Rear Suspension Clean Up and New Turbo's

[Nellie]

Hi All,

Well after a winter with the car sat in the garage while I decided what to and what parts to get I have now dived in and started to tidy up my 99 V8 GT hopefully in time for the Donnington get together:

New Parts:

Braided Brake hoses (SJ Sportscars)

New Bushes (Mix of Poly and Rubber - SJ Sportscars)

POR 15 (Frost restorers equipment)

Refurbished and Uprated Turbo's (Turbo Dynamics)

Ebay Sourced Parts:

Quicksilver Stub exhausts :-) (Loud)

I removed the turbo's just before Xmas, they have now come back all looking new and ready to go apparently they will give around 70 - 80 bhp each more in terms of flow capability B) , seems a shame to put them on but saying that I have missed the ability to drive the car.

With these now back in my hands I decided to make a start today on removing the rear suspension and replaing all the brake lines and bushes and generally tidying up all the areas I can get to.

So far it is not a pretty sight, I have never seen a car of this age so heavily corroded just as well the chassis is galvanised as otherwise I would be seriously concerned. Even my Disco that I used to load boats in and out of the sea never got this bad.

The Drivers side:

The Passenger Side:

So far I have managed to get the Passenger side stripped down:

Of course its not been without problems, there have been a number of bolts that are bent!!!!!! Worrying seeming as its the suspension area. And of course the obligatory seized bolts:

I have managed to get the stud out of the bottom of the hub carrier but it was time consuming and frustrating to say the least, plenty of copper grease being used when that gets reassembled!!!

The radius arm is more difficult, the bolt is seized in well and truely, and the brake line connections are rusted solid, looks like the hacksaw will have to some out again!!

Once the parts are all free I will clean them up and apply POR15 to it all and high temp paint to the caliper, then reassemble this side before starting on the drivers side.

I am leaving putting the shocks on till last as I am intending to get them all powder coated before replacing on the car and its easier to do them all in one hit.

Further Update will follow as I progress the work.

Nellie

[matk]

Nice one, good luck.

[talon]

Good start - look forward to seeing how things progress as I am about to start the same project myself.

[kyliesmith.com]

Those Turbos look a treat Keep up the good work, and hope you dont come across too many other things while your there. I used POR15 recently on the wheel wells, drive shafts, upper and lower links. So youll have fun. Post plenty of pics.

Edited February 26, 2009 by kyliesmith.com

[Dave Freeman]

What is POR15, or did I just miss the point

Dave

[Bibs]

http://www.frost.co.uk/

They sell it, it's a brilliant paint that coats and protects. It's temp resistant, wipe clean, flexible, shiny and other stuff. Very handy to have and used extensively by many Esprit owners.

[Dave Freeman]

Wish I had know about this, last year I stripped front and rear suspension, re bushed and fitted new coils and adjustable shocks. I used cellulose paint, it looked good to start with but now, some 12 - 14 months later, even tho the car has not got wet or been driven in the rain the suspension is now looking old and rusty. Looks like a re vamp may be necessary during the cars winter layup.

Thanks for the info Bips

Dave

[Bibs]

No probs bave!

You can see what it does and how it looks if you have a scan through this...

http://www.lotusespritforum.com/bibs/BigSi_presentation.pdf <- right click and 'save as', it's a fair size document.

[Simon350S]

Good luck mate!

One side at a time is a very good idea, that way it doesn't overwhelm you an you can see the progress better!

[medida]

what did you do to the turbos to get the extra hp?

[Nellie]

what did you do to the turbos to get the extra hp?

Hi,

In a nut shell, as Turbo Dynamics have still not sent me the full spec:

Its a hybrid with a larger compressor, trimmed to aid spool up. Fitted with uprated seals to cope with greater boost (These had failed causing the need for the rebuild) and 360 degree thrust bearings.

As soon as I get the full spec of works caried out I will update.

Nellie

[Nellie]

Update on where I am

Made a start on stripping the drivers side down as wanted to do it while I was in a good flow!!

All now stripped out as per pics below:

This means I now have all the suspension components out at the rear of the car, and managed to strip out all the seized bolts and brake pipes and also the rubber bushes, giving me the below items ready to clean up and POR:

On the minus side the Passenger side hub carrier split pin is seized in, - I am intendning to clean it up and leave it as is.

