Europa front suspension, Before and After

I rebuilt the front suspension on Dr.Linda's S2 Europa.

Here's some pics (a before and an after):

and:

I stripped everything down, bead blasted and then painted anything not replaced. New rotors, bushings, bearings, seals, ball joints, rebuilt calipers (Amazon.com) then painted red, and a nut welded to the end of the bearing cover so the thing will actually come off with a slide hammer, "minor" trunnion kits plus seal. Harley Davidson wheel bearing grease (the best out there) and Mobil SHC630 gear lube (yes, even an English car's SUSPENSION is capable of leaking oil.) Quite a bit of work. Parts sources were: Amazon.com, Spitbits, Ray (RDent.com). Specialty tools: HF 20 ton press, HF bead blaster, HF MIG.

Looks awesome.

Harbor Freight racing.

I hope to do this to the e30 when summer rolls around.

Looks exactly like Spitfire bits, from the upper 'ball joint' to the lower trunnion. And 'after' pics look damned fine. What did you replace the rubber bushes with?

erohslc wrote: Looks exactly like Spitfire bits, from the upper 'ball joint' to the lower trunnion. And 'after' pics look damned fine. What did you replace the rubber bushes with?

They are Spitfire uprights.

Looks good. How far along is the rest of the car?

The bushings on a Europa are (were) "Metalastic." After 31 years, they were suspect, at best. The rubber was kinda falling apart, at least at the edges. I replaced them with similar bushings from Ray at RDEnt.com, a Lotus parts specialist. They were basically identical to what came out, even though the Metalastic company went tits up decades ago. They are metal outside, metal inside, and a thin layer of rubber between.

The rest of the car is coming along slowly. I have the frame 98% done. I had to move the rear shock mount back an inch and a half because I made new upper control arms (can't use the drive shafts when the drive train is from a Scion xA). In English fashion, the upper control arm of the rear suspension was the axle. It now looks like this:

I had the upper shock mount set in the OEM position, then built the new upper control arm system. At that point, I realized the shock and upper control arm bits would attempt to occupy the same space time continuum. So I moved the upper shock back a bit and built an extension for the upright to mount the lower shock part to. Besides finishing up a couple brackets for the upper mount, the brackets for the intercooler and a few brackets for the cooling lines, etc., the frame is done.

Doc, unless my old eyes deceive me you are using mild steel. Did the stainless supply dry up? It's looking good!

No, everything I've made is 304. In the suspension pics, the OEM parts are the only mild steel there.

VERY nice.

Rog

those look familiar...

MG Bryan wrote: They are Spitfire uprights.

Actually, I think they are all Triumph Herald uprights.

Dr. Hess wrote:

MG Bryan wrote: They are Spitfire uprights.

Actually, I think they are all Triumph Herald uprights.

Same thing iirc. All of the parts interchange lists for Europas, the Esprits that use trunnions, and Elites/Eclats list them as Spitfire/GT6 parts.

http://www.lotus-europa.com/manuals/tcparts/tcxchg.pdf Page 2

Original Spitfire uprights were Herald units, even had adaptors from drum backing plate to disk brake calipers.
Later units featured cast in caliper mounts.

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID005740

But yes, they all are basically bolt in interchange, at least from balljoint/trunnion standpoint.

ISTR that later GT6 uprights are a bit beefier, and feature larger stub axles. But maybe it's just the bearings that are larger, with same stub.

Carter

GT6 front spindles are slightly beefier. Slightly. The bearings and seals are different.

I like the idea of welding a nut onto the cap. Inside or outside? One more reason I need a welded....

I welded a stainless 1/4"x20 nut on the outside of the cup thing. Then I put a bolt in it and grabbed the bolt with a slide hammer and it came out. Only way I could get it. With just the slide hammer and a large screw, I just kept pulling the hole bigger. Same with the inside grabber attachment.

When I put it back together, I cut a bolt down and screwed it in the hole tight.