Q91CMV - Dutton Legerra ZS Series 2

[Adrian Southgate]

So, MOT sorted by the skin of its teeth, loads to do before tomorrow morning, panic has set it due to a little mishap with the pedal box...

How many of you fitted metal spreader plates between the pedal box and the bulkhead? Here is something for those of you with pinto engines to think about.

I didn't see this coming 8 years ago when I re built it... The holes are supposed to be there... the crack around the edge is not.

Seems the proximity to the manifold has weakened the fibreglass of the tub a little

Well a lot actually :)

A metal spreader plate on the inside would have eased the load on the area and this may not have been quite so severe. This is going to be a fun evening..

[Steve Kerswell]

Whatever you think is best, your at the sharp end, I'm just throwing ideas at you :-)

[Adrian Southgate]

Its a thought but would that have enough of a contact area between the base of the steering arm and the top of the ball? The top hat washer thingys spread the contact patch to about 3x the area and will be a dead snug fit inside the ball and around the non threaded part of the bolt. The ball and the steering arm total 40mm so I am looking at 75mm bolts which gives me 39mm of plain shank plus whatever the washers add... I can always trim some thread off.

[Steve Kerswell]

Isn't Tim (God) known as the bodger?

[Steve Kerswell]

You could drill the arm to 14 mm parallel, it's not like the rose joint is a temporary bodge. It's a permanent bodged :-))))

[Adrian Southgate]

Narrow end of the taper is 12mm, wide end is 13.5mm. The centre hole in the M14 rose joint is 14mm so it would need the top hat spacer which comes with a taper bit on it, its too angled to make a good seat all the way up.

This is one of 'those' moments when a small metal lathe would be rather handy. I could do the job with a drill but i'd have to be careful about drilling down the centre of the taper part of the old track rod end after its been removed from the ball. I could make a tapered sleeve to go over the bolt, its going to be clamped pretty tight to the ball in the new rose joint anyway so in theory it's possible. The bolt would have to pass through the top hat into the ball and another top hat the other side, washer either side then into the taper adapter and nut on the top. I can see it developing 'play' if it doesn't have the taper adapter made but with it it should be fine.

Any thoughts people?

[Adrian Southgate]

I'm off out to measure the hole in the steering arm both top and bottom. I've worked out a plan involving old track rod ends, rose joints and top hat spacers and a big 12.9 ht bolt ... 

[Steve Kerswell]

My only concern is the tapered hole that the bolt passes through. Yes, it is m14x2 thread. That does seem expensive.

[Adrian Southgate]

I can get away with the metal track rod end, there is enough clearance all the way from top to bottom on both locks, problem arises when you fit a rubber cover to the track rod end, it hits the disc and will just get worn away in a couple of miles.

So spherical rod end it will have to be... found some on ebay only £80 the pair (sigh) 

I'm using mk2 stubs, all the bolts are metric. The rack is a very coarse pitch thread, could be M14 x 2mm which is the thread on the metric rod ends. The existing rod ends are a little corroded as is the rack so it could probably do with a tidy up anyway. The replacement rod ends look like a normal rose joint with a big socket head bolt through it so the question is can I replicate them for less than £80 a pair?

[Adrian Southgate]

@ Daryl - IF i'd have known about all these 'little issues' i'd not have bothered, saved more than a few pennies by just replacing the single thickness discs. Using Capri struts would mean chopping and welding those silly tubes on, I doubt if there were many made using anything other than standard escort struts.

@ Steve -  Didn't think that could be done to cast parts. They are one piece stubs so the whole lot would have to come off again, stripped down, bent, rebuilt. Not enough time and I don't have a torch.

I suppose I could 'trim' a little off the track rod end outer casing with a flap disc, just clean it up a little and see if that helps, it's only just making contact after all. The other alternative is some form of rose joint track rod end if they make them. I've got an old track rod end somewhere, i'm going to play with the angle grinder, i'll let you know what happens.

[Steve Kerswell]

Stupid tablet, oxy torch.