Just having a mess with the car and I have just noticed that my passanger side rear toe link bar is bent!!! The geometry was setup before the brands test day, so basically in three sessions at brands on the test day, the 6 or so laps I did at Donno and the Brands race it has bent like a bananna.
I know for definite that I have not hit the wheel on anything, so it must have bent simply due to the force being exerted on it round a bend.
I currently use the elise parts kit, but this obviously isn’t up to the job, so what are the other options and which is the biggest and strongest???
I have looked at the TADTS site and the pic of there kit looks the same as the elise parts kit, so I wondered what other options there were??
Hummm, don’t know about a stronger one.
I liked the TADTS because of the whole kit, the SS screws AND rivets if you want, but would think the actaul arm is as trong as the other one.
I can’t believe it was just cornering forces though, when I bent an original one was duet to a spin over the curbs.
Maybe you curbed a bit too hard in one occasion?
I have the TADTS one and I really can�t see how this 15-16mm dia solid aluminium rod could bend without hitting something!
Maybe a stupid question, but I can�t think of something else� you haven�t used the toe links to tow the car or to wrap around the straps and hold it onto the trailer; have you?
As far as I know, Lotus, Elise Parts and TADTS are about the same kits, so nobody does a stronger one.
Head over to SELOC and ask Scuffham what he uses on his race car. I remember he uses some fancy jobbies with wishbones combined with toelinks, but cant remember the name.
Unfortunaltly hes been banned here which is a great loss to Exiges.com
whilst on the subject, after changing to one of these upgrade kits, presumably the toe in needs to be re-checked and set after changing the links? and how, apart from a complicated and expensive visit to a specialist, can the shims between the arm and the outer link be chosen for bump steer? test drives?
I have a kit waiting to go on, and I am considering the consequences of installing it…
by the way what toe in are you guys set to? factory recomended set up or other? I have quite visable toe in on the rear and on a wet road of i put a rear wheel on a white line the car twitches sideways as the toe in pushes the lower gripping white line tyre off line! scary if you stay over the white line and it can get a bit of a oscillation going on. Am i alone with this symptom?
I am not using standard rear toe links. I have the Elise Parts kit
It has bent along its entire length like a bannana. If I put a straight edge between the two ends, there is a gap of about 10mm in the middle.
I know exactly what the car has done and where it has been between the last time the geometry was setup and now.
The car has not hit anything
The car has not been jacked or towed or tied down or anything by the toe link
The toe link is bent!!!
I don’t like the idea of straightening it and bodgeing it back together. I am gonna take both of them off and throw them away! Then fit bigger, stronger ones.
Scuffham uses the Pilbeam kit linked by ang above. They have had a few impacts and only broke on Simons big accident at Brands last year in the TAG GT race.
I’m surprised that the bits on Seans car have bent in such a short time as I’ve had the Eliseparts kit on my car for almost 2.5 years now and it is fine, and I do like to use the kerbs, it’s also done quite a few laps at the Nuerburgring where the loads will be a lot higher than that brands. I’m surprised that they have bent and wouldn’t think you would need anything stiffer than the parts currently on the market.
Sean is also correct and should NOT restraighten the parts, as they have already bent the material structure has changed so bending back will weaken the parts further.
One of the earlier questions about the bumpsteer shims, measure the currebnt parts on the car from the rear upright to the approximate balljoint centre, then set the new parts using the same method. This will get it close enough, to do it properly you need to put it on a geo rig on a jack without the rear springs fitted and raise and lower the car in 10mm steps recording the toe change, and then compare it to the graph in the workshop manual, then adjust the shims to get the graph as close as possible to the Lotus set-up, if that’s what you require. This can be a long slow process so if your not doing it on equipment you own it can be expensive.
They are solid steel 17 mm diameter. I don’t see how you could possibly bend them with cornering (or kerbing loads). It’s not like the load on them is a bending load anyway, it’s axial tension or compression. The force required to get them to bend with a co-axial compression load would be enormous, CBA to work it out but trust me, something else would probably shear off first. Are sure some berk didn’t jack the car up on one and kept quiet about it ?
![http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/DSC04788.jpg[/image]](http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/DSC04788.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/RearToeLinkKit-A111D0127S.jpg[/image]](http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/RearToeLinkKit-A111D0127S.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/toekit.jpg[/image]](http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/toekit.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/reartoelink5.jpg[/image]](http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/reartoelink5.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/RearToeLinkUniballBearingKitSteelHu.gif[/image]](http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/RearToeLinkUniballBearingKitSteelHu.gif%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/RearToeLinkUniballBearingRubberBoot.gif[/image]](http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d121/stevegreen101/RearToeLinkUniballBearingRubberBoot.gif%5B/image%5D){kind=link}