Also on the drivers side hub carrier it has a crack in the location of the split pin, really annoyed with this as I did not hit is once and used gental heating and gradual pressure to remove seized bolt!!!!

On the plus side as I am ever the optimist it means a new hub carrier for the car!!

With all the suspension parts out I have now started to clean the chassis as I can get to it, so far the passengers side is clean and ready for POR treatment:

Next stage will be to clean drivers side and then leave for a couple of days to fully dry before a spot of metal ready prior to painting.

All I need to do in the meantime is order all the replacement bolts!!

Will update again soon!

Nellie

[Nellie]

Hi again, finally!!!

Well work has taken a massive toll on time I could spend on the car, dam all this having to earn money lark!!!

However some good progress has been made, however my Donnington timeline is looking sketchy at best!!

First off, have painted all the loose components in POR15:

You'll notice at the end the rear shocks are black, I have decided not too powder coat these as am intending to replace later this year with adjustable units plus it speeds up the process, these have been hamerite sooth spray painted.

I then let these dry and harden after 3 coats, it looked lovely and then I applied the sterling silver top coat:

This does not look as good but I wanted to give maximum protection to the arms etc.

I then made the start on the chassis, I have taken a rather conservative approach of only doing what can be easily reached, the intention is to have the gearbox modified later in the year so I will carry out further painting and touch ups while this is out. Have to say though it does look a lot better already

NS view after second coat, the driveshaft has a first coating in this pic:

this next picture is from the rear Near Side looking foward, flash did not highlight it very well but hopefully you catch the drift:

This pic is the rear view, gearbox still needs a dam good clean have also found that the gearbox seals are leaking so these will get done at the next service along with the belts:

and then last but not least the OS rear view, this side is a lot more challenging to get good access to clean and paint due to gearbox cables, throttle cables and shielding etc:

I am now making steady progress, I have all the parts I need now to get the car back together as the new hubs arrived and all the nuts and bolts etc.

Will lay it all out tomorrow and take a picture of it all so you can see the extent of parts to be replaced

Hoping tomorrow, time allowing, will see the NS suspension back in place and ready for final checks and torque application!!

Also after some advice on a good powder coating company in the Milton Keynes area for the shock springs if anyone could offer it.

All the best

Nellie

[Winter]

Don't discard your old hubs.

Even broken ones can be welded back together again. Apparently totally seized split spacers are romovable with a combination of penetrating oil, heating, longitudinal hacksawing and pressing.

You are now in the happy position of having new ones on so that you have time and no pressure to refurbish the old ones.

[Nellie]

Hi All,

Well its been a while since my last post on the rear end rebuild, I have managed to put it all back together, some odds and sods still to do but overall I am happy, need to crack on with the front end before my MOT is due.

So reassembly, well first off I started by getting the new poly bushes fitted on the link bars as show below:

Next just for sanity sake on my part I laid out all the suspension items I had to ensure I had it all too hand to put back in correctly. You will notice the spring is still all rusty I am intendng to replace the shocks in the not too distant future so will get them powder coated then

From here I built hub the near side rear hub carrier, I installed the ABS sensor, caliper bracket, hub bearing and hub, using plenty of anti seize so it easy to take parts off at a later date shuld it be required. Also you will notice I left the hubs bare of paint, I just prefer them this way and now everything else is painted there should be less galvanic reaction between dissimilar materials to cause corrosion.

With this completed I started the job of fitting to the car, first off I had to prepare new brake line fittings as this had been an advisor at last MOT:

You would not believe how awkward that is to do on the car and laying underneath it!!!!

I then fitted the new stainless brake line, again using anti seize on the dissimilar metals:

That done it was time to install the turbo while I had a whole load of nice clearance!!

First off I check the mating manifold face was clean then offered up the turbo and loosley connected all the hoses and pipes:

I then tightened the connections and 'ta da' one shiny new turbo in place:

I then refitted the Cat body (Body only as ceramic cat has long dissappeared!!!!! ) and the Quicksilver stub exhausts I got off ebay!!

