Well, not a lot to report, took the spindles down to RDR HQ at the weekend for Dave's wedding anniversary bash & had a play with them before the festivities. Quickly found that they ain't gonna be an easy fit! Seems the existing spindles, as well as having the spindle part re-machined to accept smaller wheels, also had different bronze bushes fitted to the king pin bosses with a smaller ID, because the king pins are a smaller id diameter as well as being held in place by grub screws & not conventional cotter pins!!! I did manage to mock them up to see what the wheels look like, but I've had to take them away again for yet more machining work but hopefully, apart from cutting off the redundant steering arm & brake backplate flanges, that should be it.
Here I have finally managed to remove the existing spindles (pesky hidden grub screws!!) & temporarily fitted the "new" spindles. Thankfully everything alse lines up, drag link & steering arm.
Here are the wheels temporarily fitted, thankfully the steering arms hadn't been modified so the original ones still fit fine, as does the steering link from the box.
This is one of the offending "old" spindles, showing the back plate flanges have been removed, the spindle shaft machined straight & shortened & re-threaded. You can also see (or not) that there is no cotter pin fitment, the king pins being held in place by two grub screws from the back, one of which was almost invisble!! However, I can re-use the shiny hub nuts, so that's a bonus!!
Once I get them back from the machine shop, I'll tidy them up as required & maybe have them powder-coated & then, as they say, we're good to go!!
Next job is to find some decent tyres to fit but I may have a solution to that little conundrum. Then it's back off with the rear wheels & hubs (including the shiny new calipers that Dave kindly fitted) so we can modify things there to take the Wolfies, then it's back on 4 wheels finally & on to the next few jobs!!
Some of you may have seen that sadly, we're not going to Hockenheim for the NitrOlympiX now, as the altered's drive shaft that broke at Dragstagia cannot be made & shipped over in time. However, it now looks to be a busy old year next year as Dave has now been appointed crew chief for Bob Glassup's new Capri Fuel Funny car!
Here I have finally managed to remove the existing spindles (pesky hidden grub screws!!) & temporarily fitted the "new" spindles. Thankfully everything alse lines up, drag link & steering arm.
Here are the wheels temporarily fitted, thankfully the steering arms hadn't been modified so the original ones still fit fine, as does the steering link from the box.
This is one of the offending "old" spindles, showing the back plate flanges have been removed, the spindle shaft machined straight & shortened & re-threaded. You can also see (or not) that there is no cotter pin fitment, the king pins being held in place by two grub screws from the back, one of which was almost invisble!! However, I can re-use the shiny hub nuts, so that's a bonus!!
Once I get them back from the machine shop, I'll tidy them up as required & maybe have them powder-coated & then, as they say, we're good to go!!
Next job is to find some decent tyres to fit but I may have a solution to that little conundrum. Then it's back off with the rear wheels & hubs (including the shiny new calipers that Dave kindly fitted) so we can modify things there to take the Wolfies, then it's back on 4 wheels finally & on to the next few jobs!!
Some of you may have seen that sadly, we're not going to Hockenheim for the NitrOlympiX now, as the altered's drive shaft that broke at Dragstagia cannot be made & shipped over in time. However, it now looks to be a busy old year next year as Dave has now been appointed crew chief for Bob Glassup's new Capri Fuel Funny car!