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

[Dave Adams]

well i have been looking at what needs doing to the Legerra, and the front suspension is going to be a real hassle to sort. when i move the anti roll bar mounts so that the wheels sit bang in the middle of the wheel arches the castor seems to be about 10+ degrees (i need to measure it) but the camber also seems to be greater than 1 degree negative.

also the bottom shocker mount is wrong both in the type of mount but also its position, it is at least 1 inch too far over to the front so my shockers are twisted to be fitted. i am tempted to fit the shocker to the TCA......but it wont easily clear the top wish bone.

[James Doulton]

If you wanted to fix the shock absorber to the TCA then you'd probably need to lower the top shocker mounting, like how it is on the Melos and presumably the Phaeton 3/4. I'm not sure why they departed from that arrangement for the Legerra.

[Dave Adams]

Some pictures of what i am trying to deal with......

the green tape is roughly the castor angle (through the top and bottom ball joints) you can also see the top and bottom shocker mounts. And the picture below you can see them more clearly and how misaligned they are.

as you can see there is a fair bit for me to do......James can you give an estimate of the castor from the pics? and i will endeavour to measure it when my camber / castor gauges arrive later this week.

[James Doulton]

I measure that as 10.1 degrees. Seems rather a lot. Have you yanked the bottom forward in order to reposition the wheel or was it like that already?

[Dave Adams]

Yes the anti rollbar has been pulled forward by about 1" or so. The wheels now sit in the centre of the wheel arch. .......some modifications will be needed........er like new top wisbones for a start.

[James Doulton]

Have you measured the castor on the other side? You want them both to be the same, so then you can determine how far you will have to move the top forward, and how far to move the ARB back to keep the wheel in the centre of the arch. At the moment the bottom ball joint must be about 45mm in front of the top one. To get down to 1.5 degrees, say, then it wants to be only 6.5mm, which means moving top and bottom about 20mm each.

[Dave Adams]

I am aiming for 5 degrees.  But my main aim is for the wheels to be centre to the wheel arches. I can also mount my shockers with more damper travel if I mount them to the tca.

[James Doulton]

On mine, the shock absorber is fixed to the wishbone in front of the ball joint with a bolt that is cantilevered from the wishbone, so the shocker is pretty much vertical.

[James Doulton]

Or ... put the wheel back where it naturally sat and ... change the wheel arch?

[Dave Adams]

not a great idea.......loads of work to get it looking right... ;-)

[Dave Adams]

well i have been checking on things and the springs i thought was 280lb/in (on account of the receipt i have for them....) but they turn out to be 200lb/in (it's written on one of the coils......so a bit of a clue then!) and on my car at ride hight they have 1" - 1+1/4" of travel left from a starting point of 3" so some 400lb of compression on each of the front springs.

not bad but not enough damper travel left, i could wind up the spring base and give them some 300lb of pre-load to regain the damper travel except the front is also a bit high and could use an inch or so lowering from where it is right now.....(for the look of the thing...) so i need to work out where the shockers need to be fitted. especially since they are new, why waste them?

[Dave Adams]

well my Gunsons castor / camber gauge arrived to day and it will require a little thought as it is +/- 3 degrees and my car is about 10 degrees currently and i am looking for 4-6 degrees castor.

who said it would be easy.....some thoughts on the top wish bone, it looks like there is enough room to extend the inward mounting brackets enough to move the top ball joint forward about 10-12mm each side. That just might be enough to have the desired result.

 i am moving toward fitting the shockers as for the S3/4 phaetons, i.e. on the TCA. this allows me to keep the new shockers i have rather than spend another couple hundred quid on more.

the ride height of the car (at the front) might be left.....the lower chassis rail (the added strengthening...) is only 4 inches from the road now. if i could be sure that fitting them to the side (rather than the bottom) of the chassis rail would have the same effect they would be moved and the car can then be lowered 1 1/2"........ the rears however are getting lowered to 5" (its about 7(ish) at the moment)