S4 Phaeton rebuild

[Dave Adams]

My good friend Graham (and also a poster here) wanted some help sorting out the 4 link conversion for his S4 Phaeton.

so i went round yesterday to lend a hand.....yeah i know that was a Monday. it turns out we both booked this week off as a weeks holiday, handy for him as it turned out .....and myself later in the week as i want to change a gearbox in the Legerra.

Graham came up with a rather nifty plan to allow the top arms to point out wards to locate onto the chassis rail, so he drilled the hole for the trailing arm before welding the bracket to the axle.

and then weld it on the axle, once we have measured the axle for the correct location. best to do this from the front lower TCA mounts, once done we checked again and there is less than 1mm difference (a tiny error and it wont notice, cars can be 10-15mm out and it not make a huge difference)

we used some wheel chocks to keep the axle in place and propped the nose of the diff so it pointed "up" very slightly.

[Dave Adams]

then the welding started......

you can see the platform for the top bracket to mount to....

nothing as yet is fully welded in, its all just tacked until we are sure everything lines up as it should.

the trailing arms are from a Triumph 7, the rear axle locating arms. And they are just about perfect for the S4 and would be way too long for the S1/2's.

the top arms where they are fixed to the chassis rail just would not go further in and not foul the other chassis rails so the bracket has had to be "stepped" out, not as wide as the rear leaf springs would have. the brackets will be further gusseted to add strength.

[James Doulton]

That looks like good fun. On the Legerra, the top arm fits right inline with the chassis, I think. Is it mounted higher perhaps?

[39wffahpkuy0j]

it's been a bit of an awkward day today'

as usual i meant to get more done but i ran out of welding wire and millie discs and i also had a dentist appointment. but i did at least make a start on the suspension mounts. i spent too much time trying to work out the best way to do it bearing in mind i haven't done this before. i recently acquired a piece of oblong section steel with a wall diameter of 2.6 mm which is just what i wanted for making the axle brackets for the trailing links. so i used it today to make the top coil over mounts.

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[39wffahpkuy0j]

sorry but that picture didn't edit very well ?

anyways

i tacked it into place just in case i needed to move it and fixed the top coil over mount to it.

these are the minx coil overs that were very kindly donates to me recently.

i haven't located the bottom of the coil over yet but it is pretty much done. the light was fading so i'll try and add some pictures tomorrow.

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with any luck i will have the coil overs fitted tomorrow. other than that i have been cleaning the cockpit floor of all the old adhesive and found the best / quickest way was to use a wire wheel on a drill.

i've done the drivers side floor and the rest of it will be done in th next week or so.

[Pete Clayton]

Looking very neat, glad the shocks have been of use :)

[39wffahpkuy0j]

cheers pete'

i should be able to finish off fitting them tomorrow. thanks again for helping me out with them.. 

[39wffahpkuy0j]

thanks stephen'

just as soon as i have finished the rear suspension i will be ready to sort the front out. your help with the parts is much appreciated. i will post pictures just as soon as it is finished.

cheers

graham.

[Andy Smith]

I made sure I avoided putting anything in that position so that I could use the 5 link to gain some much needed space inside the car - using the same position as the leaf springs would limit the seating options

My pages

I think I made my own link tubes and moved them out really close to the tyre so as to loose the box that protrudes into the car preventing a decent seating arrangement.

[39wffahpkuy0j]

i have to admit it,

i'm not over happy with the position of the top link arms. the main problem at the moment is how to fit the panhard rod. if i am to fit it close and parallel to the rear axle the fat coilovers are going to be in the way. so my thinking is that if i remove the top link arms and position them from chassis to nearer the diff would that set up mean that i could do away with the panhard rod. it would be the same kind of setup that my cortina has.

graham.

[Andy Smith]

You then need to use really large bushes to deal with the twist imparted by the rotation of the axle in roll - hence why the MK3 Cortina had those large void bushes. Diagonal located top arms also compromise the roll centre location by placing it quite high - not an issue with a softly sprung saloon.  Looks to me like to would have a reasonable amount of room would just need a bit of thought- I had issues with mine as I lowered the car quite a bit - notching the chassis cross member for diff clearance. Also should have lowered the chassis pick up point 6" as it did give a different feel on left turns and right turns.

Are you also the S4 re builder who would like this screen I have?

[Dave Adams]

i believe he is andy....

[39wffahpkuy0j]

cheers andy,

yes i would like the screen but as you can see i'm not in a hurry.

the triumph TR7 link arms are fitted with quit large bushes comparable to the cortina. and on the cortina the top link arms are fitted to the top of the diff. on the dutton i would consider fitting them close / next to the diff but would it work ???????

graham