simon's learning what to do with the polo thread

[Sydneykid]

the other thing you can do at the track is get a bit of 14x1.5 allthread, cut a couple of 6" lengths and use them as a temporary locator while you get a couple of bolts in, then take them out and put the rest of your bolts in. Not as practical as studs, but does save some cocking around.

EDIT: or grab a couple of bolts and cut the heads off... 14x1.5 allthread seems a bit of a rarity according to google

I bought 2 pairs of these off Ebay last week for the 4 x VW's in the family fleet (my wife thought it was a strange birthday present ).



2pc Aluminium Wheel Hanger M14x1.5 Lug Guide Tool VW Golf GTi 1999-Onward | eBay


Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

simon I got the plates today. I did a bit of track measuring last night and it looks like the half inch plates are the ones, so I organised all the bolts etc and I'll have a go at massaging the sensor tonight.

[kaanage]

the other thing you can do at the track is get a bit of 14x1.5 allthread, cut a couple of 6" lengths and use them as a temporary locator while you get a couple of bolts in, then take them out and put the rest of your bolts in. Not as practical as studs, but does save some cocking around.

EDIT: or grab a couple of bolts and cut the heads off... 14x1.5 allthread seems a bit of a rarity according to google

What I've done is get some hollow 12mm aluminium tubing from Bunnings, cut a length of about 15cm and put some heatshrink over one end.
Metal Mate RCR 12 x 1mm 1m Aluminium Round Tube | Bunnings Warehouse

This lets me jam the tube into one of the holes in the wheel (the heatshrink holds it in place) and then easily get the other end of the tube into one of the holes in the hub which then guides me getting the wheel on. The aluminium is strong enough to hold the wheel in place, too, while you scrabble around for the bolts, especially if you put the tube into one of the uppermost holes.

It also helps hold the wheel on until you are ready to take it off when you are removing the bolts (rather than having it fall off at an inopportune time).

Best of all, you don't have to screw the tube in and out (plus it costs bugger all).

I'm happy to give one to anyone in Melbourne.

[sambb]

stud conversion for me - just have to fit your spacers first and confirm everythings spot on so I know what lengths to order.

[simon k]

finished putting in the B8s last night - I'd started on the fronts on Sunday afternoon, decided to do the right hand side first - had a bastard of a time getting it apart, the manual says to take the CV out of the bearing carrier. I don't have a 36mm socket so after realising there was no way to get the bearing carrier low enough to get the strut out of it with the long driveshaft in the way, I undid it at the gearbox end - no problem after that, except when I initially looked at the bolts in the inner CV I thought they were TORX drive, so stuck an TORX drive in one and promptly chewed most of the splines out, then I realised it was spline drive.... I got them all out OK, and the strut came out easily.

Monday morning I bought new (grade 12.9 hex socket) bolts to replace all of those yukky single use bolts - assembled the strut, had to bore a socket deeper to get the top nut done up, then went on with putting it in the car. The strut was easy enough to get into the bearing carrier, using a chisel to keep the collar open, but I couldn't get it to go all the way in. It stopped moving about 5mm from where it was meant to sit. I couldn't get it to go any further on Monday night so gave in.

Last night after dinner I was having another go, and must've given the right blood sacrifice (right little finger, first knuckle, a nice round patch of skin missing, about 4mm diameter - it's a nice one) because I had the bright idea of grinding down the back of a claw hammer and using that to pry the collar open and with one little tug the strut dropped to exactly the right spot. After that the left hand side was a breeze. I had a quick test drive about 10:30 and there was a clunk when I gave the wheel a sharp tug. The only thing that I wasn't sure was completely tight was big nut on the strut top, so I went to my mates workshop this morning and used his 02 sensor socket to do them both up properly - no more clunk

Don't those dampers work well!! it doesn't dive onto it's nose when I turn anymore!! brilliant!!

[simon k]

Back to Gary's list!

haven't done these

#3 Front negative camber for obvious reasons - I'd like to do Sam's TT balljoint mod, but I'm worried about wrecking the strut top bearings
#5 Lower the rear roll centre - How do we do this?
#7 Front roll centre correction and bump steer elimination - ditto, lower the bottom ball joint?
#8 LSD - one day
#9 Front swaybar
#11 Front springs, ~1.5 times the standard rate

these are in progress

#2 Front positive caster, the more the better - I have a set of superpro bushes in the garage, I wanted to do them at the same time as the dampers but decided one thing at a time, maybe next weekend
#4 Rear toe out, ask Sam - rear stub axle spacers installed, eibach shims on my desk

these are done!

#1 Rear swaybar (or beam stiffener) nothing else comes close, bang for buck - done, massive one
#6 Dampers, buy the best you can afford - Bilstein B8,
#10 Rear springs, at least triple the standard rate - probably triple, they're f*cking stiff, need to measure them

I'm also piecing together a SEAT FMIC and dump pipe and exhaust

[sambb]

To do the rear roll centre, all you can do is lower it. I think from memory it moves downward at 1/4 the rate of the rear COG which moves down linearly with ride height. So a 10mm ride height drop COG by same amount and roll centre by 2.5cm - numbers may not be exact but you get the idea.
You can do the front ball joint mod and get the roll centre correction benefits without going excessive on the front camber. The TT ball joints have elongated slots in them. I made them even longer but you can leave that side of it alone get sy 1/1/4 degrees neg front which is still an improvement, without over stressing the strut top bearings.

[simon k]

To do the rear roll centre, all you can do is lower it. I think from memory it moves downward at 1/4 the rate of the rear COG which moves down linearly with ride height. So a 10mm ride height drop COG by same amount and roll centre by 2.5cm - numbers may not be exact but you get the idea.

gotcha - cos nothing else made any sense...

You can do the front ball joint mod and get the roll centre correction benefits without going excessive on the front camber. The TT ball joints have elongated slots in them. I made them even longer but you can leave that side of it alone get sy 1/1/4 degrees neg front which is still an improvement, without over stressing the strut top bearings.

sweet, thanks Sam

[sambb]

Even with minimal travel left, torsion beam cars still cant get their rear roll centre anywhere near as low as an IRS car. An IRS car could run a proper amount of rake and still have a much lower rear roll centre.

[simon k]

I went hunting for some info about the springs I have in the back of my car now, best I could get was from someone putting them in the front of an L series subaru, they'd called King Springs and asked for the info...

(Civic) KHFS-58 Diameter=65mm, Height=380mm, 11turns, 280lb/in

however, I measured the springs and have the following

wire diameter: 12mm (0.47")
spring OD: 95.6mm (3.76") - edit: I assume 65mm above is ID, but I'm 5mm off, the spring tapers a bit... ?
active coils: 7 (not sure how to tell active/inactive)

I put that in an online calculator and it told me 281lb/in which is scarily similar to what the King spring says above.

Here's the picture of the springs - 2nd from the right is the spring that's in the car, far right is the bit that was cut off it



Unfortunately I've no idea what the standard spring rate is in the back of the Polo, so I don't know if I'm anywhere near 'triple the standard rate'. However, from the feel when driving, I don't know if I'd want to go much stiffer, it's on the stiff side of comfortable.