Because it was there.

Adam · Site Admin Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 682

I decided I would stop procrastinating and finally seam weld gertrude's front shock towers. I got as far as stripping the paint from the passenger side shock tower seam, and decided I should do a proper effort and seam-weld the front chassis rails to body seams... and to do a proper job of that you've really got to remove the crossmember, so I decided I'd pull it out... while I was pulling it out I noticed just how much the lower control arms flexed even under the moderate force of me levering with a screwdriver.. and remembered I'd been telling myself I'd get around to plating them... then I thought I should really look at making a brace to connect the lower control arm rear mounts to each other and maybe even to the crossmember to try and reduce geometry change under load...

I don't think I'm going to have this done by the 25th myself... see post in 'meets, cruises and events'.

Pete · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 502

mate if you ever sell gertie (notice the *ever*)
i really wana buy her, it has to be the best looked after gemini ever, no matter what price, its guaranteed to be a bargan.

Gene FJ20DET · Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 11:15 pm Post subject: STICAS

hehe nice work, what ya mean by conecting the the lower control arms mounts to eachoter??
if you get the stickars by 25th could ya bring em along i have $$ in hand!
cheers GENE
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Adam · Site Admin Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 682

Believe it or not, there are some bolts I have never undone, they hold in the fuel tank... other than that I think I've covered everyting else.

Pete · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 502

well i have to say im dissapointed.

are you gunna get that done this weekend? just to say you have?

Adam · Site Admin Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 682

Okay, you know how the rear mount of the front lower control arm attaches to the floor pan rather than to the crossmember like all of the other suspension mounts?

Well there is the potential for those mounts to flex relative to the rest of the suspension, which means your suspension geometry would change mid-corner ("dynamic geometry change"), leading to unpredictable handling and hence inferior cornering ability.

So if you link those up, say with a brace which attaches onto the pivot bolt on the outside of the mount itself, then any movement in one, would require the other to move also, greatly reducing the flex. Connect that to the cross-member also, and it means that to move those mounts, you'd need to move the entire front subframe, the net effect is much less of a suspension geometry change, as this would only affect the front 'thrust' angle... which is basicly a line drawn straight ahead between the direction the front wheels point...

Did that make sense, or did I go all technical again?

Adam · Site Admin Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 682

Truth be known, I have never removed the door pins either... lord knows I tried, hammered the absolute f#ck out of them using the 'special' tool... no joy.

Gemini Driving Yobbo · petrol head Joined: 26 Feb 2002 Posts: 3897

you got all technical on us again

Gene FJ20DET · Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 11:29 pm Post subject: Re: STICAS

all i can say is "huh"????/
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ms_gem · tinkerer Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Posts: 93

i understand??????????