Strut bending.

[The Real Roadrunner]

BTW whats the go with the centre punch marks where the inner race sits?
and the powder coat where the seal runs? (unless your bearings are sealed).

cheers
linden

[30psi 4agte]

hmmmmmmmm i have never been -repd before....

For the record it will be mig..... I have a decent mig ($3500 boc 3 phase joby)
All the blokes i spoke to linden seem to reckon go the mig too.

My mate owns a engineering buis similar to yours and he said he would use my mig over his tig as i could build it ( the weld ) up better and fill it ( the gap ) up easier.

+ it was mig to start with.


P.S havent been -repd before and dont take my virginity now linden ...or ill scream rape

[30psi 4agte]

Its hard to tell from the pic but there is actually a piece of tape on there that has been powdered coated over.... I havent pulled it off yet as im still waiting for my hub seals which are on back order.

The center punch marks were on there when i got the struts.... Dont know why unless they ahd a prob with the wheel bearings turning on the stub ?

I put new bearings on and they are a perfectly tight fit... Almost too tight due to the marks.

[The Real Roadrunner]

jjks.

i prefer tig to mig but then again its just me being anal.
gives you much finer control/neater weld/better penetration.

but hey if you dont have one handy even an arc would do it, just looks nasty but hey thats what grinders are for.

cheers
linden

ps im not into guys so your virginity shall remain intact

[fixeruperer]

with words like anal and penetration im not so shaw jjks

[clubagreenie]

In regards to preventing crushing the tube. Try removing the insert, fill with wet sand and make a solid washer that sits under the insert nut at the top. so when you screw it down it'll pack the sand down tight. You might need to repeat a few times to compress adequately.

[The Real Roadrunner]

have fun emptying the sand out afterwards if the tube still has traces of oil in it

bedroom antics removed

cheers
linden

wondering which mod is going to see that first
this one

[clubagreenie]

Well if you're taking it apart to do this you wouldn't clean it after? I suppose for some people who are cheap (not saying you) you could add sand, reduce oil capacity to save $$$. Also thicken oil to tune shock response as well. Poor mans adjustable damp/rebound.

[The Real Roadrunner]

nice, so is this whats happening with ed's supra?


cheers
linden

ps a bit of sand in the accusump might go a long way also.

[clubagreenie]

If only there was an engine to put sand in

[30psi 4agte]

Well i finally finished the strut today ( thank f$$k )

I had a few issues along the way - nothin ever goes smoothly for me

First one was : Something linden also brought up ( cue i told ya )
After setting the camber angle to where i wanted it with the steel wedge that i pressed in. I had to weld it back up.
I had to put some heat into it to get a decent weld and penetration. I ended up welding it and grinding it (the weld ) out alittle with the die grinder to clean it up and make sure it was infact getting good penetration and then welding it again....... Thats no biggie and pretty much std practise..

Anyhow once i had finished and the strut had cooled i assembled the strut again ( put the hub on and bolted the wheel up ) to check the camber...

The f$$kn thing had moved again - due to the heat i neded to get a decent weld it had slightly bent the strut in again. It wasnt anywhere near as bad as before ... but enough to give me the shits !!!!
This time it was about .5 - .75mm out .. Nothin when you think about it but i had come this far and there was no way i was going to settle for anything but perfection.

So i ended up heating the strut with the oxy to bend it. I tried in one spot ( at the bottom ) to start with but it had little effect. Next i heated a thin line from the top of the strut to the bottom and knocked a wooden wedge in between the strut and the wheel ( i had the strut together and the weel on at this stage to check the clearence) to hold it out..

Once this cooled i check the clearence and.... it was spot on... ATLAST!!

This leads me to the second of my probs and the worst / most pain in the ass. This is something i hadnt mentioned before..

My struts aare 50mm OD and have a 46mm ID. Now the big bastard bilstein inserts i use are are 46mm OD as they are out of a commodore.
Now they are basicly an interference fit into the strut and need alittle bit of a tap with a mallet to go all the way into the strut..( they are that tight fitting)

Now anyone that works with metal will know that when you heat metal it will bend/ warp and SHIRNK!!
So my 46mm ID strut had shrunk at the bottom where it had been welded and my insert would not fit anymore --- Told you nothing ever goes smoothly when im involved.
Note: The strut tube wasnt bent it had shrunk which was causing the probs - i checked
it

I had this prob before when i first welded the reinforcing plate to the strut .It wasnt as bad though and i ended up putting a flapper wheel on an extension bar and sanding it a bit to get the insert to fit...... But this time the amount of heat i had to use on the strut it had well and truely shrunk and there was no way the little flap wheel was going to do anything.

I sat there for a bit thinking about what i was going to do.. I thought about using the cylinder boring machine to bore the bastard out ...but the smallest bit we had was nowhere near long enough to get down to where the strut had shrunk hmmmmm

I basicly needed more pressure than the flap wheel was giving.. So i decided to machine up an alloy bar and cut a groove in it so that the sand paper (Corse shit too!) would sit in it.
I made the bar an interference fit with the sandpaper around it. This way it would just fit in the top of the strut but when it go to the bottom it would have enough pressure to actually do something.......And well it worked!!- it took alittle bit but worked..

So here is some pics ...they arent the best quality but you get the idea .



Here is a pic of the finished weld.and one down the bottom cleaned up and straight out of the sand blaster.
Note: you can see the marks from where i had to heat the strut.


Just got to get it powder coated again now

[The Real Roadrunner]

or you could have linished the strut (insert) body.

cheers
linden

[TooF]

mate all i can say is that this vehicle must be an absolute labour of love given the ammount of work and the lvel of perfection your putting into it.. good stuff

[30psi 4agte]

or you could have linished the strut body.

cheers
linden

I take it you are talking about the insert ? If so i have already done that one bud and "she canna go anymore captain"

[The Real Roadrunner]

yep

cheers
linden