It's been a while, but Spit progress :)

"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228) 01/13/2018 at 16:20 • Filed to: spit6

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Suspension! It’s a right pain to shim the wheel bearings on these as the driveshaft is an interference fit in the hub, needs to be fitted each time you test for play, and there’s no real good way to measure it before you bolt everything up...

Still! Both shimmed, one fitted (the other needs a bit of bearing lock on one of the races). It all fits!

Also, for weeks now I’ve been sorting the filler on the roof, deck panel and a whole host of other places. Roof is finally nearly there :)

For reference, that’s about a centimetre of dust from sanding...

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/13/2018 at 16:41

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Great progress! Good to see the custom rear suspension is almost completely assembled!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 01/13/2018 at 16:55

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Thanks! Yeah it’s a little relieving that it fits ok :)

Just the other side to do now...

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/13/2018 at 17:02

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That’s an interesting setup. Independent suspension but using a single leaf across both sides like a Model T.

Klaus Schmoll > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/13/2018 at 17:10

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Time to bring out the old “Obama Not Bad” meme. You are making great progress!

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/13/2018 at 17:21

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Current vehicles using this setup: Corvete and Volvo XC90. It’s called a transverse leaf spring. The Corvette has been using it since the C4. The XC90 picked it up with the generation starting in 2014. Both are using a composite leaf but otherwise similar to the Spitfire. The main advantage is packaging and Volvo claims it adds several cubic feet of cargo space compared to going with a double wishbone rear.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/13/2018 at 20:19

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Nice, I’m going to paint my truck soon, nothing so involved. Eventually I’m going to change the gearing and get some disk brakes.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 01/14/2018 at 14:51

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I think the sprinter has that in the front, for what it’s worth

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/14/2018 at 14:54

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Nice progress!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 01/15/2018 at 05:10

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Nice :)

Mine probably shouldn’t have been as involved, but I did insist on welding new box sections to the roof skin which warped it about. If I hadn’t welded on the hardtop there’d be very little filling at all.

So you might get away without doing any!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Klaus Schmoll 01/15/2018 at 05:11

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I am! Only 2 and a bit months left to go though :S going to be close to the wire...

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/15/2018 at 05:16

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Yeah the original setup was interesting too. It used the transverse leaf spring as above, with lower location being a swing axle, and then a radius arm going forwards to the bulkhead in front. A suspension setup without a single actual wishbone in sight.

They did a different IRS called a ‘rotoflex’ which had a lower wishbone instead of the swing axle and wound up with something approaching semi-trailing arm geometry (i.e. not so great).

The lower wishbone above I made myself, with a fancy suspension mockup to test what different suspension locations and wishbone lengths did to camber at different suspension heights.

Will be interesting to see if it works!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 01/15/2018 at 05:18

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Huh, had no idea the XC90 has a transverse leaf.

It would be cool to get a composite leaf for a Spitfire too but I don’t think anyone makes them. If you could that would remove the only real downside to the setup (more weight than a wishbone and coilover setup).

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/15/2018 at 08:48

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Here’s an image - it’s actually a polyurethane composite - the yellow part. Apparently it’s a re-work of the design used in the 960 wagon, but something like 10 lb. lighter than using a steel spring. Unfortunately I don’t think there is much of a market for composite leafs for old Triumphs.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 01/15/2018 at 09:13

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Interesting. Looks like they still use a strut-type setup, and just use the leaf for springing (unlike the spit which uses it for upper location as well).

Just did some quick googling and apparently there’s a company in the States called Flex-Form who make a composite leaf spring. Very interesting!

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/15/2018 at 12:40

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I ordered the 4.89 gears today, they won’t be produced in a batch util June I think. I was going to do disks all around but someone I know said theirs is fine with the fronts only and a proportioning valve for the big rear drums, it’s not a race car he said! With the new gears it can probably hit 60 mph so I can do stints on the highway and also save gas all around. I think the only welding I may do is for a power steering kit later on, the hardtop needs restoring but the whole bottom edge of that is wood so I need to figure out what wood to use and then it’s like I’m working on a old boat! But as you can see the previous owner did the frame, replaced the front fenders and primed everything.