PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

They have very clever tech. I'm sure they'll have something similar to what I've mentioned but its not available to us

indeed

 

[pollyp]

refined the app abit to be easier to see.

red columns show the percentage of load from each wheel,
number near the left/right/front/rear label show the load bias,
red stick show the centre of load bias along the grid,
black diagonal line connects the diagonal wheels to represent crossweight,
the diagonal percentage numbers in the grid display the crossweights,
the green line is the difference between the two crossweights.

the aim is to shorten the green line till the crossweights both equal 50/50 and shift the red stick till the left/right bias is 50/50.

 

[Stani1029]

Is the front right with you included? Hence it being much more?

 

[pollyp]

Is the front right with you included? Hence it being much more?

I just entered random scale values as an example

 

[h701micra]

refined the app abit to be easier to see.

red columns show the percentage of load from each wheel,
number near the left/right/front/rear label show the load bias,
red stick show the centre of load bias along the grid,
black diagonal line connects the diagonal wheels to represent crossweight,
the diagonal percentage numbers in the grid display the crossweights,
the green line is the difference between the two crossweights.

the aim is to shorten the green line till the crossweights both equal 50/50 and shift the red stick till the left/right bias is 50/50.

View attachment 26646

My daily lifes work summed up in a picture

Just to add a little something Paul.
You show overall left right balance
Another important thing you could possibly add if you wished is left right balance over each axle?
Its something that I use to determine handling characteristics
Just a thought

Edit: some quick calculations give me
63% front right
37% front left

 

[pollyp]

I'll add that too, Thx andy

 

[h701micra]

I'll add that too, Thx andy

Not a problem

I'll just take this moment to say... yet again your work is above and beyond

 

[pollyp]

To infinity and beyond

 

[SirChris]

Did the battery fare well?

 

[pollyp]

Did the battery fare well?

I think the overcharge had boiled the gel off the lead cells since last yr and degraded its charge retention abit.
so since topping up and fully charged, its now stabilised at 12v @ room temp and very slowly dropping.

so obviously not good enough for cranking the engine but good enough for occasional light duties around the car where the onboard battery can't reach such as the timing strobe, tyre pump, testing fan motors etc

 

[pollyp]

ok so now I actually have a break off work and xmas has passed, lets slowly begin swapping over to the turbo and then corner balance the suspension over the freezing cold

stock manifold off

replace the old fuel filter

grinded this annoying lip off the 370 injectors mount so that my tools can access the bolt

new filter and turbo injectors on

next fit the turbo, downpipe, weld the hanger bar onto the downpipe, overhaul the coilovers thread from months of dirt ready for adjustment

 

[pollyp]

the nuts on the turbo elbow never fully screwed onto the studs so wondered if I could cut the rusty stud ends off and clean up the threads

grinded the ends off and tried to clean the threads off but none of the nuts seem to fit smoothly

the dilema is to either spend £25+ on a rarely used thread die from cornell to clean up the threads, or remove the studs off the elbow and use bolts.
since its xmas and no ones open, lets remove the studs

tried blowtorch the stud orange and mole grip it off but was useless.
why don't I just weld a bolt onto the stud?

so wrapped the turbo in tin foil to protect the openings

welded the bolts on

one stud was removed with some resistance, the other was totally seized but the third one gave the impression it was moving (felt very resistant but stud appeared to turn) until SNAP! GARGHHH

me and my ham fisted hands

so now I'm proper stuck.
one turbo with two broken studs and no machine shop open, no tool shop open and looking on ebay, no GTIR turbo elbows either

why didn't I just leave it alone?

worse case is to remove all the heatwrap, separate the turbo elbow, grinding the remaining stud and the snapped stud flat and redrill from an m10x1.25 to a m12x1.75

 

[pollyp]

... ok I'm gonna have to redrill it imo

 

[frank]

i usually grind a notch paul, then drift the piece of thread out sideways, then screw a new stud in, then weld the notch back up

 

[pollyp]

those studs are proper rusted in place hence why it sheared off

 

[frank]

i grind this bit away mate (13mm wide if its an m12 stud), then knock it free with a centrepunch

 

[pollyp]

ah clever. I'll try that soon

 

[pollyp]

heatwrap off

turbo elbow removed

didn't fancy cutting a big slot to the side of the flange and then the work of welding it back up n grind it flat. also wanted to retain the m10x1.5 thread.