You'll have to excuse the dusty bodywork but it has been sat in my garage for almost 2 months on axel stands

Turbo fitted I now got on with installing the radius arm bush, spacers and brackets:

This was followed by placing the radius arm and nut on, I left this all loose so as to allow an easy movement of the arm in all planes while installing the hub assembly:

With this in place it was on too the top link, this went in with the snubber washers and spacers, this was a very tight fit, ably assisted with the use of WD40 and a plastic mallet, the bolt run was then filled with anti seize and the bolt pushed through - I have stuck with zinc plated bolts and not stainless steel:

This only left the lower link arm to install which is a lot more straight forward as it only required some WD 40 to lubricate it in and a light tap. Again once in the bolt run was filled with anti seize and a new bolt inserted:

Just remember to get the right arm on each side and aligned correctly! Now it was a case of fitting the hub carrier. I did this in a number of steps:

1. I bolted the hub carrier to the radius arm (lesson 1 this was done off car on offside installation)

2. The hub carrier was bolted to the top link assembly

3. I inserted the the lower link stud (lesson 2 do not install lower link arm to chassis until this is complete)

4. I attached the shock to the lower link stud and then offered up to shock mount.

5. The lower link was reinserted to chassis

6. Spring was compressed and top nuts tightened to specification

7. All bolts were torqued up to Lotus manual settings (NOTE: Radius arm bolt is torqued up once the car is on its wheel and loaded!!!!!) This is so you do not preload the bush.

8. Rear disc was refitted and drive shaft nut (New) and washer put in place (tightened to full 250nm once car back on its wheels)

9. ABS sensor plugged back into loom.

That all done I got to the final position as shown below:

All that remains is to reinstall the calipers (New ones ordered from lotus and picked up and fitted 02.05.09 - pics to follow) drop the car onto its wheels and final tighten checks.

All told the reassembly took 5 hours on the near side, with the lessons learnt I was able to do the offside in 1 1/2 hours including the turbo fit B)

So the obligatory before and after shot!!!

BEFORE:

AFTER B)

Although a difficult job and expensive (New hubs as well as all the bolts etc) it was well worth it and I am over the moon with the current position. There is still much more tidying up to at teh rear end but it is now starting to look like a super car again and not a rusty jalopy!!

I will update shortly with brake caliper fit, gearbox seal replacement and final pics and video upload of the exhaust bark!!!!

Also when I come to fit new shocks and powder coat the springs. I am also intending to buy some 200 cell cats so it can pass emissions at the MOT!!!!

Thanks for reading the long winded post

Nellie

[stats007]

Looks good though with the new bushes will you not need a geometry check?

[kyliesmith.com]

Hi Adam, lovely work, I can appreciate the hard work that went into this. I pretty much did the same as you except my bushes were in good nick so I left them, and I just temporary cleaned up and coated the springs while there to stop them from getting any worse. The most heartbreaking thing for me was doing the seals while there thinking all was going to be mint and oil free under there for many motoring months to come!!! till finding I hadnt sealed up one of the roll pins properly and all the handy work of a clean gear box was mucky again, its such a PITA to clean Grrrrrrrr haha! The joys eh.

Anyway keep at it, it does feel good knowing you have done some great improvements to maintain it.

Ive lost the plot the last few months and need to get back on the band wagon again with the car and do more improvements.

[Günter]

Kylie, have you mentioned the point to seal the splines with adhesive ? As in that way it's not that risky with the roll-pins ..

[Nellie]

Kylie/Gunter

I have not sealed either of these so will need to revisit the saeling, I only applied sealant to outsode of seal body as per guide I was given.

I have no leaks at present but will take the pins out and reseal just to be sure.

Thanks for the pointers

Kylie,

I also know hoe you feel about motivation!! lol I have the front end to do now but thought I would drive it for a couple of weeks before I started on that. Still it is very pleasing every time I look at the back end of the car now B)

Nellie

[ChrisH]

looks good Adam, what a difference and well worth it, like the bushes, currently doing mine just now, both sides, rubbing all the components down takes me ages then i will coat them all in POR 15, taking my springs to Heetford to get them shot blasted and powder coated, only down side is my knees start to suffer, och well. Keep up the good work

[cor]

Nice one Adam,

looking great very rewarding job.

Thanks kyle for the tip on the roll pins, this had not occured to me,

havo to keep this in mind.

Cor