clubstylus

Having acquired this car earlier in the year I am slowly looking her over to see what needs to be done.
I have discovered a few issues some partly due to the fact that the kit was bought in 2003 and has just stood in a garage since.
Two things that have come to light are that the rockers on the front suspension have rubber seals at either end and these have perished, where can I get replacements and is there any "better" replacement for the bearings, I also seem to have a leak from the front dampers, are these serviceable?
One other question, istr that there was an issue with the rear trailing arms to the live axle had a tendency to break as they were straight and "bent" arms were then made available, mine are straight so is this likely to cause problems even though I am only planning to use this car on the road.
thanks in advance for any pointers.

Keith
Aviemore

Schrodinger wrote:Having acquired this car earlier in the year I am slowly looking her over to see what needs to be done.
I have discovered a few issues some partly due to the fact that the kit was bought in 2003 and has just stood in a garage since.
Two things that have come to light are that the rockers on the front suspension have rubber seals at either end and these have perished, where can I get replacements and is there any "better" replacement for the bearings, I also seem to have a leak from the front dampers, are these serviceable?
One other question, istr that there was an issue with the rear trailing arms to the live axle had a tendency to break as they were straight and "bent" arms were then made available, mine are straight so is this likely to cause problems even though I am only planning to use this car on the road.
thanks in advance for any pointers.

Keith
Aviemore

Rubber seals ------------- none were supplied on my kit so when building I pushed a short piece of silicone hose over each end of the rocker central tube , pushed to the edges once the rocker was bolted up and cable tied them very tight. Also drilled and tapped the tube and fitted a grease nipple. Since then I've had the rockers out a few times during rebuilding the front end to modify etc ----- and never put the seals back on , just greased often then wiped away the excess.
Bearings ------------ bearings are fine , my car is 17yrs old and I've never changed the bearings , just grease often so you can see it come out the ends.
Shocks -------- are only rebuildable if adjustable type , so phone the shock manufacturer and ask .
Rear trailing links ----------- the only problem would be setting up the car with correct spring/shock lengths , so that when setting chassis height front/rear , the shock piston doesn't run out of travel in driving mode which will be dependant on your own body weight . If the piston runs out of travel , the shock and spring unit becomes a solid item/not a suspension unit = this would then bend the straight link arm. Road or track driving makes no difference to this happening .

If you want advice regarding set-up , I will give it FOC if you want my own design of trailing links which prevent any bending possible but you'll need specific lengths of springs/lbs along with shocks to suit . When I make new links I fit new poly bushes with stainless steel inner pivot tubes , painted ready to fit. Obviously I need to know your body weight

Thanks for the information, I am intending to strip the suspension down to have a look and regrease the bearings and replace all of the rubber bushes with poly bushes in the next few months. I will need your assistance later when I am rebuilding. the shocks are adjustable so I will contact the manufacturer and see if they will give them the once over.
Thanks again

I've taken the engine out, as the hydraulic clutch was leaking, it seems that a 12mm spacer is required as the slave cylinder piston has come out too far and nipped the o ring.
No have a spacer and repair kit on order.
A couple of queries i have, what uprights are used? I thought Escort but the more I look at mine they look like Sierra, I will get a photo and post it up. Also has anybody used a hydraulic throttle linkage?
It seems rather a complicated way of doing things.

The chassis is looking a bit rough where the powder coating is coming off so will need to be rubbed down and painted.

I have also been wondering how easy it would be to strip down the build back to a bear chassis again?

Back to chassis will require cutting out any fibreglass sheet the builder has put in between dash and body . Not a problem , you can re-fit with new sheet etc later. Then the bottom screen area of the body may have been fibreglassed , hopefully just two bolts through the water gutter . The door areas will be riveted , some people may have glassed them too. The rear edge of the boot will have been glassed , so just cut it . Every builder will be slightly different regardless of original intructions . Others have done exactly what you've planned successfully though.

The clutch spacer is now in place and from measurement looks as though it has now brought the release bearing up to the clutch so should work ok.
I have attached some photos, so do these uprights look seirra? if so should I think of changing to escort?
I have now removed the front suspension and you can see that there is a lot of rust, considering this car has never been on the road. Looks like it definitely needs a body off to get the chassis blasted to remove the rust and then primered and painted.

Uprights are Sierra and a bottom wishbone is bent. Personally , I prefer either Escort or ALLY uprights from Andy Silman . Geometry on Andy's is great and they are billet ally not cast like RALLY DESIGN

Both of the bottom wishbones are the same shape and look as though they were made like that.
I do have some other uprights that I think are Escort or possibly Cortina I will have to dig them out to have a look. I did think that the insert in the top of the upright looks a bit crude and has some odd characteristics when the steering is turned.
Do you have any idea of the price of the uprights you suggested? or contact details.

Google SILTECH RACING and contact details are there . It's Dennis and Andy Silman , who I competed against right up till 2005/6 , usually coming 2nd but 1st in the ACSMC Sprint champ'p in 2004 . Try cash

Just checked my garage and I have a pair of escort uprights, so I could use them but will need new brakes and top and bottom joints, what joints are used on the wishbones?

I now have the RT bodywork attached and all painted. It's also now IVAed and registered also back in Aviemore.

I love that colour. How much did the paint cost?

Schrodinger wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:02 pm I now have the RT bodywork attached and all painted. It's also now IVAed and registered also back in Aviemore.
Stylus 7a.jpg

Which uprights did you decide on finally ? The car looks great . In the past I've designed various parts to replace standard suspension bits , not recently though . ARB , wishbones/rodended , rear links enabling 15in shocks and 8 to 10in springs to lower the car , adjustable panard .

maddog wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:12 pm I love that colour. How much did the paint cost?

"Deep Breath" £5000 for the fibreglass work and the paint. The guy who did the work also put the bonnet bulge on and a couple of mods on the flip front.

stylussprinter wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:59 am

Schrodinger wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:02 pm I now have the RT bodywork attached and all painted. It's also now IVAed and registered also back in Aviemore.
Stylus 7a.jpg

Which uprights did you decide on finally ? The car looks great . In the past I've designed various parts to replace standard suspension bits , not recently though . ARB , wishbones/rodended , rear links enabling 15in shocks and 8 to 10in springs to lower the car , adjustable panard .

I have the Escort uprights on atm but I am thinking of getting the Siltech Racing uprights on in the future but will wait until I'm back in East Anglia for that.