[alfettaparts]

I purchased this car a few weeks ago. The guy I bought the car from was a hell of a nice guy and came up with this idea for an adjustable de deon. Its a great idea and i hope he doesn't mind me sharing. I for one don't see the point in keeping such things to yourself so have a look at this. Adjustable via shims.

 

[Alfaguy35]

Adjustable Dedion

Thanks for sharing that. I like this idea better then the over complicated one I had. With our Lemons car we're finding that as time goes on the car has more camber in the rear on our "solid" Dedion tube, to the point where the rear has almost as much as the front. Not a bad thing but eventually it will have too much and it would be nice to have it adjustable verus starting over with a fresh Dedion tube.

 

[rustysrustyduc]

Hi Alfaguy35, I was racing at Sears Pointless this year, and had I know you had an adjustable Dedion, I would have loved to have stopped and checked it out. So how did you guys go about making your rear adjustable?

For that matter, I'm not sure how the OP rear is adjustable. Are the shims tapered on one side?

Or is there enough play in the holes that would allow you to just add different width washers to each hole to adjust the camber/toe?

 

[alfettaparts]

Rusty you just undo the bolts and fit a washer between the two plates.

 

[Alfaguy35]

Dedion tube

We don't have an adjustable Dedion yet. The factory tube is just bending from being driven so hard. That tube has been in two cars and 13? races. Every time we check the rear camber it has a little more.

 

[rustysrustyduc]

That is nice. I wonder how much it would cost to have that done. I don't exactly trust my cheapie welder, and my sub par welding skills to keep my rear axle together!

Alfaguy! That is crazy! I couldn't imagine that big tube bending. I wonder if its just bending in one spot...

 

[Reims]

That is nice. I wonder how much it would cost to have that done. I don't exactly trust my cheapie welder, and my sub par welding skills to keep my rear axle together!
QUOTE]

I like this idea a lot, very clever! This is an important point, however... this portion of the car can see enormous stresses in racing. I've seen a few different ideas for tackling the rear camber issue on a Dedion, most of which involve pie-cut sectioning techniques and rewelding. I've also heard of a modified Dedion letting go, so I strongly advise anyone considering such modification to proceed with utmost caution. Still, this is a wonderful idea!

 

[alfettaparts]

I would be a little concerned about the rear de deon tube going out of shape after some track work. Might be worth a crack test rather than having a wheel sheer off. The tube itself is only 3 or 4 mm thick and when you consider the load of the wheel studs you can see that this set up is strong enough however please don't just cut and weld this yourself unless you know what you are doing. This has been done professionally and has been tested on other cars over the years.

 

[rustysrustyduc]

So who did the work? And where are they?

I'd be curious as to what this work runs. It's obviously something I would feel a lot better about knowing I wasn't the first one to try it!

 

[alfettaparts]

I'm not sure who did the work and I don't know the history of the car other than the previous owner came up with this idea and has used it in race cars for a fair wile. Don't worry I did question its safety.

 

[alfettaparts]

Removed the hub tonight so i can change to five stud.

 

[krazymaan]

Remove the hub... Now your just showing off.

You should be using aluminum bolts with nylon nuts. Much lighter.

 

[alfettaparts]

lol Yeah this is pretty cool. I might use sikaflex and cable ties instead of the bolts.

It is interesting to note that the wall thickness of the tubing is only 3 MM

 

[mjr]

what didthe grA racers have on them?

 

[alfettaparts]

There where most likely a few different set ups on the group a cars. The only one i have seen is an autodelta built car that I think is only adjustable for height via spring pads. I have also seen pictures of some kind of aluminum hub adapted to the end of the de dion that is adjustable.

I'm no expert on this at all however I believe the consensus is that you don't need an adjustable rear end but rather you modify it by bending it in order to obtain the desired settings. The optimal setting never really change from there thus the necessity to adjust is negated.

 

[mjr]

Well that's why I wondered, since I would have thought having an adjustable de dion wouldn't have been within the rules? factory all that etc etc. The point is though those guys raced the hell out of them cars without it, so I'm just wondering why its necessary?

 

[alfettaparts]

I think in this case the original owner of the car was into rallying. This required different settings to that of circuit work. Thats just a guess.

I will be able to optimize the settings to my liking (around what is considered to be ideal) so I guess thats a benefit of it being adjustable.

 

[mjr]

well either way, nice to have the option there for you

 

[rustysrustyduc]

I'm curious, why is there a "notch" in the pad? There is a little circular cutout from the rectangle.. is that for clearance for the bolt heads/nuts from the hub?

Cool of you to share some pics btw, I totally dig that rearend setup!

 

[alfettaparts]

Rusty that is where the drive shaft fits.