the front suspension and making up some spacers to accommodate the slightly wider new tyres in the past weeks, it was time to put the wheels back on the car today and how she behaved.



So after checking the tyres pressure and the shock’s settings it was time for a little test drive this afternoon. Although I did start pretty easy to warm up everything, first impression was pretty good. Only thing that immediately became clear was that the new tyres are not very suitable for small muddy and wet-leaf covered country lanes. But for the rest the suspension behaved as it should. Which means the car’s stable in a straight line on not so good tarmac and under heavy breaking.
And after everything was on proper working temperature it was time to try some winding country lanes at speed. Can only conclude that she’s pretty much as good as she’s ever been. Things that spring to mind are lighter steering under load/while cornering, which will probably be caused by the harder (or should I say less soft?) compound of these tyres. It also has slightly better front grip in longer corners as a result of the slightly wider(12 mm) front track. On the down side, it is a bit nervous on deeply rutted roads, but nothing very worrying. To sum it all up I am quite happy with the current set up.

Remains the question, why did it feel like the RH shock absorber was gone. It clearly worked fine this afternoon!? The only solution I can come up with so far is that, due to the suspension being out of alignment quite a lot, the effective spring rate changed between left and right. Combined with the tracking being out this probably resulted in the rather nervous behaviour?

Saturday 8 November 2008

A space(r) oddity

When I wanted to fit my new wheel/tyre combination on ‘t Kreng, I found out that there were some problems with the clearance between inner tyre wall and lower spring seats. After putting the tyres on the car and taking a few half decent measurements I found out that I only had to find some 3 mm of extra space to give the inner tyre wall enough clearance.

As I want to try out my new tyres sooner rather than later I decided to solve the problem with a temporary solution. As the clearance, or rather lack of it, is marginal I decided to put a spacer between the front hub and wheel. I know not the best of solutions, but for a temporary fix it should do for the moment. I could have started from scratch, but why go for a difficult solution when there is an easy one?

Time to dig out a pair of rather rusty rear brake drums.

Remove the centres with an angle grinder ...

... and a hammer.

Smooth of the edges on a lath.

And you have a pair of 6 mm thick spacers.

See how it all’s going to work. Hopefully get the car back on its wheels tomorrow.