Exercise in FRUSTRATION

[ron parola]

ARGGGH     OK went to start shake cruises, we are on a STEEP hill, all good down hill turned about, stopped for a truck, went about 20 ft and car CEASED to proceed. Towed back up the hill.. oy  Turns out my  new HOT ROD stub axle failed; right side weld failed.... groan. Possibly my fault because I had machined the axle to fit my hubs, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of weld metal there. Will deal with THAT next week, motorbike ride this weekend!! Promised pix resized... MAYBE.. ronp

[LotusJoe]

Where did you get the rear hubs?

[BDA]

Did you cast your own uprights?

[Chuck Nukem]

I wanna see core making and casting pics!!

[ron parola]

I made the cores and had them cast in San Jose. The only thing I didn't do was make the lower part of them completely hollow, THAT would have been a LOT more work for just a savings of a few ounces. I made these because I felt that a major part of the stub axle problems were because of the aluminum moving around the bearings, not supporting them. So the castings are thicker ( yeah heavier, sorry Colin) around the bearings. I'll take a picture next week, first gotta figure out WHAT to do about my stub axles! ronp

[EuropaTC]

I think the castings look great Ron, I would also have beefed them up a touch around the bolt holes.  If they are a solid lump then your foundry have done well, I would have expected shrinkage problems with that volume of metal so your guys must have been very careful on the cooling/solidifying cycle.

And the big thing is it's nice to see such unique parts being re-manufactured. I'd hold on to patterns, you might get calls for repeat orders !

Brian

[Rosco5000]

Those recast uprights look really good!  I bet you would find that there will be some demand down the road for those.

[BDA]

I made the cores and had them cast in San Jose. The only thing I didn't do was make the lower part of them completely hollow, THAT would have been a LOT more work for just a savings of a few ounces. I made these because I felt that a major part of the stub axle problems were because of the aluminum moving around the bearings, not supporting them. So the castings are thicker ( yeah heavier, sorry Colin) around the bearings. I'll take a picture next week, first gotta figure out WHAT to do about my stub axles! ronp

The stub axles are real weak point (though I've heard that the situation is much better on the TC - I hope so!). They should have been heat treated. There's a guy on eBay who makes replacements that made of heat treated 4140 chrome-moly. I believe there is a BMW stub axle that can be adapted and there are plans to adapt Corvair stub axles (if they can still be found). Check out the knowledge and the manuals section of lotus-Europa.com for more info.

[ron parola]

These ARE the EBAY stubs!! Will reweld and re heat treat rp

[BDA]

Bummer!! Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.