Stearing And Brake upgrade

Alex (FTS) · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject: Stearing And Brake upgrade

Ok I've finaly got round to taking the van off the road for a little bit of TLC and a bit of an up grade underneath.

Finaly got all my parts together thanks to Spud for getting me some vr6 corrado callipers and a big thanks to Dave at Futbus who did all the machining to fit the callipers and sorted me out with some 288mm drilled and vented discs, oh and some new wheel bearings and stainless steel hoses!

Alos big thanks to Neil-C, JP and of Course Rich for helping out with the front steering system. I got me Idle all ready and my rascal rack, I've removed the old steering colum and so I'm ready to start mounting bits and get em all on and working.

Hear are some pics

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rusty69bus · Jedi Master Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 467 Location: essex

hey up alex, what sort of machining was involved?
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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject:

I got Futbus to do there kit on the front suspension uprights-they have just drilled out the old threds for the calliper and pushed in acouple of machined discs with the new calliper hole drilled off center this them makes the mount wide enough to except the slightly wider vr6 callipers.

Machineing for the idle arm was arranged and done by Rich and JP and I got the new push rod (not shown) machined localy but again JP and Rich sorted me out with a rascal eye that had been machined with a m12 thred. Nice one guys

All the steering underneath is now in place- I just need to assemble the steering colume! I'll post photos's up tomorrow.

Cheers
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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject:

Ok got a little more progress done. Its all mounted underneath now and working got me drag linked made up but did the classic and cocked up my measurments (it was dark I was cold!!!) its fine for now but I will get a new longer one machined in the new year.

So All I gotta do now is bund the suspension uprights and hub asembly back on, mount a servo and new steering colume. I got a nice extra link piece from the scrap yard so I can now mount the colum were I want it, so I'm pretty pleased about that too.

I'm off on holiday now so wont have any more progress until mid jan-Have a great christmas every onn.

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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:32 pm Post subject:

Ok due to getting cort in a flood and ruining my escort TD (was gonna use the engine in the van) I've been left carless and so a bit more progress on the stearing and brake upgrade on the van has happened.

Ok so first the stearing. I've had a new drag link made the first one I messed up and made it too short!! Eeeek

So I have had a new one machined and I'm back in action oh and I got a full set of stainless steel bolts for the whole lot too.

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Once that was all back in place I started searching the scrapyards for suitable stearing columes. I ended up with a 1996 SEAT Ibiza STI steering colume and managed to remove that in whole from the car so I have colume, indicator stalks, steering wheel, cowling and ignition barrel. But with no key!! Anyways I found out that the ignition barrel was the same as a MK2 Golf and T25 so a mate gave me a new barrel and keys-Nice one Luke! and then found out that the indicator stalks are also the same as a MK2 Golf too.

So I have a T25 ignition lock, mk2 golf indicator stalks and a SEAT Ibiza STI stearing colum. And then to mate them to the rascal rack I have used a steering cupling ftom a Renualt LD35 which I have machined to fit inside the now narrowed bottom link of the stearing colum.

NB. I still need to drill and pin that bottom link in place.

Ok so that has been fileing most of my time but I have also had some progress with the brakes. I moved the brake pipe brackets up 10mm so that my new stainless steel hoses would fit but then realised I would have to make up some new brakelines anyway as I'm fitting a servo-so it was a bit of a waste of time but at least I tackled a bit of rust that was lurking there!

So NExt was to get the sevo in. I was gonna use a Porsche 944 one that I have but after seeing Rich's being a bit tight I followed his path and went for a trip down the scrappy were I found a MK2 Golf one which is only 8" wide so fits real easy in the space on the beeam compared to the porsche 9" diameter. It has the same mounting stud pattern as the porsche and Baywindow and also has the same stud size for the master cycliner.

In the end I have gone for a MK3 golf master cyclinder as it is real compact and there are load of differant header tanks available for em that will fit under the van-all new VW and alot of Ford appear to use the same master cylinder dimentions so there are all sort of inter-changable bits.

So I have chopped off the end off the push rod too the servo and I plan to sleave this in a big push rod that will go to the pedal (I'll pin that all in place again to get a good secure and mechanical conection.
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Neil-C · Jedi Knight Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 192

Good progress Alex. Almost back together.

Be interested to know how much better your van feels to drive after all the upgrades.

Hopefully some decent weather before too long to put it all to good use!
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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 7:30 pm Post subject:

Cheers Neil. Yes it would definatly be interesting to see how she runs once every thing is done-hopefully alot easier-with better steering and a more comfortable driving position oh and a bit easier on the brakeing foot.

I spent a long time trying to get the driving positioned just right-astheticly I would have mount the steering colum closer to the dash but I really wanted a more relaxed driving positioned-a bit more reclined so I could make more use of my arm rests. Grin

Not too sure about the steering cowling might tweek that once the van is on the road again.

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richbaker78 · Teacher of Padawans Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 1298

good to see some progress mate - did you find the servo push rod was the right length to mate to the MC? Mines about 20mm short so I have to make up an intermediate rod. Might be easier to use your tried and tested set up :-)

sorry to hear about the old TD. - have you totally knacked it then?you tried removing injectors / plugs & pumping it out?

Alex (FTS) · Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:04 pm Post subject:

I had to shorten the end of the MK3 master cylinder (were the push rod goes through) to be the same length as the MK3-so now both ends are the same length and the depth is also the same. I only modified the my3 master cylinder because I found a mint one down the scrappy and all the old mk2 ones were a bit rough.

It looks like the head gueskets gone so not sure if its worth bother because of the time it may take to fix-car only owes 300 but it is still super tidy so seems a shame to scrap her! So because the haed is leaking not sure its worth getting involved-but I think I'll get me another motor and then tackle the broken one as a side project-open to any ideas if you guys may now some quick fixes?

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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:20 pm Post subject:

BIt more progress-nothing that serious but I wanted to use my old steering wheel on the new SEAT colum so luckily I managed to get a multi fit boss from ebay for a tenner. I then removed every thing from it until it was just the aluminum bit with the steering splines in. I then made a new flat plate out of 4mm steel and bolted that in place and smoothed around the edge and attached my wheel. I recon I managed to remove 3" so I was pretty pleased with that.

Then I painted the brown trim black to match every thing else.

And then I removed the bulge in the bottom of the cowling and glassed in the whole with some thin ply and glass fiber. And then bolted it all in place.

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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:51 pm Post subject:

Ok Bit more progress going on. I've been getting me brake servo and master cylinder attached to the van. Last week I made up the new extended push rod and the servo mounting plate so this week it was time to get it all attached!

Mounting was easy because I have used a mk2 golf servo, which is an inch narrower in siameter, so I have a bit more room to play with than if using the stock one. I did have to mount my plate at a slight angle though to get a nice straight run for the servo push rod.

I'm afraid my painting has gone a bit rubish on this item Laugh Out Loud

And view from the rear-on the right you can see that I drilled a hole in the chassis for the remote brake reservoir-which I have moved to behind the drivers seat.

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Alex (FTS) · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:27 pm Post subject:

Just A Quick update. Well I'mfinaly roleing again and I can report back that the steering feels great! Much lighter than befor and alot more precise as in it goes were you steer, also no play at the steering wheel so that feels great too. I've only been driving around my hard but I am impressed so far.

The brakes also feel good and lock the wheels up very easily! They feel a little spongy but I think thats mainly because the brakes pads arent worn in yet.

So I'm pretty stoked! Thanks again Neil-C for let us use your idea and design-it certainly gets the thumbs up from me.

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