Build #2, No huge car progress...but...cool new toys! Options

[jd74914]

Changing the sway bar mounts slightly to accommodate some well priced metal (free). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Will put up a new model/final pics later this week.

At lunch I had a bit of time to turn the sway bar bearing mounts down. I'm pretty happy how they turned out-press fit is good to 0.0005" per telescoping gauge/mic (right in the middle of manufacturer requirements) and machined surface finish is pretty good. Didn't have any radius cutters, so a trashed old one got ground down. It actually worked pretty well besides a little chatter-a little thicker neck would have been nice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Getting better with this whole turning thing. Ran out of time to drill the mounting holes and cut the backer plate. Another day...

[tygaboy]

Also unpacked the left rear inner fender wheel Chris (Tygaboy) cut out for me. This should be perfect for filling the huge hole in my left side!

I should have taken a picture of the packing...this sounds dumb but it was the best packed piece of sheet metal I've ever gotten. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Chris again!

It's true, I really do rule...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

Really happy to hear the piece will work for you. Now let's see some pics of you installing it. I have to repair the right side of my compartment and would love to watch you go first! Keep up the great work!
Chris

[jd74914]

It's true, I really do rule...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

Really happy to hear the piece will work for you. Now let's see some pics of you installing it. I have to repair the right side of my compartment and would love to watch you go first! Keep up the great work!
Chris

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

Gotta wait for it to get a little warmer! Car thermometer said -4F on Sunday morning. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) So for now it's doing inside stuff. Thanks!

[jd74914]

Finished up the sway bar bearing mounts over lunch today. Decided to go to a smaller outer diameter 6-bolt flange using M6 bolts vs. the OEM triple M8 bolt setup. The reliefs cut into the sides are really just there to look cool-they save ~20g (each part weights ~130g) which doesn't really do anything for a 900kg car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Now just need to make some quick nuts plates and redrill/bore the through hold bigger on the inner fender stiffener and all of the vehicle attachment stuff will be done.

[tygaboy]

LOVE those sway bar bearing mounts! Just beautiful. Nice work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

[jd74914]

LOVE those sway bar bearing mounts! Just beautiful. Nice work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

Thanks!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Forgot to add this picture before...its tough to see with the iPhone image warping, but with the reliefs it fits just perfectly into the recess and avoids the stiffener edge welds (save ~3/4" portion on top). Totally accidental but the smaller attachment bolts let it retain the stock hole spacing too which is awesome.

[Curbandgutter]

Jim, your tractive force spreadsheet proves that if you shift at max torque you will drop the tractive force substantially. It proves that shifting is better near max horsepower. I just did a spreadsheet for my car. Very interesting information. Thanks for illuminating me.

[jd74914]

Haven't gotten too much done in the last few weeks on the car at least-real work-wise 2017 conference #1 paper/presentation #1 finished and #2 in progress. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

Yesterday I eked out some time and pulled the tail cone off the transmission and removed the center differential. It looks good and the transmission seemed to turn nicely so hopefully someone on Craigslist or NASIOC can use it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) The locker will be build out of a broken center differential I picked up locally a few weeks ago. No pictures as of yet.

Today over lunch I turned some ABS "bushings" down for trial fitting the front sway bar. I was to test the install before having the mounts anodised, so I figured it'd be better to make a faux bushing to avoid ruining a good one on the uninstall.



The aluminum plate came in to make the "fixture" for machining the front sway bar arms. Almost done with the arm and fixture design-hopefully some CAD drawings later this week. Need to cut down this beast! ~18 inches is just a little too long! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)



Semi-unrelated, but I've been gathering measurement equipment for blueprinting the engine when it gets rebuilt and I just got an awesome eBay deal on a sweet vernier mic...and just had to show off! This morning I adjusted it to within 0.0001" on a gage block. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[jd74914]

Framed out the necessary larger holes in the sway bar stiffeners this afternoon. They look just a little ridiculous. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Now they're ready for welding onto the car.

It was interesting, I noticed while indicating the original bar hole on the mill that the holes don't seem to be quite round. There must be some bearing slop or something in one of the axes of the laser that cut these since they're oval by a bit over 5 mils IIRC. Doesn't make any difference at all in performance and the pieces are really nice, just thought it was funny.

[jd74914]

Threw together the first iteration of the front sway bar arms yesterday night and tonight. The original arms are machined aluminum blanks pre-made by Schroder (1"x48 spline to match the sway bar ends). They needed to be cut down significantly to even fit within the fenders. Most companies seem to just drill holes in the arms and have a single-shear fastener attaching the heim joint on the drop-link. That's really not great engineering and frankly scares me a bit, even though with a properly sized fastener it's perfectly safe. In retrospect, I wish I had bought the steel arms like Stephen (914forme) did since it's pretty easy to cut off the ends and weld on some steel double shear plates. I could do the same with these aluminum arms, but that's also a little worrisome since they would need post-weld heat treat.

Given those facts, the easiest way I can come up with to put the whole assembly in double shear is to machine some blocks which fit into a groove in the arm. This will make the actual load bearing part of the block on the arm a long surface (bolts not only for clamping force). On the drop link side, the block will be machined into a spacer to allow some extra heim misalignment.

The fasteners are NAS AN6-14A meaning that they are 3/8"-24 with a 1-19/32" overall length and 15/16" grip length. They are a bit more expensive than generic bolts at McMaster Carr (best NAS prices are at Aircraft Spruce) but the extended grip length means that the threads are never held in shear which is nice for peace of mind. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thinking about it now the 3/8" hardware might be a little overkill-5/16" might be better. Gotta do some math. Overall weight of the assembly as shown is ~1.4# per side.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[Andyrew]

Very cool design on the sway bar arms.