so lets try redrilling the threads.

centre punch the middle of the stud and start off slowly with small drill bits

then work up gradually to larger bits until I start to expose some threads

now to remove the remaining parts of the stud, I cut afew slots through the threads with a junior hacksaw

then I was able to knock sections out

to reveal the original threads

retap the threads

and we're saved

so I can now bolt the downpipe to the elbow fully no probs

continue tomorrow

 

[pollyp]

start with a rough rusty face

sanded abit flatter

turbo on

the pipe sat abit higher than normal, prob from a slight mis-alignment from rewelding the cat flanges, so I had to bend the hanger rod taller to rest against the pipe

the misalignment had shifted the mid section too far right and higher up so it's very close to this chassis, especially when at full temps during trackdays.
tried remounting the cat incase it was slightly off-set, but nope same issue so it's definately slightly wonky from my pipe welding, meh I'll just adjust what I can.

tacking the hanger onto a stone cold exh pipe whilst underneath the car made a right hash of blowing a hole through the thin pipe, held it too long

afew lower amp passes patched it up, key was to only do short pulses deep into the joint

 

[pollyp]

another pic of how mm close the pipe is to the chassis. eventually this whole exhaust system will need re-doing

removed the front swaybar. RH thread was ok while the seized LH thread snaps, grab another threaded bar when I reinstall it

alternator, belts, oil lines and part of the inlet pipes on and thats bout as much as I can take. don't have the same stamina anymore

 

[pollyp]

k got an idea for correcting the wonky mid pipe. if I cut a 1-2mm slot 3/4 the way through the right side of the pipe, bend the pipe to close the gap and then weld it up, that'll alter the pipe angle by afew deg enough to clear the chassis.

 

[davyboy]

k got an idea for correcting the wonky mid pipe. if I cut a 1-2mm slot 3/4 the way through the right side of the pipe, bend the pipe to close the gap and then weld it up, that'll alter the pipe angle by afew deg enough to clear the chassis.

Hit it with a big hammer - works every time, bends anything

 

[pollyp]

I don't wanna bash n kink it. just need a small controlled bend

 

[davyboy]

I don't wanna bash n kink it. just need a small controlled bend

Hit it softly

 

[pollyp]

its a big pipe and I don't have a sledge hammer
hitting it softly will just dent it.
gonna try the james may carefully slowly approach before considering clarksons Big Hammer approach lol

 

[RyanEllis]

heat the metal up then bend it and secure it so it cools to the right angle

 

[Enuo]

heat the metal up then bend it and secure it so it cools to the right angle

Yeah, that works if you get the metal yellow hot... if you have a large oxi acetaline torch it could work. Pie cutting and welding is much easier.

 

[Noddie]

potentially weld a patch over the slit Paul, looks like butt welding may be a problem if you blew holes when welding the mounts. maybe you worked it out by lowering the amps though

 

[pollyp]

took the mid pipe out and checking with a straight edge, the section where I cut n shut to relocate the cat was indeed mis-aligned

so marked where to cut

cut a thin slot almost to the end with the hacksaw

the first cut was in the wrong direction so tried again in the opposite way and the thin slot was just enough to straighten the pipes.
welded up the slots

and now it clears the chassis better and doesn't knock against it

there's also been a damp oil patch along the front/underside of the gearbox/engine region and the only source of oil leak there would be the dizzy.
so removed the dizzy and it seems the o-ring is slightly too loose? so replaced it with an age hardened one from the old dizzy

turbo all assembled

primed n started her up.
cold runs abit rich. O2 heats up but still idles abit rich and doesn't seem to be learning (engine prob needs to fully warm up before the ecu learns?)

drove away and the exh & turbo is surprisingly abit quieter than I thought and the turbo threshold requires abit more throttle, perhaps cos I've not driven the turbo for awhile now.
but when it reaches 10psi I sometimes feel it needs more although the tall gearing makes the speedo reach 60 abit faster than I thought even though the engine doesn't hardly sound pushed.
ooh I miss you turbo
cruise along once warmed up, the O2 relearns the mixture.

