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]

Both dides if either.

[Dave Adams]

Oh yes.....definate signs of bump steer ....quiite depressing for such a late car.

[Dave Adams]

Cannot hurt! ;-)

[Dave Adams]

The front ARB is giving me all sorts of hassles. So do I fit compression struts and a different ARB or (if required) do I find best compromise with what I have and adjust accordingly?

[Dave Adams]

well a little more progress, once the front springs were removed the front end aligned much better. the wheel to rear wheel arch gap is 50mm n/s and 54 o/s pretty close and it will do.

The anti roll bar will likely stay. however on unbolting the TCA from the car to modify it as per S3 phaeton, i found the inner bolt holes on the chassis are smaller than the bush in the TCA and the securing bolt used smaller than both the holes should be about 8mm (imperial equiv) but a M6 bolt has been used, a very loose fit.

[Dave Adams]

Look i found some S3 TCA's buried in my garage....mind you i had to look using my welding kit, but there they were all along.

amazing what you can find when you look.

mind you i also wound up the spring platform by 2" to give them 400lb of pre-load, about the amount the car sank them in the original mounts, this means that once i have worked out where the top shocker mount is going i will be lowering the tension to get the ride height about spot on. i am looking for 4-5" from the chassis lowest point to the road.

[James Doulton]

I measured mine as 140mm from the bottom of the chassis to the ground, measured just behind the front wheel. I don't have the chassis strengthening.

[Dave Adams]

Well I assembled the front end loosly to see how its all looking. The TCA'S  naturally fall about right for the wheel position. 

The shockers are almost spot on  mounted to the TCA however the castor angle is about 8 degree's ......too much. Also the shockers foul the top wishbone. ...just. as it happens ihave acquired some melos top wishbones which are almost identical in size.....almost. close enough to be modified to fit and widened to adjust the castor by moving the top mount forward by 10mm. Not sure what it will end up at but im guessing 3-5 degrees. It also alows me to keep everything as standard so I can refit the legerra wishbone if necessary. 

I'll post pictures later. .....when my laptop starts playing nicely again.

[Big Vern]

Dave,

Are the TCA's aligned (straight)? I have seen duttons where the anti roll bar was lowered by putting spacers under the mounts this also pulls the TCA's forward and increases castor. Indeed I did this on one dutton to add castor as it had zero castor. This might be the case if your dampers are fouling the top wishbone.

BV.

[Dave Adams]

the TCA's weren't straight. they are now, the castor is about 8 degrees. the Anti roll bar was mounted too far back and a little high, the height probably wont alter, the whole thing is moving forward by about 1" or so.

i have altered the castor on the car by a mod to the top wish bone, it is now 3 to 5 degrees ( i will check later) I have also altered the ride height so that the lowest chassis rail is about 5" from the road......it might have to be raised again to 6" because at the lower height the top wish bones have only 2" or so of travel before fouling the chassis.

the car has a much better stance lower......the wheels look better in the arches....its just better all round. BUT it will need a lot of modification to the top wishbones to get it to work right. way too much hassle so the best compromise will be to raise the ride height. 

on measuring the pinto in the car it is about 27" from the sump to the air filter top, the zetec is 24"......so? well the zetec can sit higher in the car to give a good clearance to the sump / road gap. as the zetec has a sump about 1" lower than the gearbox bellhousing. so no shortened sump pan mods required. all the more irritating as the car cannot be lowered as far as i would like it to go.

[Dave Adams]

to correct the difference between the camber on the N/S to the off side i have been looking at modifying the front uprights to bring the top wishbone parallel to the TCA, probably what i am going to do but the O/S wheel is noticeably more camber than the N/S. so it looks like the top wishbone mounts will have to be adjusted....it looks like that the inner mount holes are about 10mm too far inwards.

even after moving them out the N/S wheel sits obviously further outwards than the N/S........well its never going to be perfect. but i can get it close.

[Dave Adams]

I decided to sort the chassis strengthening on my car.....i knew that it looked a bit dodgywelding wise but little did i know.....

all i did was start to cut the bird poo off the outside of the N/S chassis rail and this happened befor i got to the end.....

Yup that is the front half of the rail on the floor.......the other half is still attached to the car....sort of. i gave it a bit of a tap to see how secure it was and it fell off as well.......! there was NO WELDING AT ALL ON THE INNER EDGE!

I wire brushed the paint and underseal off the rail and this lumpy stuff is the "welding".......

there really isn't a lot of it is there......this was invoiced separately with the kit reciept for £150.00! "Chassis with Strengthening"

the rails them selves were supposed to be welded together, if we assume that on a box section there 8 differing metal joints in 4 pairs (end to end) the welding was only on 3 of them! hence why it fell off.