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 Post subject: IRS parts
PostPosted: April 5, 2006, 9:07 pm 
Hello all, I am happily stripping my BMW 325e. It has an IRS and I am at the stage of deciding if I should transplant it straight from the donor, or make one from scratch like the Rorty plans.
http://gtslocost.locostsites.co.uk/downloads.htm

There are a number of things that need to be machined or purchased. In general I'm ok with that since overall this project has only cost about $250 so far. But if I can't find a source for some of these parts, I probably can't afford a machinest.

The parts in question are between pages 23 and 27. The 2 biggest obstacles are on page 26 - the clevis and weld eye. Found a similar clevis on Mcmaster carr and that's it. But they are a little smaller, so not sure if they're appropriate.

I have emailed Bob Frost-Stevenson (Rorty himself) but have not heard if he has a specific source to refer me to.

So where should I look
:?:

Eric
Locostmonkey


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PostPosted: April 5, 2006, 10:09 pm 
You can get creative and come up with some good solutions, you can modify the plans to fit your needs, take a look here, its pretty much almost the rorty plans youre looking at. the beauty of building everything yourself is that you can modify it to fit your budget and abilities.

http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtop ... 3&start=45


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PostPosted: April 6, 2006, 6:46 pm 
That is a really great thread - not sure why I hadn't noticed it before.

I will be modifying the plans to fit my donor, but generally not reinventing the wheel. Finding metric tubing etc is a bit of a challenge here. I'm not concerned with sticking exactly to the plans, but am hoping people can refer me to their favorite sources for these parts. At least then I hope to be able to come close dimensionally.

I found a number of parts from JEGS, but am having an especially hard time find a clevis that is even close to the size in the plans. Most of the ones I have found have about half the space between the yoke (if that makes sense). Then of course finding the part that fits inside the clevis.

So all you motorhead, racer, performance guys and gals - where do you shop online?

Eric
Locostmonkey


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PostPosted: April 6, 2006, 9:06 pm 
Here are the clevis' that I am using for mine (in the thread that derf posted a link to)

http://www.secureperformanceorder.com/a ... ductID=199

Image

If you need some that are wider, I have two that I will not be using that have approx. 3/4" spread between the sides of the clevis with right hand 5/8-18 threads. I picked them up at a dirt track/sprint car race shop for $20 each. Will sell for the same if you are interested.


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PostPosted: April 6, 2006, 9:39 pm 
Datz510 thanks for the post. I will definitely keep your offer in mind. Nearly every one I've found is a 3/8" slot, What I am hoping to find is a clevis with a 5/8" slot, and a 1/2" hole.
Also does anyone have a better name for what is called a weld eye in the plans? It is the part that gets bolted inside the clevis. Haven't found anything by that name. I figured it has a different one here in the US.

As a side note - I love your other car as well. I don't think I have ever seen one before. I am quite jealous.

Thanks for the input and especially the link and offer,
Anyone else?

Eric
Locostmonkey


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PostPosted: April 7, 2006, 3:08 am 
The other car is a 1972 Datsun 510 with 39,000 original miles on the clock. The original engine was destroyed by the previous owner (he tried to drive it across the desert with an original cooling system when he bought it), and I purchased it shortly after with 34,401 miles on it. Since the original engine was toast, I put in a fuel injected Nissan 3.0L SOHC v6 with borg warner T5 transmission. It is an absolute beast on the road, but I'm hoping that the Locost will exceed it in performance.


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PostPosted: April 7, 2006, 9:44 am 
I printed out those Rorty plans last night & was looking at adapting them for the 924 trans I'm using, but I had a question:

I know the *book* chassis has the whole assembly after the cockpit angled upward, where the Rorty plans only angles the very back. Is this angle just for ground-clearance on steep drives/etc.? Or is there something less obvious?


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PostPosted: April 7, 2006, 2:52 pm 
in the McSorley design, I think that angle is just for simplicity of construction when using a live axle.

In an IRS design like Rorty's, the angle is the easiest way to get the back end of the car to look proportional and prevent any obvious external differences. If you look at a side profile of a Seven, you see that the tail is usually a little higher than the midsection. This is probably more to do with aesthetics than anything.

BTW, The flat bottom of the IRS cage allows for MUCH easier location of the lower A arms. I wouldnt want to have to deal with trying to locate those things on an angled frame section. The down side of the flat design is that it makes triangulation a bit more interesting. I still need to do a lot of reinforcement on mine.

I dropped my IRS cage down flat with the rest of the frame in that spot, then built up to meet up with the original McSorley 442 rear section, so I kindof have a mix of the two designs. Everything forward of "B" and aft of "Y" on mine is from the McSorley design.


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