Project Legerra

[Dave Adams]

one of the car with hard top.....

and one with the soft top.....

the phaeton is still in my drive and it really really has to go.......ebay this week some time i think.

as for the Legerra, well it has given me some fun and games, first it boils up like a kettle....er well it did it now has a much larger radiator and some ducting on the radiator. it seems to make a difference.

the car goes quite well but it did have a hot staring issue which turns out to be a duff ballast resistor even though the car has electronic ignition. easy to fix and the car now starts hot reliably.

the suspension is very stiff and it will be softened up a bit, but the car handles quite well.

it has a MG miget dash in the car and i feel it really suits the car....more pictures later

[Adrian Southgate]

No, the RS uses a 22mm ARB but as far as I know still a 2 bolt retainer.

The anti dive kit uses a 4 bolt fitting though.

[Dave Adams]

weird.......ah well the new ARB mounts will get 4 bolts to fill the holes the brackets have, even just to make it tidier. could be a good idea anyway as the brackets show signs of distorting and that cannot be good.

[Dave Thomas]

You can get double width brackets and bushes with four bolt fixing from such as Burton Power, it may have had some fitted at some time.

[Dave Adams]

Thanks......I just thought it odd.

[James Doulton]

I have 185/60x14 on the front and 185/65x14 on the rear. My wheelbase is 86.6" (2200mm) on the offside. I can't get to the nearside at the moment but I recall it being over half an inch shorter. The wheel positions on the nearside look just about perfect on mine.

I originally measured my springs as 144lb/in at the front and 192lb/in at the rear by using scales, a jack and a ruler. Since then I bought some 200lb/in springs which I haven't yet fitted and I used them to measure my existing rear springs as 173lb/in. (I had a long threaded bar and fitted both springs nose to tail, tightened them up and measured the relative compression).

[Dave Adams]

I get the feeling that the bodywork may not be ideal so i will get the wheels middle of the arches either side......which i suspect will be about 86" +/- 0.5". but not necessarily the same both sides.

[Dave Adams]

well it looks like there will be plenty of room for either the MT75 box or the type 9.....

the odd thing is the gear box actually intrudes into the passenger foot well with only carpet covering the box casing at that point. but to the drivers side there is a good 3" clearance

the problem was likely the pinto engine and more likely the exhaust manifold.....it just clears the steering column. i would have moved or modified something perhaps fitting an RS manifold which is a smaller affair.

The zetec will be over to the drivers side somewhat, but figuring where the ECU will live is going to be a problem

[Andy Smith]

Goodness this site is so hard to navigate to find things - eventually found the propshaft - LOL oh that's bad Dave....

The 4 bolt mount bracket ARB mounting is from the double width kit . 

Just remember Dave that the ARB mount also controls the Caster on the TCA so moving the mount up and forward has a big effect on the geometry - Which is the reason for the double width kit to add further strength and better control to this critical area. Just a few mm will add Caster and increase the straight line high speed stability but also make the steering very heavy at low speed. 

Also moving bracket will change the angle of the pseudo wishbone no different to relocating any other wishbone pivot the effect being to raise the roll centre - IIRC the double width kit not only improved the retention of the ARB but also lowered the bar and lowered the roll centre.  Long time since I looked at this so excuse me if I an not recalling correctly.

Cheers

Andrew 

[Dave Adams]

To be honest Andy the plan is to get the wheels centre to the wheel arches, to allow the ARB to find its own level and the fabricate the brackets to suit. that will be in effect lower than the present location, but i feel that it will to be to my benefit. there is also some new springs in the offing, mine are WAY too hard, i have receipts for 300lb/in springs! if i jump on the rears i can deflect the rear end by about 1/4 inch......the rear end is also way too high, that might be a little more hassle to sort out as i get a feeling that new shockers will be needed (they only have 8" springs) so softer springs probably wont sort the problem.

[Dave Adams]

been looking into gearbox ratios comparing the MTX75 ( As fitted to the Mondeo )  with the MT75 (Sierra 2.0L DOHC 8V) box and the ratios are very similar.....first is a little lower 5th is a little higher on the MT75 some of the intermediate gears are actually the same.

the final drive is about 3.7 on the Mondeo mine could be somewhere in that region (3.54 to 4.1....i suspect 3.7 or 3.89, i will check) so i suspect the car will be fine with the MT75 even though the car will be half the weight of the Mondeo.

[Dave Adams]

took the front bumper off and found some things that ......eerrr are not great.

you can see that there is not much in the way of welding on the factory chassis strengthening.........

and there is not much travel left on my front shockers......the springs are too short for the shocker bodies.......

[Dave Adams]

or the shockers are too long for the car ....what ever they need changing.