289 progress........

[LMH]

Nice looking steering arms Jeff! Question; they look to be straight like the standard street steering arm. Will they need to have a bend to accommodate larger tires and alloy wheels?
Larry

[1985 CCX]

Originally Posted by LMH

Nice looking steering arms Jeff! Question; they look to be straight like the standard street steering arm. Will they need to have a bend to accommodate larger tires and alloy wheels?
Larry

Larry
Great question as I do run Mag 6.5" with Goodyear Powercushions.
The units I have now are ever slightly bend, all fits as it's on the rim where tire width is outside that area.

Will post all exciting details as they arise....

[MAStuart]

Jeff for some reason the flash would not go off. Replaced the picture with a little better one.

The steering arm they show with your calipers look like they from George or his son. I have a set. I believe they are an investment casting of some type of stainless steel. If you do not have to bend them, they should be a bolt on deal. I think they told me to bend them, they will need to be heated cherry red. I am not sure on how they should be cooled. You would need to talk so someone that knows about those things. That being said parts of the arm is hollow. To me its a casting flaw. Tom told me all of them they have are like that . In some of the pictures below you can see the void in the bolt hole and where the tie rod goes in.






The arms are right and left handed. The single one above them is an unmachined forging. They can be machined to be right or left handed.

[MAStuart]

I had to go out and get some bolts to mock these parts up. I have had them for some time now, and have never put them together to see how thing would line up.

I was going to tell you the rotor does not have to be centered perfectly. The two pistons in the caliper will move the pads out touch and the fluid pressure will equalize and the pistons will be pushing against each other.


Overall shot of the assembly


Picture shows how rotor is aligned in caliper


With this picture you should be able to put your wheel on, and get an idea if you wil have o bend the steering arm to clear the wheel.


Another shot of how thing align

[MAStuart]

One more picture of the way the arm bolts to the upright. In this picture you can see the bolt hole with the threads. You will notice part of the hole has no threads. This is done so that when you have the right bolt part of the unthreaded shank of the bolt goes in there to align the caliper an hold it tight and to help to keep the bolts from shearing off. This bunch of picture should give you an idea of your install.

[1985 CCX]

Great pictures, it does look like the original style units are shorter in length possibly aiding in wheel rub. Thus keeping it off the wheel however might need to get different rod ends or go simple hiem. I am told by a few folks that it will be fine straight with Mag wheels as they are narrower and cast a little different.

I did a bunch of looking through pictures last night and it looks like it's a 50/50 shot as to bend or not. Appears to weigh heavily on offset plus wheel choice dependance.

We will see, hoping this weekend we can set up and eye ball fitment.

[1985 CCX]

I’ll help on this one ......
Here is Jim’s

[ALF]

Originally Posted by 1985 CCX

I’ll help on this one ......
Here is Jim’s

Many thanks for this great picture.
Yes this I head in my mind referring to Jim’s thread in my post.
I’ll contact Jim via PM to not highjack the build thread from Jeff any longer 😉

[1985 CCX]

Trigo's

Will have to add backset as what matters.

Hi-Jack away! It's all about open and fun discussion.

[MAStuart]

Jeff I am going to try one of my wheels today. I don't think it's going to fit without bending. My wheels are Trigo Fia 7 1/2. They are supposed to fit an original car. I don't know why most makers make them 7 1/2 and 9 1/2. I believe original cars used 6 1/2 and 8 1/2-inch FIA wheels. Anyhow if your wheel fits without bending the steering arm, I might have to look into getting real Mag wheels in the correct sizes.

I am glad I got some bolts to see how things fit together. I have been wondering about for a while now. I am glad everything looks like it fits together well.

I have a question for you? How well did your old brakes work? How many pistons did they have and what size are they? Depending on those things, you might not have as much stopping power than you had. I went with the Girling's because that's that they had.

[1795]

I am not so sure that stopping power will be a potential concern. Based upon my experience with the race Girling calipers, they have plenty of stopping power. The only issue that I had to address was adequate cooling to the solid rotors to decrease warping under high temps so that they were not pushing the brake pads back. I doubt that there will be any problems during normal driving.

If you are going to track the car, you may want to check the pedal if you are going into corners right after significant braking for a prior situation. I found that braking for a corner after a long straight was not a problem, but having to brake for corners that were in close proximity to each other, after the rotors heated up the pedal would get soft and require some pumping to get the brakes to work. That was corrected with the addition of more brake cooling.

[ALF]

@ 1795:
Could you please provide some details on the break cooling you did add.
I've seen some pictures on your build thread, but would be great to get some details.
I assume best on a new thread.

[1985 CCX]

I would say that my current brakes are similar to what Jim describes above. Maybe 90% of the Girlings.
Based upon what I have experienced in the past Girlings are better as they are dual piston (one each side) vs single piston - static one side as modern brakes often are along with a bit more contact area on rotor.

The PBR type are used on typical 4000 cars etc... No quality issues, no doubt $$ factor
Girlings will set you back a couple dollars, generally not for weak knee's.
KMS uses Wilwood STD, Girling optional I think which are again improved over PBR type and work like manual brakes do.

To be honest, solid rotors do not move heat as well as vented. In racing conditions nothing is perfect and wear a violent competitor. Racing = brutal on wear items.

Why the change?
If you ask that you don't know me.....
I did have the option of Girling steel calipers, just went for the race. (I'll add a picture later)

I'll post pics once I assemble, the Magnesium wheels are 6.5" and also cast a little different than alloy. We will see together....

Below is Jim F car, set up by Cobra Automotive.

[1795]

Originally Posted by ALF

@ 1795:
Could you please provide some details on the break cooling you did add.
I've seen some pictures on your build thread, but would be great to get some details.
I assume best on a new thread.

Alf,

It is somewhat similar to what Jeff just posted a picture of from Cobra automotive. I will post some pictures and descriptions when it gets a little warmer out. Right now we are getting single digit to negative degrees Fahrenheit.

Jim

[MAStuart]

Hi Jeff. If you get a chance, could you measure the back spacing on your 6 1/2 inch wheels? Just wondering where they put the inch when they started to make 7 1/2 inch FIA wheels. All in the back, all in the front, half and half, or something else? My wheel will not fit without bending the steering arm.

[1985 CCX]

I'll look tonight.

[1985 CCX]

All parts for the most part are collected.

Mag wheel backspace 2.75” give or take.
Front calipers rebuilt by Cobra Automotive along with steering arm PU.
Thank you Curt and team.

Front pistons cleaned and polished and new rubber applied.
Did keep the patina, no cleaning, on outside.
Steering arms = steel: not stainless as they stick to magnet
Could be alloyed but my guess steel.

Will test fit this weekend. Will bend steering arms if necessary.

[1985 CCX]

Bonus day!
Thanks to a delivery from my friend Craig Combs I now have rear calipers along with insulated e-brake cable.

They are beautiful pieces and will be seeing the gold car after I get front settled.

[1985 CCX]

Couple extra shares from Cobra Auto

Curt’s Manx
My friend Mark R. CSX4000 car about to ship to UK.

Thanks again to Cobra Automotive team as it’s always a great visit.

[1985 CCX]

Thanks Jim
Your help has been awesome and invaluable