Quote:
Originally Posted by 750hp
Hi Russ,
Thanks for the response. I am really keen on the idea of getting correct suspension geometry and losing 80lb, and have read every word that you and Arthur have written about the Fast Cars suspension - over and over again  Arthur had mentioned needing to mod his chassis and also to add wheel spacers. Did you need to do this? Arthur also mentioned (back in 2008 I think) that Fast Cars might have been making changes to make it a true bolt-in proposition for Cobras.
Does the sway bar come with the package?
Cheers, |
You should also talk to Ted at Fast cars to find out if Russ has the wider Fast Cars IFS. Ted makes two widths, I have the narrower and I'm reasonable confident thet the wider unit should fit my car too and that would not require cutting two little notches in the chassis as the shock towers are wider apart. But even with the narrower unit the fitting was pretty easy.
I went throug a great deal of trouble to measure and elongating the Fast Cars IFS bolting holes to precisely mate up with the bolt holes on my frame as the center to center measurement between my Butler frame & the Fast Cars IFS was about 1/8" off from front to back and about 1/4" left to right. The elongation I did was painstakingly accurate. But after all my careful measuring I bolted it up and found that the new IFS was not at 90 degrees to the center line of the car. If you are fitting it yourself I would suggest doing your measuring and use a die grinder and elongate holes in the correct direction to give you plenty of clearance. I've now made the holes bigger and I'm now completing the alignment to be dead on 90 degrees. Then I'm welding 1/2" shaft collars to each of the holes of the IFS. The shaft collar has set screw that can be used as an additional locking device to lock the four 1/2" NC bolts in place. And with this modification the suspension can be removed and replaced with dead accuracy any time it needs to be removed and refitted.
If your car has the fiberglass shrouding between the radiator and engine that hides/covers the MGB crossmember, you will need to notch it to clear the steering shaft which will now go directly from the Fast Cars rack & pinion up to the MGB steering column. The intermediate roughly 8" long piece of steeering shaft & extra U-Joint that the Butler uses will not be needed. Nice & clean. Russ did not have the shroud on his car, Correct Russ?
With regard to the wheel spacers. It is a temporary solution. I will eventually be getting 17" wheels and will have them made with correct back spacing.
So if Russ has the wider IFS go with that as it resolves a number of issues. And I think wider is better anyway. Ted can make any bolt pattern hub you need.
I'm sure Ted can create a sway bar but you will need to adapt it to your frame. I designed and created my own system using 1" diameter 48 spline sway bar with aluminum arms from Stock Car Products. The nice thing about this setup is that you can have the sway bar ground to a specific diameter and tune the suspension/anti-roll to tweek any over/under steer issues. The grinding fee is very reasonable and they have been great to deal with.
Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions. Ted at Fast Cars has been perfect to deal with too, give him my regards when you talk to him.
Arthur