Let me know if you want to make a second set, I have the same basic sway bar in my car and have had it in there for 11 years with no arms (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif). Just havent had the time to fab up some arms. (Mine are 1 1/4 x 48 spline)


PS I took the simple crude route for the bar mount.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...3&hl=nascar

[Curbandgutter]

Wow we have talent on this forum yalll!!

[jd74914]

Very cool design on the sway bar arms.

Let me know if you want to make a second set, I have the same basic sway bar in my car and have had it in there for 11 years with no arms (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif). Just havent had the time to fab up some arms. (Mine are 1 1/4 x 48 spline)

Thanks!

I know the feeling-these arms have been in my possession for maybe 5 years just sitting in a box. If I like the way they turn out I might be up for making a few more; just have to make sure I'm happy with these first. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Wow we have talent on this forum yalll!!

Hahahahahaha Thanks Rudy! I'm drooling over yours and the other builds more than mine! Especially you and Chris who move at a super fast pace.

[ChrisFoley]

Anyone have any thoughts?

I think I like your machined blocks better than the welded "H" shaped bracket that I use in my kits.
Like you, I prefer not to use the single shear attachment method.

[jd74914]

Working really slowly this month...too much other life going on!

In real life I just booked plane tickets (and got a really awesome deal) to fly into Rome and out of Palermo, Sicily 12 days later in June. Pretty stoked (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Otherwise I really didn't get anything done. Sold the center differential from the WRX transmission on NASIOC and have almost broken even on it. Hopefully someone will bite on the transfer gears/extension housing soon.

Pictures of Ross's blockoff plate and the removed pieces. I found a bad center diff locally and bought it to cut apart. Its now taken apart and the plan is to get it cut this week and then pull the nut off the gear stack and do some measuring. Before welding I'm going to turn some alignment pins to keep everything concentric.

[jd74914]

Pulled apart bad center diff ready for cutting.

[jd74914]

Cut up the differential last night and test fit in the transmission. I'm making the 2WD lockout in the same way that 914pipe and jpnovak did by welding the input/output splines on the center differential together.

jpnovak: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=104513

914pipe: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...p;#entry2419604

My splined pieces look are identical to those of 914pipe; jpnovak had a second, smaller splined section in the middle of his spider section.

The guy who owned this thing before me removed the big carrier bearing before selling it to me. I didn't notice at that time (or even really until I tried to slide the thing into my transmission), but he used a BFH to remove the bearing rather than a press and damaged the front edges of a bunch of splines on one side. It took about 30 minutes with some thread files to fix the leading edges and get it slid into the diff.

First step is to cut the splines off of the outer casing and spider gear. I cut a bit long on the spider since I wanted to protect the nut/transmission from spatter while tack welding.

[jd74914]

Crudely filed housing splines. You can see where it was hit with a hammer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)



Next the two pieces were deburred and fit into the transmission. After making sure they were seated I threw on a few tacks with the MIG to hold everything in place. The structural welds will be TIG.

[jd74914]

Of course it wouldn't slide out of the differential nicely by hand or even with some picks. Conveniently, Subaru left some access slots for a narrow puller. It turned out to be just enough room for a cheap generic valve spring compressor to fit. I just had to sand about 0.050" off one of the puller edges and remove the spring centering piece and it fit in like a charm.







Locker pulled out. I'm going to put a few more solid tacks on the outside after turning a quick insert to keep everything concentric. After the outside is a bit stronger the plan is to TIG up the inside, turn it to the correct length to fit the nut and washer on (about the currently length of the outer piece), and full weld the outside with the insert in place to keep everything straight. Then hopefully it all fits together! That would complete the internal transmission stuff for now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[jd74914]

No real car progress to report. My crazy school schedule hasn't really been conducive to getting anything done outside of the lab. I've basically only finished the welding on the adapter in the last post.

Once my degree is finished I'll have much more restricted access to machinery, so I've been watching CL and other places for equipment for the garage. Some of you may have seen my mini horizontal mill thread in the Sandbox.

My newest score is the Clausing 5907 lathe. It's a 12" swing with hydraulic Reeve drive for continuously variable speed control from 52-2000 rpm (including back gear). It weighs ~1200# so it was a little tough getting off the truck. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Everything seems to work quite well and there is very little wear in the ways thanks to the hardening. The cross-slide doesn't have too much back lash and the Reeves drive works well. We'll see if the drive keeps working nicely, if not it'll get removed and replaced with fixed drive. The only real issue at this point is excessive lash in the carriage feed which I believe is caused by a worn bushing singe the rack gear and pinion look good. Looks pretty easy to fix after removing the apron and some people have added a second bearing in the rear part of the casting to kill this problem dead.

The owner needed space ASAP in his shop so I got lucky and basically stole it-asking price was less than the value of the new boring bar and insert tool holder. It came with a bunch of new [knockoff] Aloris tool holders, insert tools with spare inserts, and the original lamp post and tool holders. Next parts to find are a nice drill chuck and the MT4-1/2 to 5C adapter to run some collets for smaller jobs. And maybe an independent adjust 4 jaw chuck too. Tough part is finding economical L-00 parts so if anyone has anything... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

It's a 3-phase motor so the next step after doing some cleaning is either finding a 1PH-input/3-PH output VFD or building a converter. Small project and well worth it for the price. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)