 

[pollyp]

cleaning and prepping the suspension is taking abit longer than usual, always afew minor issues to sort out.

first taking the rear calipers off, noticed one of the guide pins really stuck. tis what happens with lack of maintainance on these calipers.
so placed it on a vice

and gradually jiggle the rusted pin out, don't wanna snap it off eh

the pin and bore are quite dry n rusty so wirebrushed this clean

and bored is clean with a small stone on a dremel

flushed with carb cleaner and relubed with grease. slides alot better

removed the rear coilover spring base off the axle. when I removed the RH base I saw that a chunk was missing off the axle and thought crap, is that a piece of axle rusted off and I'll have to take the whole axle out to reweld?
but nope it turned out to be just a crusty layer of crud that's been building up in the gap between the spring base and the retaining cap. poked it through and its a normal hole that the spring base sits in, phew.

pair of dirty rusty spring assemblies

the powder coating of the left spring has almost completely peeled off like an egg skin. you think I can still run this on track without risk of it snapping?

threads wirebrushed

all abit cleaner

fitted the rear springs n dampers and noticed at full droop the springs ain't held captive?
either the spring base are too low or the dampers are resting too high from the axle which was originally to hit the bumpstop sooner before the axle hits the exhaust but causes a longer droop till it can't retain the spring.

I'll need to do abit of adjustment to the exhaust so that I can lower the damper body to reduce the droop till the springs are captive and the axle misses the exhaust during bumpstop.

at bumpstop the exhaust is too far right and hits the upper trailing mount

the leaning angle of the exhaust seen here might be part of the cause.

I readjusted the backbox rubber mounts and yep that helped level out the exhaust but still need to shift it all to the left abit more. so the mid pipe needs yet more adjustment

 

[Enuo]

What rear setup is that Paul?

 

[pollyp]

the same BC coilover I've had for awhile

 

[Huggy444]

the same BC coilover I've had for awhile

What do you think of the bc's? I've had mine for a while and they've taken a lot of abuse

 

[pollyp]

What do you think of the bc's? I've had mine for a while and they've taken a lot of abuse

best investment. real comfy when fully soft on road and great on track and loadsa adjustment range.
yet to properly corner balance it this week and take it on track one day to see if it'll improve cornering consistancy

 

[Huggy444]

best investment. real comfy when fully soft on road and great on track and loadsa adjustment range.
yet to properly corner balance it this week and take it on track one day to see if it'll improve cornering consistancy

Yeah, the cost is worth it yours are damper rears i guess? That's what i have anyway, still, they are plenty adjustable. Never had a problem with mine even on the roughest course, yours should last a while

 

[Low Rider]

Nice to see a set after a period of use Paul and looking forward to fitting the BRs later this week.

 

[pollyp]

Yeah, the cost is worth it yours are damper rears i guess? That's what i have anyway, still, they are plenty adjustable. Never had a problem with mine even on the roughest course, yours should last a while

definately.
yep separate rear dampers/spring perch and indeed loadsa adjustable range. just need to fine tune the balance on the set of scales soon to take full advantage of the product.
gr8 to hear they're reliable under the most extreme applications.

 

[pollyp]

Nice to see a set after a period of use Paul and looking forward to fitting the BRs later this week.

good thing I cover them from the elements, god knows what they'll be like fully exposed under salty winter roads.
it'll be interesting to see the extra spring top bearing and locking lower mount ring on those BR model.
originally the pillowball top on mine used to stick n cause the coil spring to stutter during full locks which later caused the lockrings to loosen but now after periodically cleaning/oiling the pillow ball and miles of use, they've loosened up n no longer a problem.

 

[Huggy444]

definately.
yep separate rear dampers/spring perch and indeed loadsa adjustable range. just need to fine tune the balance on the set of scales soon to take full advantage of the product.
gr8 to hear they're reliable under the most extreme applications.

Never had mine properly corner weighted, really should do, would be interested too see how yours feels after you've done it.
My abuse is limited to RAF bases, but I guess it's a fair bit rougher than day to day driving

 

[Low Rider]

good thing I cover them from the elements, god knows what they'll be like fully exposed under salty winter roads.
it'll be interesting to see the extra spring top bearing and locking lower mount ring on those BR model.
originally the pillowball top on mine used to stick n cause the coil spring to stutter during full locks which later caused the lockrings to loosen but now after periodically cleaning/oiling the pillow ball and miles of use, they've loosened up n no longer a problem.

I'll give them the usual T9 treatment before installing them.

