appletonn
New member
I have finally got round to fitting the new (to me - thanks Peter!) Racers Edge top mounts on the front struts.
I tried and failed to fit them myself, having managed to get enough clearance with the car jacked up high and suspension on full droop, I could just about get the top of the damper rod out from the inner wing so that I could then remove the top mounts.
An initial trial fitting showed that the spacer on the top of the damper rod had to be removed as the strut top would not even poke up through the hole in the new mounts...[8|]
Removed spacer (much huffing and swearing later...[
]), and tried again - this time there was only about enough of the threaded rod protruding to get half the depth of the securing nut onto which was obviously not good enough.
By this time, I was ready to set fire to the b****y thing and go indoors and pour a nice whisky![8|][8|]
I knew that the various top mounts would create different height/mounting scenarios with different types of struts, but the only way of gaining that extra couple of centimetres that I could see was to machine away some of the inner material of the aluminium 'top hat' that sits over the top of the damper/strut tube above the rubber 'bellows', so that the rod could then protrude further.
At this point I gave up, bolted it all back together again with the old mounts and took it to Unit 11 and Danny and Jonny had a look and after some detailed measurements with calipers, we had the top hats machined (5mm off the inside top just around the hole that the strut rod slips through) and in a fraction of the time I had already spent (Oh for the luxury of a 4 point lift rather than cold concrete under axle stands...[8|][]), the machining was done, the new mounts were back in place and everything was bolted back together and the front alignment redone - pretty much as before but with -2.5 front camber and slightly less toe in (virtually parallel now). He also had to wind the spring platforms up 3 turns to compensate for the change in ride height caused by the design of the new top mounts compared to the original ones.
Having done around 100 miles on the new mounts, the biggest difference is the increase in feedback to the steering wheel - can really feel the texture of the road surface now!
No negatives as yet - certainly not any more vibration or noise.
Happy bunny![]
Few pics...
I tried and failed to fit them myself, having managed to get enough clearance with the car jacked up high and suspension on full droop, I could just about get the top of the damper rod out from the inner wing so that I could then remove the top mounts.
An initial trial fitting showed that the spacer on the top of the damper rod had to be removed as the strut top would not even poke up through the hole in the new mounts...[8|]
Removed spacer (much huffing and swearing later...[
]), and tried again - this time there was only about enough of the threaded rod protruding to get half the depth of the securing nut onto which was obviously not good enough.By this time, I was ready to set fire to the b****y thing and go indoors and pour a nice whisky![8|][8|]
I knew that the various top mounts would create different height/mounting scenarios with different types of struts, but the only way of gaining that extra couple of centimetres that I could see was to machine away some of the inner material of the aluminium 'top hat' that sits over the top of the damper/strut tube above the rubber 'bellows', so that the rod could then protrude further.
At this point I gave up, bolted it all back together again with the old mounts and took it to Unit 11 and Danny and Jonny had a look and after some detailed measurements with calipers, we had the top hats machined (5mm off the inside top just around the hole that the strut rod slips through) and in a fraction of the time I had already spent (Oh for the luxury of a 4 point lift rather than cold concrete under axle stands...[8|][
]), the machining was done, the new mounts were back in place and everything was bolted back together and the front alignment redone - pretty much as before but with -2.5 front camber and slightly less toe in (virtually parallel now). He also had to wind the spring platforms up 3 turns to compensate for the change in ride height caused by the design of the new top mounts compared to the original ones.Having done around 100 miles on the new mounts, the biggest difference is the increase in feedback to the steering wheel - can really feel the texture of the road surface now!
No negatives as yet - certainly not any more vibration or noise.
Happy bunny![
]Few pics...
