sumo front suspension

[stevem]

i am having great difficulty getting my front suspension set up correctly on mk 111 sumo. The top wishbones just don,t seem rite. Can anybody help? I was told when i get the weight of the engine in it would correct itself, not the case. The drag link end is only screwed half way in for the wheels to sit uprite. And the sierra upright , looking at it from above seems to be leaning towards the rear of the vehicle. Can anybody give me measurements of their top wishbones as i am sure mine are not correct.

[Miket]

Steve

Not being funny but have you fitted them the correct way round.

[chedz]

Hello

I can't help directly other than to say you are not alone. I too have the same problem and can probably find someone else too. To get a reasonable camber on the front wheels I too will need to wind the top joints so far out that they can't be safe.

See:

Crotch Rocket - another addition to my toy box

(you can ignore my Eureka post at the end of this thread, putting it together this way was not safe)

Originally I thought my uprights were wrong but not so. (confirmed by being sent some more by pilgrim that are identical to mine). So it looks to me that the parts don't fit right. When I had my body work delivered, the guy in the lorry was the chap from the Pilgrim workshop, he agreed it didn't look right at all but only suggested they send some replacement uprights.

I've compared my car to a Granada based car, the difference was that the granada uprights are about 30mm taller which gets rid of the problem. So I expected that for a sierra or Granda bases car Pilgrim would supply different sized other parts to work together, not so, the only difference is that the mushrooms are fatter for the granda version.

Currently I've got the top joints wound in so 2 threads are not engaged at the back of the wishbone, however, I have about 7 degrees camber so its definately not right.

I wonder if the springs need compressing/loosening but doubt thats it? If you find any answer please let me know.

The next thing I was going to try was get some longer thread drag links at stonleigh if I can. I did hear that Pilgrim had some with longer threads but I've not been offered any when I've discussed this problem with them.

cheers

Graham

[chedz]

Miket, is that sierra based and if so, how many threads are you in at the back of the top wishbone?

[Miket]

Originally Posted by chedz

Miket, is that sierra based and if so, how many threads are you in at the back of the top wishbone?

Yes it was a MK111 Sierra Chassis, the top link threads where just about coming out at the rear of the top wishbone, It always had to much negative camber as I was scared to wind them out any more to get it correct.

[stevem]

yes the top wishbone is fitted correctly, longer arm towards the front. I have tried bolting the bottom balljoint on top of the lower wishbone, this made it a bit better but not right. Pilgrim told me it should be bolted underneath, back to square one. I have stripped and rebuilt the front suspension at least ten times trying to find a better solution. I did hear that the early sierra upright is different to the later ones? ( mine are from a 92 ) does anybody know if this is correct? I have got to get it right eventualy because it is doing my head in

[chedz]

I thought the very last few sierras were different as mine was a 1993 model. the older parts Pilgrim supplied were the exact same so thats not it.

Does anyone out there have a MkIII sierra based? If so could you please measure your uprights, perhaps from the contact point with the lower wishbone to the top of the mushroom for us to compare with please?

Thanks.

[stevem]

Originally Posted by stevem

yes the top wishbone is fitted correctly, longer arm towards the front. I have tried bolting the bottom balljoint on top of the lower wishbone, this made it a bit better but not right. Pilgrim told me it should be bolted underneath, back to square one. I have stripped and rebuilt the front suspension at least ten times trying to find a better solution. I did hear that the early sierra upright is different to the later ones? ( mine are from a 92 ) does anybody know if this is correct? I have got to get it right e
ventualy because it is doing my head in

ive just had another idea? any forseen problems in having the two arms on top wishbone extended by say 1 inch. by an engineering firm.... any thoughts?

[TINKA]

Depends what is wrong. If it is the chassis that is wrong then get it put right if it is the Sierra stuff then again that needs to be corrected. If you just start lengthening parts as and if needed then it will through the geometry of the car out, then you will start getting things like bump steer etc etc. It might be a help if you could post some pictures on the site, also how far from Pilgrim do you live, if it is convenient it might be a good idea to pop it over to them to have a look at it. HTH

In summary I think it would be a very bad idea to just extend the top wishbone.

[colinb]

Right after reading this i checked the front on mine, especially as i have just acquired it an have not built one yet, anyway the top draglink is screwed completely into the top wishbone apart from 1 thread short of exposeing itself out the other end, this has given me about 2 degrees of neg camber, looking at it from and engineering point of view if this wishbone was made up to 40mm longer it would make the unit stronger by way of reduceing the length of screw exposed, hope this helps and lets know what the outcome is.