The adjuster housing has been turned out of steel and bored to the exact size of the alloy adjuster, leaving a collar at the end of the tube, for the adjuster to seat against. Once correct adjustment has been made, the joint lock nut will secure everything together. This system uses the whole adjuster sleeve and nut head for strength, not just the threads as it was before. The shaft running through the arms is part of the jig I am making for welding the adjuster tube into the two re-formed top arms.
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Don't want to pee on you're bonfire but those ally adjuster thingy's are known to fail in that application - AshG from LCB and the haynes roadster forum used them and had one fail while he was driving! there's a recent post somewhere over on LCB about it.
Only use steel ones
BV.
Hello BV, you are correct sir.
I have read all the posts at length, and the reply's from Rally Design’s MD. I personally feel that with these sort of discussions, you have to make your own judgment on the facts provided.
If using the adjuster sleeve as was intended, the outer tube length is critical, it must allow the lock nut to tighten putting equal force on the outer tube, the end of the adjuster and the adjuster nut head, too long and the adjuster head is under stress, too short and the whole lot can move, putting stress on the sleeve and the adjuster head and not too healthy for performance either!
The way I have machined the outer tube, should solve that problem, as when it is all locked together the only way it can fail is if all the threads in the adjuster strip out at the same time.
Going back to the failure, it was only one out of many, there are a lot of good arguments for and against this product on the two forums, I think we have to remember, when these products are sold to the general public, and who knows what ability and engineering experience the folks have, who attempt to fit them. (not aiming that at anyone, just about mods in general.)
The performance of my modification will be carefully monitored once on the road.
Hi Paul,
More than one has failed I believe. Should be ok so long as the threaded portion bottoms out in the sleeve and there is clearance between the head and the sleeve.
Bv.
That is interesting! I saw the picture of the first one that failed, but wasn't aware of more. Do you know if there are any more pictures?
Paul.
Hmmmm, just been reading some more posts on other forums on this subject, posts that appear to have cropped up this year. And looking at more pictures of other failed adjusters, obviously I can not draw any conclusive reasons for the failures, but looking at the condition of the parts in the pictures, I do wonder how they have become so badly marked, one of the ally adjuster head bolts, looks like someone has been at it with a pair of stilsons !!
On one of the forums, they were even asking how to remove a broken adjuster ……. Should they really be playing with suspension ???
I think I will stick with my conclusions as stated earlier.
Your idea is ok so long as the threaded portion is always in contact with the step in the sleeve/colar do NOT overtighten the lock nut! just nip it up. The threads are fine pitch which is bad practise on ally so they could easily be stripped out of the adjuster.
Forgive me if you have explained this elsewhere but why do you need such fine adjustment for camber when the pitch of the ball joint alone gives quite fine adjustment?
BV.
I suppose you dont in all honesty! This set up does allow adjustment to be made with out removing the ball joint, that's one plus. Also when I decided to add some camber adjustment to the Phaeton, it was the one thing that took my fancy at the time, looked a good idea in the R.D catalogue.... Got to try these things :-)
Thanks for posting the pic's. I now see what you ment by a collar, I was under the impression you were talking of a double sleeve but this makes much more sense. As you have said think it's down to personal choice to use these or not. I will be going ahead with installing them on mine but will be adding in this collar design as it just seems logical. Thanks again
would it not be possible to use a steel threaded insert instead of alloy? is there anything here that could help?
https://randallmotorsport.ssl-01.com/index.php?cPath=31&osCsid=...
Indeed it would Dave, and the origin of this design was like this. Rally design have made their adapters from ally, Ok if you're at a race track when it fails but not good on the public highway. Rally design don't seem to be concerned by this and place the responsibility and risk at the feet of the user.
Paul's collar/sleeve idea is very good and with the threaded portion bottoming on the step in the sleeve the clamping load is across the step in the collar and not on the hex of the adjuster where it seems the failure occurs.
The 'rally design' design isn't like this and the load is taken by the hex of the adjuster!
Paul's 'redesign' eliminates the main risk of using this part and if executed properly should prove sound. I personally would use steel if I found I needed such fine adjustment but each to their own.
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