Hi!

[Richard H]

Dakazman... which mods, I don't want to bore for Britain on stuff you're not interested in..

[BDA]

I don't think many of us would be bored. A lot of us are interested in any mods done to Europas!

[Richard H]

OK, well, in order of payback/effort, I would rank my changes as follows.

1) front wheel bearing spacers.  Large improvement in straight line stability in return for about a day spent tinkering on a lathe cutting a little off at a time until bearing clearance was correct.

2) the plywood splitter under the nose.  £6 worth of 6mm marine ply, a length of PVC drain pipe to make the blend piece and about a day to fit it all.

3) the all-steel steering UJ, with the proviso that you check the internal splines are properly formed, mine weren't.

4) the 2psi residual pressure valve in the brake line, cured all that uncertainty with a long brake pedal travel.  Nice and hard now.

5) modern tyres on 15" wheels.  Helps over in UK that there is a plentiful supply of MGF wheels, and they chopped and changed designs a lot, so you're not forced to go with one style. I chose the one that looked nearest to the Elise wheel.  Big increase in grip.

6) creating spigots for wheel location.  Wheel vibration now respectably controlled.  Not easy to achieve however, I've attached a picture of front and rear spigots.  The PIA factor comes in setting the spigot suitably concentric tot the hub, about 0.001" TIR.  Then you realise every time you disturb them, the same procedure has to happen all over again.  Also found balance shops don't necessarily set the wheel to the spigot bore, so I made my own static trimming mandrel, see pic.  One of the reasons why this is a long way from my #1 recommendation, it needs tools and time.  Maybe one of those ebay balancers might work, I thought my answer was better.

7) rear discs, quite a lot of work, but the car needed a bit more rear brake and in these days of all the other cars having ABS, I didn't want to get caught out running into the back of someone in an emergency braking situation, front wheels locked and smoking.  Especially true in the wet.

The VVC engine BTW is great, but massive effort and only for the really committed.  The Renault XF swap was a weekend job IIRC, as compared to 2-3 months for the VVC motor.

[Pfreen]

Hi Richard.

I took your advice and machined front bearing spacers, and I also installed alloy front axles.

I did multiple things at once so I can’t say it fixed all the stability problems, but my car, a tcs, is rock steady at speed.  I appreciate your advice.

So, welcome to this forum, and I think the format is much easier to use than the yahoo forum.

[Richard H]

I did the bearing spacer thing because I was trying to track down an annoying clonk from the LH front suspension over bumps.  Imagine my surprise when the car went from feeling a bit 1970s and wayward to absolutely rock steady at speed.  I'd say it's pretty much as stable as my Seat Leon now... who knew?

The clonk also disappeared..

They only fit such unspaced taper bearing arrangements to trailers in the UK these days.. enough said.

[Nockenwelle]

Lovely car with interesting modifications.
As a driver of a K-series Exige I always thought the engine might be a perfect fit for the Europa. It's very light and the VVC has a nice power delivery curve. Good choice.

[jbcollier]

" front wheel bearing spacers.  Large improvement in straight line stability in return for about a day spent tinkering on a lathe cutting a little off at a time until bearing clearance was correct."

Make the spacer a bit undersize and use wheel bearing shims from an MGB to dial it in perfectly.

[Pfreen]

What sun roof did you use?  Mine is a Webasto Hollandia 300 medium. 

[Richard H]

The sun roof went in back in 1985, my memory doesn't stretch back that far.

Actually I wish I'd simply refurbished the fabric folding one that it replaced, much more useful as it turned out.  Back in the early days it once saw a second passenger astride the centre tunnel with head poking out in the wind.  Rules were interpreted an bit more loosely in those days..

[lotusfanatic]

Hello Richard,

 

Mark

[GavinT]

Hi Richard,

Yay . . good to see you made it.

1) front wheel bearing spacers.  Large improvement in straight line stability in return for about a day spent tinkering on a lathe cutting a little off at a time until bearing clearance was correct.

Yeah, and I've wondered how this works. Here's what goes on in my befuddled head.

I figure that in a stock set up there's probably ~ .004" end float (didn't look up the real number)
Given the bearings are tapered, that end float probably (?) permits a similar radial run out, yeah?

So, if the inner races are locked together with a spacer, do you still set the end float to .004"?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something because I can't see what difference it makes.
That said, I recognise the ability to more precisely control the end float because the stock castle nut necessitates using the closest slot for the split pin which is a bit rudimentary.

What am I missing?

