At 09:57 PM 9/23/98 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-09-23 08:22:06 EDT, you write:
>
><< 3/4" 4140 steel, heat treated to 35 Rockwell, >>
>and 500# front springs
>I think it's super that you put this information out for us.
No problem - I don't own the car any more ;)
I have a couple
>of questions though. I've never tempered my ARBs after bending them, even a 1"
>bar on a Mk VII Jag. My thought is that I never exceed the modulus of
>elasticity where it would retain the bend from body roll. Did tempering do
>anything for it any other way?
You have it exactly right. Heat treating does nothing more than toughen the
steel so that it will not take a set, or permanent twist - just like a
spring. Which is what an anti-roll bar is, after all. It doesn't change
the rate of the bar at all, just the repeatability. Down side is that, for
thinner bars in particular, distortion after the treatment can be a problem.
>second, were the 500 # springs again for anti-roll?
Mostly. The problem, as I see it, with the front end of a Midget is that
the stock springs allow so much roll that the camber curves go all to hell,
and the outside tire just tucks under and gives up. So while stiffening the
front of the car normally adds understeer, in this case it allows the tires
to work and removes understeer. I like to have the car stiff enough at the
front that it keeps the rear tires planted (I ran an open diff.) and soft
enough that I wouldn't pick up the inside front tire in most corners. I
also ran a rear panhard rod, which I forgot to mention last time. Shocks I
look at as a timing device, affecting corner entry more than anything else,
and "stiff as humanly possible" in the stock shocks seemed about right. Bob
Mason ran the same shock setup (STP as shock fluid), and actually ripped one
off the mounts once. I also ran the big round bumpstops (I think they are
stock late midget rear axle, but I got mine as competition rear bump stops
for Hydrolastic Mini) inside the front springs, rather than the stock little
bump stops at the front.
>What were the gear ratios in the box?
Just the normal straight cut close ratio set that emulates what the factory
competition gears were. JK makes them, as do a few others, but I found the
JK gears were the best quality, plus I got them "barely used" from Derek
Harling. The gears are the same set as used in the 3 synchro Mini box, with
a different input shaft, so any set that is made for the early Mini can
usually be had for the ribcase box as well. One point is that the gears in
a Mini box rotate the opposite way to the gears in the Midget box, so that
if you pick up a used set from a Mini racer the wear patterns on the gears
may cause reliability problems.
>I didn't know that Jack Knight was still around nor that he made gears for the
>spridgets.
I think they do a lot of F1 steering racks and stuff like that these days,
as well as transmissions.
>Regards;
>Michael*
>
Brian Evans
Director, Carrier Sales
UUNET Worldcom
(416) 216 5111
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