Hi Guys
Anymore news about if anyone is going to be making the front arms? I understand pete you might be doing something????
I sent some info to Paul about them but don't know if it was of any help; found it in a catalogue of Belgian racing parts.
I picked up an arm this weekend and will take them to Louis this coming week all being well. I will tell him of the urgentcy.
<I picked up an arm this weekend>
Did anyone give you a hand with it?
More to the point was it anygood ???? :lol: now I know why you are so quick you get intimate with bits of your car!!! :lol:
Whitwell motorsport has 25 pairs of the belguim arm conversion on
stock. 1 suspension arm is required from the customer to be used as part
of the conversion.
What is the benefit of fitting them?
When I was discussing them with one 2CV racer he said he didn't think they helped very much and simply added more weight at the front where we need it least. :?
Mary
the idea was to stop a few different problems.
firstly to help save arms, they are getting rarer now and the later arms are of poorer quaility material and have a soft 'eye' where the king pin fits into the arm at the end, it should be be an 'interference fit' meaning it should be tight to get the pin into the arm. The eye gets worn or stretched and becomes useless as the king pins can actually drop right through the hole. not good, it means play even before you start. It gets bad on a road cars and on a race car jumping kirbs? It has no chance.
secondly, the king pin bush kits are crap as well no matter where you buy them in my opinion, movement can be found in new king pin kits so even with a perfect arm you still have play in the wheel even with out the car turning a wheel. There are a couple ideas floating around that may help this but nothing has been produced yet.
Thirdly, the cornering force that we can now generate in dry conditions will see the arm distort or bend, mainly due to the wheel having a lot of leverage over the arm, this is reduced by running a top arm and spreading the load. This then means that you can get away with running less camber as you don't have to add camber to allow for arm distortion. Less camber means better straight line braking.
hope that is clear (ish)
reagrds
pete
:?
You are of course right about the weight and it is in the wrong place for unsprung weight (one of the 2cv's core values) but you have look at the +'s and -'s as with everything else in life, loose in one place to gain some where else.
Who out of the top 10 finishers at The 24hr last year DIDN'T have them?
not many me thinks.
Right, that's enough, I'm off. I've got trophies to polish.
we make them to order on an exchange basis
as fitted to the winning 24hr car
Thanks Pete, that's very helpful advice.
Thanks also Geoff, I think we will need all the help we can get!
Seems to be a nonsense to me. If the objective of the club is low cost competitive racing then (provided we can source the relevant tyres) why do we not simply change the loading on the front axles? If we reduce the tyre section allowable back to 125s then I assume the distortion Pete is talking about will be reduced and the loads on the king pins will drop. Therefore making relatively standard equipment fit-for-purpose. But perhaps I am missing the point, it happens all too frequently......
You find the same problem on late road cars though francis, as the material in the arms is sh**e.So you would still end up having to have more arms done .The advantage of the welsh arm is it helps to stop arms breaking (as two did at anglesey ,i have also seen them break with125's fitted)as well as not wearing out so quickly.
I have gone for the light weight approach and this season broken 4 rosejoints on the 3 of our cars.Total cost of rosejoints £40 .This against buying new arms at £165 each seems like a much cheaper way to me.
Myself being mark/whitwell motorsport have gone for the more robust
approach, my car has had over 65 hours hard track time and we have had
no failures and zero wear on the kingpins. We are at present fitting
my conversion to seven more cars for this season!
Paul: why welsh?
Mark whats diffrent with your arms and whats the cost??
We use m16 rose joints, the two m7 steering arm bolts are upgraded
to m10 alan cap bolts. New king pins fitted,the top half arm has lazer
cut base plate and gusset plate all welded together.Paul Robertson has
seen my conversion! ITS STRONG!!!
Prices vary as to what is supplied/required! Please ring 01653 619441 to
discuss further.