NOTE to those on both the lotus-cars list and the british-cars list:
I'm having major trouble getting to the lotus-cars list again, presumably due
this time to the failure of machine "unislc" whose location and ownership I do
not know. If you get this through british-cars and not through lotus-cars,
could you please post a copy to lotus-cars for me? ADthanksVANCE
I'm getting close to putting the engine/gearbox and rear suspension back on my
Europa frame. This all has to be done about the same time, as the suspension
hangs on the gearbox.
The SPAX shocks (dampers for OFATP) were shot. The fluid had all leaked out
and had made a lovely brown mudpack with the dirt from the road the Minnesota
owner lived on. I am pretty sure it never left the pavement in Hawaii. The
rubber chafe guard between the coils and the shock tubes was swelled, bunched
up, degraded and torn. Since it was in the way, I ripped it up and fished the
pieces out with a pair of long-nose pliers. An oily mess indeed.
The spring is held down at the top by an alloy collar built to fit inside the
spring with an external shoulder and outside a disk on the top shock absorber
fitting with an internal shoulder. This collar has a slot about a half-inch
wide to allow the shock rod to pass through during (dis)assembly. The idea is
to compress the spring past the collar, slip the collar out, decompress the
spring past the top eye of the shock and lift the spring off the top of the
shock.
I had heard that radiator clamps could be used to compress these springs. The
rate is only about 100 pounds per inch.
HUGE DISCLAIMER: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!
I DIDN'T TELL YOU TO DO IT, AND I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INJURIES!
So I went down to the local parts place and asked Robbie, the ex-SCCA driver,
for the biggest airplane clamps he had. He sold me about a dozen of them along
with a story of some guys in Indiana who had tried this with a 240Z and
launched a spring through the ceiling of their shop. I used lots of the little
beggars to share the load and had no trouble removing the springs.
Apparently, Koni uses the same diameter retaining disk on the top ring that the
original Armstrongs did. The SPAX had a larger disk. Of course the former
owners didn't save the collars. Heck, they never saved anything. Obviously
not British. I had some fender washers whose O.D. was too large for the SPAX
collar. I don't have a lathe, so I resorted to another one of my meatball
machining methods. I bolted two of the washers together securely, chucked the
bolt in the drill motor, and ran them against a grinding wheel. It took some
time to get the diameter to fit the SPAX collar. Then I drilled the centers of
the washers to fit the rod on the Koni shocks.
There is a jamb nut under the top disk/ring piece of the Koni. I put an old
die-casting ejector pin through the steel bush in the shock mount and a 19mm
(3/4") wrench on the jamb nut. I unscrewed both of them and pulled off the
rebound bumper. Since I have to take all this stuff off to adjust a Koni
(reason enough to buy SPAX if getting new ones) I noodled a while on where to
adjust them. I put the jamb nut and top back on, stuck the ejector pin back in
and fully compressed the shock to engage the adjuster. The shock was adjusted
full soft. I counted just short of 5 half-turns to full hard. The shock was
truly brick-like. I want to autocross, not break the frame on a bump. I
finally decided to take a chance on two half-turns down from full hard.
Then I removed the top piece and jamb nut, replaced the rebound bumper,
replaced the jamb nut, put on one of my custom washers and replaced the top
piece.
Since these springs seem to flop over in the middle and ride on the shock, I
wanted to put in something to replace the trashed rubber blankets. Something
cheap, more durable than the rubber, slippery to not impede the suspension
action, and thin enough to allow room for the radiator clamps to clear during
installation.
A master of recycling, I managed to get two Koni shock guards out of one empty
plastic kitty-litter jug. Just rolled the plastic to fit tightly over the
shock body and slid the spring over it. Then I compressed the spring, slipped
in the collar, and decompressed the spring.
HUGE DISCLAIMER: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!
I DIDN'T TELL YOU TO DO IT, AND I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INJURIES!
Repeated on the other unit. Now I have two Koni coilover units with "SPAX"
embossed on the collars.
I don't know how much stronger Spitfire or aftermarket coilover setups for
other cars are, so don't take this compression method as gospel. I handled it
as gently as possible, and made sure it was never pointed at me.
Tonight, the engine/gearbox and suspension project commences. I'm going to be
driving this season, dammit!
Phil Ethier, THE RIGHT LINE, 672 Orleans Street, Saint Paul, MN 55107-2676
h (612) 224-3105 w (612) 298-5324 phile@stpaul.gov USA
"There is nothing like a complete money-is-no-object restoration.
And this is going to be nothing like one." - Phil Ethier
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