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PostPosted: September 9, 2017, 9:43 am 
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Location: Delaware
another small task done: picked up the uprights from the local hot rod shop after getting some heat to get the tie rod to clear the brake rotor. Guy mentioned the miata uprights were very easy to work with.

Also test fit the front suspension bracket jig and after wrestling with it for a few minutes realized that one of the top alignment holes was off by 8mm maybe I need to start measuring 10x instead of 5x. Should be fixed shortly, waiting on a 14mm drill to enlarge the holes on the brackets to match the subaru bushings I am using.

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hot rdded uprights.jpg


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Last edited by hfmaxi on August 16, 2020, 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: November 4, 2017, 10:28 am 
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Location: Delaware
Finally got to bolt something to the frame! I probably had the front brackets mocked up for the better part of month and really just needed to make some of the bracing for the U brackets. Got it all tacking in and just had to bolt some stuff up and check. Only item that will have to be re-looked at is the camber adjuster needs some more clearance as the max camber seems to be about -1deg atm, nothing too bad thought.

Attachment:
front suspension template 2.jpg

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front suspension passenger.jpg

Attachment:
front suspension frontal.jpg

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front suspension both sides.jpg


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Last edited by hfmaxi on August 16, 2020, 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: November 16, 2017, 9:02 am 
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Location: Delaware
so I ran into a small issue mocking up the steering rack last night. It's something that should have been noticed a long time ago given how much we've handled the yaris steering rack. the pinion on the yaris rack is forward of the rack.....oops. Now I can drive around a lot of things like flats, power band problems, broken suspension but I don't think I would be able to wrap my head around turning the wheel in the opposite direction of wheel change. back to the drawing board on that one.

maybe someone with a middy could use the rack?


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PostPosted: November 16, 2017, 3:54 pm 
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Location: Delaware
a little searching around and I think I might have a pretty decent solution. sn95 racks, although powered, have metric threads, 15:1 ratios and only 2.5 turns lock to lock. They also appear to be cheap an available. I also found dhempy's helpful posts about flipping the outer tie rods so that seems like less of a big deal. local yard has a couple sn95 racks for $50 but they are $20 cheaper at the u-pull-it and I'll need to grab that silly rag joint as well.


Last edited by hfmaxi on November 17, 2017, 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: November 16, 2017, 6:25 pm 
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Joined: March 30, 2011, 7:18 am
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Location: central Arkansas
Lock-to-lock is a function of the steering arm length and the maximumum steering angle.

When comparing racks, you want maximum turns left-to-right, then the actual travel in inches.

Strictly speaking you don't need a lot of road wheel angle for "normal driving", but it sure is handy when parking or making tight right turns.

If your rack turns the wrong way, just move the steering column to the other side and go right hand drive. You're welcome. [grin]


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PostPosted: November 16, 2017, 11:11 pm 
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Location: Delaware
TRX wrote:

If your rack turns the wrong way, just move the steering column to the other side and go right hand drive. You're welcome. [grin]


I've done RHD before, never could stop turning the wipers on when I was making turns, no issues otherwise. I haven't found a good spec for travel per turn yet.


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PostPosted: November 17, 2017, 12:21 am 
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Joined: December 30, 2007, 1:21 am
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Location: North Van., BC
I knew that if I waited long enough someone else would make the same boo-boo. :D

From my build log in 2009:

Don't ask me how I did it. At some point I started wondering if I could could modify the steering arms to be front steer. When I figured out how to do that it just didn't dawn on me that the rack wouldn't be suitable. To add to that I had the rubber boots on so when I turned it I didn't see the end of the rack wasn't moving in the right direction. It was only when I installed the tie rod, moved the steering wheel and the tire went the wrong way that stunned disbelief set in.

All ended well, the car's been on the road trouble free for 7 years and it's been worth all the head banging it took to build it.

Ron

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PostPosted: November 17, 2017, 12:53 am 
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I remember that post. Scared me a little. Had a MR2 rack and was hoping for front steer. Couldn't get it to work. Went with a Miata rack.

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PostPosted: November 17, 2017, 10:41 am 
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sevenesqueron wrote:
I knew that if I waited long enough someone else would make the same boo-boo.


I paid a pretty penny for a rack the perfect length for what I wanted. Fortunately I caught the mistake before I built the mounting brackets. But I wound up taking a big loss when I finally managed to get rid of the thing.

It was an expensive lesson... enough that I really did consider going right-hand drive.


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PostPosted: November 26, 2017, 3:36 pm 
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Local u-pull it was 40% off this weekend, I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked and gave up after fighting the 3rd Legacy rear wheel bearing that refused to come off. However, I did pick up a sn95 mustang rack and pinion. It will be a little more difficult to modify than a miata rack but it looks pretty good otherwise: 2.5 turns lock to lock, about 2.25 in per turn and the pinion is 30deg above horizontal when the mounts are parallel to ground.

Also picked up a mazda6 alternator (same as the nc miata). This will allow me to move the alternator to the exhaust side and free up room for the steering mechanism that the focus alternator would have complicated. Another plus is the mazda6 is a 100amp vs the 130amp on the focus. The plan is to relocate the focus tensioner pulley and run the belt in the configuration below.


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PostPosted: November 26, 2017, 5:04 pm 
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At first it looked like the water pump will have reversed rotation, but it does not.

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PostPosted: November 26, 2017, 5:28 pm 
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I'm trying to avoid using a bunch of idlers and running a long belt. It would be a bit easier to go from the crank (2) to the mazda6 tensoiner (3) but the crank sensor gets in the way.


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PostPosted: November 26, 2017, 7:28 pm 
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Do you think 90 degrees belt contact with the water pump enough considering you'll be using the back side of the belt?

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PostPosted: November 26, 2017, 8:09 pm 
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rx7locost wrote:
Do you think 90 degrees belt contact with the water pump enough considering you'll be using the back side of the belt?


*drawing not to scale. The further down I move the tensioner pulley (green circle) the more wrap I'll get on the water pump and less material has to come off the timing cover (the triangulation for what would have been the passenger mount). If it becomes an issue there is an option of adding another idler sorta where the AC comp is in that picture. The duratec based stuff seems to have a bunch of different belt configurations which is good for options.

edit: the stock focus only has about 90 deg of contact anyway.


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PostPosted: December 9, 2017, 9:58 am 
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I've seen a 7 deg taper ream going around the forum for flipping outer tie rod tapers on miata uprights, is it still out there somewhere?


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