f0xy said:
That bolt looks awfully flimsy for what it's trying to do, is it possible to brace to the axle to put it in double shear?
While the car was in bits I thought about modifying the rear arms to put them into a double shear - but decided to make a thread on the E30 forum asking what other people thought too. It turned into a bit of an argument between a few people and ended in them talking about a lot of technical calculations - thought you may be interested!
HairyScreech@E30Zone said:
I have an e36 rear end by the back door (uber council i know) so ill have a look, never really looked at the bolt that close as you wouldn't really unless you were going to replace it or check it like this.
i have assumed 16mm outer diameter for the spacers here (ignore where is wrote 14mm at the start, i wrote that while at uni)
If someone would like to check the math (as i'm prone to stupid errors) then we can assume this is the acceptable minimum loading for failure and fatigue to occur.
Thought i would just do it as maximum safe wheel loads, then once we know the spring rate we can see if its above or below.
Pretty much from that we can see it doesn't take much to produce a fatigue effect in the bolt.
Its 100% a bolt i would be replacing at least yearly if i was going to rely on it to hold the car up and i think that's a small concession given the consequence of it failing.
I've literally just welded some plates onto the rear ARB mounts tonight for a bit more strength, not set the bolt up on a double shear yet though. May be tempted to get a second set of wishbones, mod them more and get them powder coated when I've got more time and actually put some miles on the damn thing!
Been cracking on a bit in the evenings with a big of help over the past few evenings. Swapped the tank from the black shell to the red one with a bit of messing around. I wanted to route the fuel pipes down the drivers (O/S) side of the car, due to the fuel setup on the SR20 being on the drivers side too. Before the pipes would run across the top of the tank, up the N/S, then back over to the O/S in the engine bay which was a pain. After a bit of tank (panel) beating using some wood and a hammer, I had a good shape to let the pipes fit down and along the drivers side nicely.
Next up we tried to fit the whole front suspension/subframe setup in one go, until we put it in position and the holes would not line up, meaning the other subframe must have been bent in the crash. I got a spare with the replacement shell, so swapped everything over to that then put it onto the car. Fitted the E46 '067' rack and RHD column, just need to screw the E30 tie rods on then its good to go.
Used some 3mm plate over the top of the ARB mount on the rear arms, then welded them on..
Dragged the rear beam (complete) under the car and bolted it up into position..
Fitted the column linkage between the rack and column..
Dropped the back down..
Then the front, back on four wheels again :boring:
Hopefully the black shell will be gone at some point over the weekend, only a few more bits to take off it. There is only a bit of welding (bulkhead blanks, seat bars, etc) and drilling left to do on the red shell before its ready to be prepped and painted. Hopefully in a few weekends time :clown:
