Bigpower

After Woodbridge in march 2007 it became clear that a couple of strut braces and a little extra power just wasnt going to cut it, brilliant fun though it was the brakes faded badly and i had arms like popeye for a week from just stopping myself sliding about in the standard squishy seats and the standard squishy suspension, so i spent 2007 collecting together parts with the plan of putting it all together in one go over the winter. An MOT fail in jan on rear brakes seemed like the perfect excuse to do the lot so i set about pulling things apart:

Standard...ish. At one of the BP Drift days, arch gaps you live in


A collection of parts:

Shiny blue bits from Apex, Rose-jointed adjustable arms
Shiny pink bits from Apex, Sub-frame locking collars
S14 5 Stud hubs and front lower arms
S14 4 Pot calipers & Black diamond grooved/dimpled disks
Z32 Rear discs
4x Goodridge Braided brake lines.
Also picked up a set of R33 GTST Rear calipers from supercarparts

A set of Apex 8/6 Coil-overs

With some rather odd bottom mounts 1 12mm S13 size hole and 1 14mm S14 size hole, oddness!!! Nothing a few seconds with a 14mm drill bit cant solve.

A couple of coats of Hammerite on the calipers

Still need another coat and they'll probably turn pink after the first track day...

Some standard S14 wheels


So its off with the old:


And then wrap it up for a week while real life gets in the way....


And on with the new:






Now thats more like it:


Better arch gap and its still up in the air...
Unfortunately the GTR wheels are rubbing on the coil-over locking collars for the suspension, so it'll have to be s14 wheels for a while till i sort some 5mm spacers. The longer s14 arms has made it all knock knee'd and there's a tonne of front toe that needs adjusting out, but thats the front suspension done...ish. Rear first then brakes all round.

Onwards and downwards!

Back on the floor and S14 wheels on, cars so low the jack wont come out doh, so it gets its own little plinth


Arse in the air wire brush all the nuts and bolts and attack with WD40 in prep for tomorrows battle.

Hmmm I think isee why the rear brakes failed the MOT :-D


So this is how she stands tonight

With any luck it wont snow tomorrow and ill have another chance to loose all feeling in my feet.

Fun! :-D

Looking good Maff - the brakes will make a massive difference 8)

nice work fella.

Cool, see what driving Yaks car did for you

Cheers guys.

SM wrote:Cool, see what driving Yaks car did for you

Yup, handles like a go cart that thing

Sundays work didnt go too well, after discovering just how bloody big the rear hub nuts were 36mm.... im used to MG's :oops: I just haven't got a socket that big. So all that happened is U cracked all the nuts that would move on the rear arms and covered everything in WD40, hoping if I do that once a day till next sat they should give in rather easier. In the mean time I'm off to buy the biggest breaker bar i can find :-D

For bolts that have been on 16 years the rear multi-link arms came off comparatively easily, and after a few hours on Saturday i was left with a boot full of bits.
Thanks to Tom (ValoSunnyGTI) for coming round and leaning on things

And despite horror stories of stuck hub nuts a meter breaker bar was more than man enough for the job.

At my pace im never going to get a job as a mechanic, they'd go bust

Sunday morning was not quite as successful, neither SXOC technique of getting the hub out of the hub carrier wanted to work.
1 undo hub carrier bolts 5mm each and smack the crap out of them ... FAIL.


2 Bolt disc back on backwards and smack the living crap out of that ... FAIL, but this did necessitate putting the new arms and coilovers on so have something to hold it still while i belted it. Fortunately Tom turned up again at just the right moment, some things are far easier with 4 hands.


Still it looks pretty

So like all good mechanics i had a cup of coffee and a think. And I thought, sod it, Ill spend the afternoon in the sun with the kids. Besides it'll give me time during the week to clean these up:


And my pile of whee bits growing


And the afternoon went brilliantly


I think im gonna have to take the hub carriers/knuckle off the car and get someone to press the hubs out of it, unless anyone's got any bright ideas?
Time to read the workshop manual on handbrake mechanisms then.

Wahey i got a mention

I told Dan to bring the HUB thing home and i will pop over his afterwork then move on over to yours after that if he hasn't already brought it round, he may need a text to remind him though.

Cheers, but having thought it through i think theres going to be too much movement in the suspension/driveshaft for a hub puller to do any good, its probably take it off and belt it time.

ahhh ok, you still want me to pick it up ?

Nah, dont worry about it.