Brakes now vented discs at the front and solid MGF sourced discs at the back . .

1. Is that a stock MGF disk on the rear?
Which calliper?

2. Could you expand on the origin/size of vented front discs and the calliper used?
Is there a need to space the calliper?

[Pfreen]

Revington sells a bearing spacer kit for TR’s.  This website explains how they work.

https://www.revingtontr.com/product/rtr3463k/name/spacer-kit-front-wheel-bearing

[Richard H]

A few front hub questions going on here from Paul and Gavin - good to be here!

The end float spec is 0.002"/0.004", hence the spacer has to accommodate this range when the castellated nut is tightened down.  I erred to the lower end and also didn't do the nut up very tight.  Rather than the instruction in the manual to release it by 60deg, one flat, I tightened it to the next position where the split pin could then be re-inserted.

The original objective here was to cure a suspension rattle remember, not to, as suggested by the Revington site, to stop it bending.  I've not done the numbers but my experience with such situations is that no measurable bending would occur. but there is plenty of clearance in the bearing, especially after you've backed the nut off one flat.  My rattle was also in part caused by a very poor diametral fit of the outer smaller race on the axle.  Suggest the Revington kit or using JCs suggestion of MGB spacers would be the easiest approach if you don't have a lathe handy.

Because the taper angle in the bearing is shallow, the roller to race clearance will be much lower than the end float.  Imagine in the limit of a pure cylindrical roller there would be no clearance and a pure thrust bearing, infinite radial clearance.

I reason that it stops the wheel moving in response to the contact patch being loaded in different places across the width of the tread, particularly when crossing a repair in the tarmac in the direction of driving.  Lots of these about in the UK where utilities have dug the road up and repaired it afterwards.  Moving the contact patch will move the way the hub aligns itself on the axle.  Control the movement and immediately things are more stable.  I imagine that's the reason modern car manufacturers design their hub bearings for an angular contact cartridge supplied by the bearing manufacturer ready to be pressed into the upright with no further adjustment required.

[Richard H]

Regarding the brakes Gavin.

I did the rear disc conversion first, it's exactly like the nice write-up Brian (EuropaTC) did a few years back, I did mine first and he did a rather neater version afterwards.  The attraction of a really cheap pair NOS Renault Scenic calipers and pads swung the decision on piston and disc diameter, coming out pretty much spot on.  The disc was standard and I needed to relieve the hub per Brian's description.

The front vented brake disc came later.  It's from the small VW/Audi range and was originally specified for a Seat Arosa.  Like these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Genuine-Comline-Front-Vented-Coated-Brake-Discs-Set-Pair-ADC1410V/143326653386?fits=Car+Make%3ASeat%7CModel%3AArosa&hash=item215eef2bca:g:DrUAAOSwVcFdJ0zP

It seemed very simple to start with.  The disc height was about right, the diameter was about right and not too thick for a modified caliper.  The hub could be easily modified to bolt the disc on the back like the Triumph one, as could the caliper carrier to move it out to accommodate the few mm extra diameter (239>256)and then I just needed to space the two halves of the caliper by a few mm with some ground steel bar to cater for the thicker disc.  Simples yea?  Well not really, it took a couple of days per side to sort it all IIRC, probably longer.  Lots of little jobs...

Quite time consuming, I'm pretty sure there wasn't an obvious aftermarket solution which was why I went to the trouble, others may have greater luck, especially if they've not done the rear to suit the existing brake torque at the front, leaves more options open.  My setup does still permit 13" wheel fitment however.

It has been tested in enthusiastic driving on the track, but given the lack of run-off at Castle Combe a bit of lift and coast was employed.  In fairness they never started to smell, so they must be better than a solid disc of lesser mass.  That was whilst holding a 190hp Toyota engined Elise 111R a decent distance behind.

[GavinT]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the explanation.

The Revington blurb talks about strengthening the front stub axles and brake pad knock back. Given at least the later TR's had a heavy cast iron six over the wheels, the bending may be more of an issue for them.
I don't think I've experienced pad knock back; front brake fade, yes, but not pad knock back.

It also looks like that Revington kit is for the TR2-6, which uses the larger axles I think?
Couldn't find mention of a Spitfire/Herald kit on their site.

With all that said, I can see the move to modern low profile stickier tyres may be showing up the weakness of an older bearing system.
Yes, these modern cartridge type wheel bearings might be the ultimate fix . . and honestly, how difficult would it be for an enterprising lad with a lathe to make a couple of alloy hubs to accomodate those.