Sorry for the odd order of my posts. I'm trying to post up in the order I built it and can go into more detail in there's anything yall are interested in.
More front suspension!
The Caterham SV is a few inches wider than their base 7. Conveniently, the stock Miata steering rack width is almost perfect. That said, I designed the steering rack mounts to slide forward/aft, and can shim up as needed. Analytically, bump steer is damned near zero. At the tack welded stage, it was pretty good, but it was hard to get repeatable measurements. As such, the steering rack mounts will get finish welded once I get it back on the ground again.
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Now: Shocks.
I have a habit, in case you haven't noticed by now, of making things more difficult for myself. I obsessed on what shocks to get. I've always been a fan of Bilstein, but their adjustable units re just too far outside of my price range. I also wanted to use pushrods/rockers in the front. Problem was: I don't have alot of room between the shock/spring and the steering rack on the driver's side.
I've looked at these shocks. How in the world do you go about deciding on the damping to buy them?. they have shocks that would work for me but I couldn't get any answers on the damping numbers.
I narrowed my search down to small shockbody shocks. I don't remember all of the options that I investigated, but I do remember looking at some AFCO midget coil-overs, and maybe QA1s. In the end, I chose the Bilstein SG line. The damping isn't adjustable, but you can get a variety of valving options off shelf at $90 ea, and they should hold up well. I talked with Bilstein's tech support and got the dyno for the front shocks (SG7-4020 IIRC). I need to measure the final rear motion ratio, calculate the needed spring rate, then I'll be on the phone with tech support again.
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I'm using a set of welded rockers for now. They pivot on oil impregnated, flanged bushings. If they don't hold up well, I'll upgrade to needle bearings and thrust washers, and probably go with shiny aluminum rocker... because racecar.