The BRs are a bit more chunky compared to the V1s and they also have the abs mounting brackets on the front lower legs. I'll take some shots and PM them to you if you like

 

[pollyp]

adjusted the exhaust more to the left and now it clears the chassis

and the rear axle

and it rests level

lets clean up the rear dampers thread

unscrew the damper body off and wirebrush the threads clean

now I can screw the damper all the way down

with the dampers set fully down, I jack up the rear axle so its at its highest point when it hits the bumpstops

and yess the exhaust now clears the axle

now for the first time the rear suspension will have a full range of travel.
so the rear end may be more comfortable going over speedbumps rather than crashing into the bumpstops prematurely

and the tyres ain't even touched the arch yet

so gonna weld up the mid pipe, fit the rear springs and then move to the fronts.
hopefully I'll be able to start corner balancing tomorrow.

 

[pollyp]

Never had mine properly corner weighted, really should do, would be interested too see how yours feels after you've done it.
My abuse is limited to RAF bases, but I guess it's a fair bit rougher than day to day driving

hopefully it'll handle the same during left/right turns after balancing and improve confidence/trust.
any sort of unlimited fast driving on/off road is gonna be stressful on the whole car compared to the speed limited public roads.

 

[pollyp]

I'll give them the usual T9 treatment before installing them.

The BRs are a bit more chunky compared to the V1s and they also have the abs mounting brackets on the front lower legs. I'll take some shots and PM them to you if you like

i wished the adjustable rear spring perch on the V1 was located at the top bit for much easier access rather than hidden down into the axle cup base.

ah also wished my V1 front strut had the ABS cable bracket rather than improvised with zipties

pics or blog links of the BR would be fascinating

 

[Huggy444]

hopefully it'll handle the same during left/right turns after balancing and improve confidence/trust.
any sort of unlimited fast driving on/off road is gonna be stressful on the whole car compared to the speed limited public roads.

Might find somewhere to do mine sometime then, I'll let you get yours done first though
Do you have BC BR's then? Or V1's?

 

[Enuo]

I'm actually looking into making some adjustable spring seats to fit at the top for stock internal diameter springs if thats any use to you

 

[pollyp]

Might find somewhere to do mine sometime then, I'll let you get yours done first though
Do you have BC BR's then? Or V1's?

V1

 

[pollyp]

I'm actually looking into making some adjustable spring seats to fit at the top for stock internal diameter springs if thats any use to you

that'll be interesting to see

 

[pollyp]

k exhaust all welded up n fits nicely.
springs fitted.
but the poor rear caliper pistons have decided to stick so that's another tedious thing to sort out tomorrow
so many little niggles to sort out. I just wanna balance this suspension sometime soon.

 

[pollyp]

gee maintaining the rear calipers are a pita

took the caliper off

the pistons mostly fine, only slight tiny pitting.
wirebrushed the surface rusted groove that the dust boot slots into but the small hole that feeds abit a fluid onto the groove to keep it lubed is blocked with dry rust so cleared it with a pin.

the rubber dust boot is abit deformed so replaced with a spare one off the old rear caliper

reassembled, fitted and bled but even though the piston seemed to slide/screw into the caliper smoothly, the piston still doesn't move hydraulically.
somthing is preventing it from moving.

took the piston back out again and noticed the inner threaded part is seized.

this part should normally be spinning freely when under no load, so under hydraulic pressure the piston just slides out while the free spinning thread just turns to slide along the central shaft to self adjust.

when the handbrakes engaged, the central shaft pushes the inner threaded piston out against the inner face of the hydraulic piston. this makes the inner threaded piston and hydraulic piston lock together and apply the brake.

took some jiggling to separate it but yep turns out the rust had seized the two parts. so when applying the hydraulic brakes, rather than simply sliding out, the piston was trying the slide and rotate outwards which was more difficult so it stays stuck.

so cleaned it up, relubed, reinstalled and now it works fine that took all day

now taking the front struts off

not bad

spring slightly peeling but alright

will need to wirebrush the threads for awhile

 

[pollyp]

threads all cleaned n oiled

the left struts lower mount ring was really seized solid so gonna leave that alone.

lathed the size of the bumpstop down so it doesn't get trapped within the dampers dust cover

refreshed the pillow ball top

yet another mis-hap, the plastic lip of the brake hose mount snapped off, what a silly design with the clip, it was inevitable

so will have to improvise

that'll hold for now

OK cars all prepped n ready for balancing in the new year