What Happened to Victor's Roadster

[eastmedia]

Rob,
How can I get a copy of the mag?
Thanks,
Ron

[rp975]

Hi Ron,

I have spoken with Ian from the car club about getting two copies, one for you and one for Victor, he has organised to send them to me gratis because of the circumstances.

I will send them off to you once they arrive, could you send me your address again please.

Rob

[rp975]

Ron, did you receive the two magazines I sent to you?

Some people wanted to know what oil filter Vic was running or what length the tube inside the oil filter was cut to, to allow other filters to be used.

I have just changed to oil and filter and have taken photos to show what Vic had.

This is the filter I took off.



This is the filter I put on.


Here are the two filters side by side and you can see the measurement for the length of the tube that goes into the filter.


A side view.


Pipe.


Rob

[spyder]

The Mobil filter there is a cross to a common Ford filter which is what I use. I think I had to trim about an inch off the tube to clear the shorter filter.

[eastmedia]

Hi Rob,
I did receive the magazines. And one is on the way to Victor.
How cool is it that you all have a Datsun Roadster Magazine!

Ron

[rp975]

Well I had to remove the clutch master and slave cyl as the pedal would go to the floor each time I used the car after it had sat for a few days.



You can see where I filed some off the side of the master to try to get some clearance from the double air cleaner.



I plated all the steel parts, put a stainless steal hose on and new kits into both master and slave.



I also made a spcer that is 2mm thick one side down to .5mm on the other side to put the master on an angle to better clear the aircleaner.









All back together and working nicely.

Another thing that I have done is to change the lower spring seat on the front wishbones.

The spring seat on a roadster with standard front springs is on an angle, higher towards the center of the car, this compresses the first coil of the spring which makes for a harder ride.

So I got another set of spring seats and had some extension pieces tig welded on so that I could adjust the angle of the seat so the the end of the spring was perpendicular to the axis of the spring. This means that the spring can work freely and is not bound up on an angle so you actually get a softer ride over the small bumps.

On a lowered car like mine the lower wishbones were closer to parallel with the ground which is not good for the roll center in the front end.

I put on a set of Lou's spindle spacers which flip the spindles over which gives the right angle for the roll center and when the seat mod is done the front suspension is now a lot better.



Here it is up on a hoist.









The outer bolt holes become a pivot, it is only the inner bolt holes that are changed.





Here is a pic of me trying it out by just removing the inner bolts with the car on the ground to see how far it had to go before the spring seat was perpendicular to the spring axis.



in this pic it needs to come a bit higher.



Here is my new heads up display.



Here is my car on the last run 2 weeks ago.







Tomorrow I head off on a 6 day roadster run, heading 13 hrs south over 2 days to meet up with Lou and some other guys from Victoria for roadster fun at Falls Creek.

Rob

[nismou20]

It's amazing what some little engineering know how can do to make improvements to our car. Very nice to see what you have been doing to Vic's old car. Definitely in the right hands!

[Gregs672000]

Not so sure I would trust the gas coming out of those pumps though...
Perfect rising sun decor on the wall!!!

[spl310]

Tell me more about the modified spring seats please.

[rp975]

NismoU20, thank you for the compliments.

Greg, you are right probably only spiders in these pumps.

spl310, I will try to put together some info about the spring seats on the weekend.

I have just returned from the most amazing roads I have driven on near Falls Creek.

Here is a video from one of them, best viewed in HD

[youtube][/youtube]

My car ran really well and I got to try out my new suspension in extreme conditions.

I have also decided to get some better performance from my car with a new set of long tuned pipes and some bigger chokes and jet changes and a viscus fan.

[Solex68]

...
The outer bolt holes become a pivot, it is only the inner bolt holes that are changed.




...
Rob

Ahhhh. Now I understand what you did.
Rob, that is sweet!
BTW...I have not done anything to my front suspension or Koni settings yet. I got my car together but I don't have the engine starting yet. Need to set the timing and carbs still.

[OldYeller]

Great videos! Interested in hearing more about your suspension.

[rp975]

Spl310

Here is a quick drawing , yes it isn't a computer rendering, old school here, the idea behind the front spring seat mod.





The front spring doesn't sit vertically, it has an inward tilt of about 2.5 degrees, this compounds the angled crush of the spring.

Each car will be different depending on condition of spring and if non standard spring.

This drawing has been made with my cars measurements, so if I measure from half way up height of thickness of lower wishbone, just inside the spindle (or pivot in drawing) to the ground I have 195mm.

Then from just inside tyre and from half way up the thickness of the lower wishbone to the ground I have 172mm to the ground.

This gives a droop angle measurement of 23mm from inside to outside of wishbone, this is good for roll center. If your lower wishbone is parallel to the ground your roll center will be too low and handling will suffer.

So by adjusting the lower seat angle the pressure on the spring will be at right angles the the centerline or axis of the spring at the beginning of the downward travel from the static height.

Without this mod the lower coils of the spring are compressed at an angle before the downward travel and this means that the ride is harsher.

My idea was first to try some variable rate front springs but with the front set up in standard form the lower or softer coils of a variable rate spring would be cancelled out because of the angled seat.

I hope this makes sense.

The spring seats I have in at the moment are adjusted slightly too far and I am working on a new set.

When I set up the new set I will have two vinyl floor tiles under each front wheel on the ground with grease between them so that when I raise or lower the inside edge of the spring seat with a jack the wheels and suspension can move sideways without sideways grip from the ground.

Rob

[peter]

The last picture is a nice one for the calender next year, I like this one.

[Gregs672000]

I wonder if it would be possible to install a variable thickness "shim" underneigth the spring to achieve something similar? Would that raise the ride height, or just allow the spring to run flat?