Roxanne - budget milano/75 track car

[Grant]

Zamani, we should try tackling this soon. I should have a Dedion sitting out of car in a few months.

Jes,
Thanks a lot for posting procedures and pictures! I think I'll have questions for you if I ever have the guts to take something like this on.

[AR4me]

Any time, Grant.

I made some unexpected progress this evening Before turning to more radical methods, I decided to try the punch and hammer again. After 10 minutes of pounding one retaining ring started moving Another 30 minutes of pounding the other, and it came out too Sunday morning I did soak it in WD40 - perhaps it eventually penetrated all the way. Regardless, both wheel bearings are out, Dedion cleaned up and painted. As one of the pictures show we welded on reinforcement for the swaybar mount.

I was lucky that it came with the spherical bushing.

Although it is still unlikely I will make next weekend's race, I will continue to plug away. Perhaps I'll make it...

Jes

[75evo]

Hey Jes,

Do you want to try to make it up to Laguna one of these days if you miss WSIR? I'm going to try to make the one on 2/14 run by another club.

[AR4me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 75evo Do you want to try to make it up to Laguna one of these days if you miss WSIR? I'm going to try to make the one on 2/14 run by another club.

[75evo]

Sorry it will be held on 2/12. But they will have more events at Laguna. The thing is, it's mostly on a work day and sometimes in the middle of the week. So it doesn't makes much sense for you.

What you should do is join a Thunderhill event over a weekend. I go with Hookedondriving.com .

[AR4me]

Spent some time under the car today - still hoping to make it for this weekend's event

Changed the Dedion, leaving the Transaxle in the car, and hence saved clutch and brake bleeding, and no fluids all over. It also is a bit easier not having to wrestle with the transaxle, and it is easily doable single handed.

A few pics:
1. Getting started: the two race cars on jack stands and the street verde out front,
2. Old dedion coming out,
3. All empty,
4. New Dedion.

It is mostly back together - just need to button up a few things.

Jes

[alfaspence]

cars are lookin' good Jes, and yes iam now a very jealous man

[raff_gta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AR4me First off, yes I agree, -4 is too much. I will aim for -2 with the next Dedion - going down based on yours and Grant's comment...

[AR4me]

It is all shown on the previous page

Be warned, that if it is not done properly it will come apart. I know of one case (not on my car) where it sheared off completely on the track So, think twice before you do this. Know what you do, reinforce, get someone involved who understands, etc....

Jes

[raff_gta]

please shoot me! thanks heaps, explains it all!

[AR4me]

Last weekend was the first full race weekend since the redone Dedion was put in. Before the event I had added a heat shield to the ABS pump+accumulator, and reset the front alignment to 2 mm toe-in. It was very hot, about 100F on Saturday, but probably about 15F cooler Sunday. Roxanne ran great all weekend, only needing gas I ran the Nittos NT01 all weekend, must be the 3rd or 4th weekend on those tires, and they are holding up fine. I did swap the two rear tires since the left rear takes a beating in turn 8, 9 (high speed and full throttle more or less) and turn 2 at Willow Springs. On saturday (in 100F) coolant was running 220F, engine oil 230F, and transmission oil 230F.

I was going to include some plots from the datalogging of Gs, speeds, etc, but my laptop where the data is crapped out. Anyway, Roxanne pulls 1.3Gs consistently through both left and right turns (tires: Nitto NT01 205/40-17).

Based on tire temps it looks like it may be optimal to slightly further reduce the camber at the rear and possibly also at the front. Though, ok for now (=too much trouble, particular the rear).

I do have one problem. Roxanne eats rear wheel bearings like crazy Both rear wheel bearings were new before this weekend, and both need replacement again... Not sure what is causing this - could be the spacers (25 mm) increasing the load... Guess I could make a 3rd dedion with slightly less camber, 25 mm increased track per side, and then use a 25 mm spacer on each half-shaft.

Unfortunately, I forgot to put in the video camera, but I think I will be able to get some pictures from the weekend.

Next race is October at Buttonwillow...

Jes

[75evo]

Any chance it was the assembly of the wheel bearings or grease being the problem? Because I've never heard of this problem before with others who have slightly cambered rear Dedion. Or maybe the spacer....

[AR4me]

As I mentioned the spacers obviously increase the load on the bearing, add sticky tires, high speed bumpy turns, 120 mph, and maybe that is enough, though I think they should hold up - tires are only 205... Maybe a bad batch of rear wheel bearings...

BTW, I think the above transmission temp demonstrates that a transmission oil cooler is not needed, at least at this level of power.

Jes

[slyalfa]

If my memory it right alfa used larger bearing in the sz and some of the if not all race cars. I do not think they did it just for kicks.

[75evo]

Doesn't BigSwede also run -2 degree camber in the back too? He has race tires and probably pulls similar Gs in the turns. I don't think he mentioned anything about bearings going bad after every few races.

There must be something more to it. Perhaps its the added stress AND the spacer as AR4me mentioned earlier.