Early Caterham front suspension

[plop32]

Hello all,

I am new to your club.  I am now the proud owner of a 1989 1700 Super Sprint.  So far I have put a couple of hundred miles on it and I am in love.  The car has 60000 miles on it but has been well maintained, waxoyled and rebuilt when necessary.  

The question I have is: with the old style front suspension, has anyone come up with an way to set caster and camber?  

Thanks, in advance

Pete

[Jonathan Kay]

Welcome.

Do you have an Assembly Guide? Send me a Private Mail if you want one.

Jonathan

[Delbert]

Pete 

where about are you based ? 

I do know that the likes of Nick Potter  would help with set up at his facility in the East Midlands ( there are a few independents that know the older set ups )

he has loads of experience in set up of these cars having raced them and been a C C Midlands manager 

granted he is a business so there will be a bill ! 

[DJ.]

I'm no expert on the original suspension, but I think I remember chatting to a guy with an early car and he had a bolt on conversion to a top wishbone with separate anti roll bar. If I remember correctly, it would be worthwhile upgrade if you aren't worried about originality

[plop32]

Thanks, I appreciate the info.  D.J's conversion is very interesting.  I thought someone would have figured something like that out.  Does anyone have a name?  I also thought of using excentric bushings in lower A arms.    It runs great I would just like to play with camber a bit.

plop32

[OliverSedlacek]

I did the top link conversion on mine many years ago. From memory, all the parts were bought from Caterham, so I would start by asking Redline. Officially it's only recommended with a change from trunnions to ball joints at the bottom because otherwise the upright is over-constrained, i.e. both the trunnion and the top wishbone try to set the castor, and they might not agree. In practice I haven't found this to be a problem, but it's not guaranteed. With the conversion the front geometry is controlled better, especially when braking. You still can't adjust caster, but you can adjust camber through the number of turns of thread engagement of the top balljoint in the top wishbone.

[plop32]

Thanks for the advice. I will contact Redline. Unfortunately, I am in the States so a little far away.  I will post any info I can find. 

 

Plop32

[Molecular--Bob]

I think if you have the top link bracket then you can use a later wishbone with a rod end, think you need to change the bearing as the taper is different between the pin in the fixed length arm and the threaded rod end. You will also need a later style anti-roll bar.

May have a set of the brackets available shortly as my car is being rebuilt as we speak with a later style front end, so will no longer need them. I also have upper wishbones and a couple of anti-roll bars if they are any use to you. Message me with an email if you are interested and I'll do you some pictures.

This thread http://213-04.com/t.asp?id=28026 has a part number ( QR1118s )for the alternative rod end that you need, I assume it is correct, but dont know for sure as I didn't do the conversion in the end.

They are showing as available on Amazon Uk at ~£10.00 each. Not sure any of the cars it fits were sold in America, so you may need to import them. If you did want my parts I would be happy to get some for you and stick them in the box.

Ian Brock

[OliverSedlacek]

With a car of that vintage you will be knocking on Redline's door at some point, so you may as well start now.