Sub K Rear Suspension

[Guest ColinR]

I've cut down the front struts as per the vid to form the rear spring mounts, but they won't slide into the roll bar.

 

The struts are oversize by at least 1mm. Is there a solution to this other than using an angle grinder (I don't have access to a lathe)? Or should I chuck more dosh at trickie and get some coilovers?

[Guest Feek]

Hi Colin,

 

'Fraid I just spent a luverly afternoon with the angle-grinder for company on this one. Actually, I don't remember it taking too long.

 

It all hangs together quite nicely in the end, though I know that some builders have moved the spring cups lower down the strut tubes to get more metal into the roll-over bar.

 

Cheers,

F.

[Guest Guy]

Hi Colin,

 

Are you saying that the OD of the McP strut tube is larger than the ID of the roll over bar?

 

I've not come across that one befor, perhaps you could measure them and let us know how big they are. Also, check they are round and not squashed.

 

Both Feek and I also have Sub-Ks and on mine the struts went in with a high degree of sloparocity.

[Guest Feek]

Guy, Colin,

 

Yup, I had to grind the OD of my ex-McPh struts down to fit the ID of the roll bar. It was only about 1mm difference between the two though. The struts push in with (hard) hand pressure - quite firm (oo-er).

 

However, I have a slight feeling/memory that my struts were not originals - this may make a difference. I guess that different struts have different ODs due to design/tolerances/Friday-afternoon-job/etc.

 

F.

[Guest johnboymac]

(also sub-k)

I had to grind a fair bit of accumulated crap off of my struts to get them to slide in. I kept goint until I had nice shiny metal. Even now they are a fairly tight fit, which is good, since you dont want them wobbling about.

 

cheers, John

[Guest FIRSTBUILD]

on my sub k the problem was that you can easilly cut the struts to short and then when you jack up the car the springs go slack and may even be able to fall to one side

!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest Guy]

That's exactly what I did, I then had to cut the spring holder off the tube and weld it onto the bottom so now I don't have any metel extending into the spring.

[Guest Paul S Usowicz]

Colin

 

On my Sub-K the bottoms of the roll bar were not circular!!! I had to get a conical shaped metal object and whack it up there a few times. Then I only had to remove the paint from the struts.

 

Cheers

Paul S Usowicz

[Guest subk2002]

Hi colin again i went for the angel grinder dosnt take long make sure you get the right hight when bolting them or the car will sit to low. Give 1'' or 2'' for it all to settle down once fully loaded.

 

Cheers Drew (scotland)

[Guest ColinR]

Thanks for the tips. At the time of posting the chassis was right way up in my neighbour's garden, so I was fitting by braille. I now have it in my garage to do the build. When I turned it over to fit the floor I checked the size of the roll bar and like Paul found that it was oval, so I chamfered the end of the strutt and used a 7.5lb brummie screwdriver to force the end into the roll bar and round it off.

 

However I have decided on the coilover option and have sourced some through the club.