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I'm kind of waiting on stuff....but I fought with the blaster to get the a-arm forks clean and painted and made the barrel nuts to hold the balljoint spacers on.

In the suspension software I settled on a 40mm spacer which puts the front anti-roll at 35% with the rear at 25%. In my mind this should be pretty good and between this and the anti-drive I added with the forks it should mean I need about 35% less compression damping in the shocks for the same stability on the brakes and corner turn-in which, also in my mind, means a nicer ride. This and the spherical bearing are why I want to drive it before adding more compression damping to the shocks. So I was feeling pretty good about it all until I did a mock-up and looked at 40mm



hmmmmm......maybe it'll stay together????....20mm looks like it might actually be ok......this it doesn't look like one of my best ideas and I suspect I'll be making new front spindles shortly.

I am guessing 14 inch wheels on a design they never really changed had something to do with the suspension design. I can't imagine Ferrari would make compromises in design just so it all fits behind a wheel.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

Its not just ferrari, one choice almost always has ripples and 18" wheels didn't exist in 1975 when they were designing this thing.

I got confirmation the shock was delivered, so that should start the 3-4week clock. Then the new blaster came to day so I put it to work.



I was out of black paint and dusty from blasting so tomorrow I'll get the bearing adapters welded in and a-arms painted.

I did some math and convinced myself that the spacer plan had a 100% chance of resulting in a broken ball joint and the car on the ground. the stud gets like 90ksi/g load....the metal files so is probably good to like 70kpi? and the tires good to 1.2g? So all around no good. But the guys on grassroots have me pretty convinced the spindle is forged not cast iron which means I can weld it....and you all know how I love to weld! I'm going to proceed with the spacer but weld the snot out of it and it should be fine.

I got the bearing adapters in the a-arms and a-rms painted.


I made the balljoint spacers and its all seems to fit nice, ball joints lock in the the spacers and spacers in the the spindle



Tomorrow I weld.

They are steel and weld just fine


just like factor...yeah, I don't know, I guess when you ordered the V12 it included sportier suspension tuning.


Now don't worry too much about me sanding welds to make them pretty.....I did weld preps on everything so the spacers have not less than 3/16 and the gussets are thru welded

Nothing really photo worthy today...well, cutting threads with a fil maybe in a very sad way. but the steering arm is fixed and painted.


Then I tore out the power steering. I looked long and hard at switching to a prius unit because the control CAN code is now available which is why I passed onit the first time around....but I decided I'm a glutton for punishment's and ordered another fiesta unit because it will be way faster to swap the new parts into my modified unit than to start over. This time I'll make some extender cables for the control box so nothign is getting pulled on of kicked.

I also finally got the tracking number for the rubber bits I orders for the front, so hopefully I can have the all back together by the time the PS unit gets here.

The ECU boards got held up with the new tariff's.....but it looks like rescheduled for delivery to my partner in Washington Monday. I proable have 2-3 weeks before I have one in my hands....but I need to get the wiring done.

I was asked how much the PS weighs...10lbs


That made me start thinking about weight savings to counter it and I haven't used to the sawzall in a bit so 0.35lbs removed!


Actually the lock broke many years ago the this bit makes it a bugger to remove the column but its still a weight reduction

Then masked the bajesus out of the ball joints so I could blast and paint them....I was terrified of getting beads inside but I rally wanted them painted.

I also started looking at the ECU connectors with serious thoughts for starting the swap....but I need to take my old pinout info and move it to the new pinout in CAD first but that has to start soon.

Trying to get the front end back together. Steering billows came as a set.....or 1 that fits and 1 that doesn't. I cobbled the second on some I'm not stalled while I hunt for the right one.


I'm adding camber....so the the toe will be wrong, I guessed 2 revolutions on the tierod ends....but as soon as its driveable it need to find an alignment rack.

Then a-arms on....what the what is going on with the upper? The spacers are all wrong?


Doh!

tomorrow I'll paint the hubs then make new spacers while they dry and hopefully wrap it up. The new power steering unbit will be here tomorrow too so I know what I'm doing this weekend.

The ecu parts are all in the US, the hardware guy is doing 1st round testing, then the firmware guy will do his testing, then to my to do my thing. We have been slowly working through a few oddities and I thing the acceleration enrich is now much better, at least on the bench....well....table...with a not actual ECU so more testing needed.

I am pretty seriously considering replacing my sticking already ruined 1 starter ignition switch with a push to start setup. That has to be good for 5hp especially if I do a blue led back lit version and it kind of falls into the "if you've got it, flaunt it!" category as well I think.

This was just not my day. I stared out cleaning up the front hubs for paint.....fiat. Its one thing to "know" its another to KNOW.



Then the spacers took forever to sort out. Don't know why but it did but I got the upper a-arms installed and nice and figured I'd pop the spindles in the see...I wanted more camber but wtf!



There is a slight chance that I built them upside down.


Tomorrow is a new day. It shouldn't take more than a few hours to fix this blunder so I still could have it back together tomorrow.

Also a buddy and one of his buddy's are popping over to have me take a look at a head of and bwm M44 for an autox car. I guess its making about 120rwhp now but they asked me to see what dynomation had to say.....322crankhp on E85, 300 on pump gas using off the shelf cams and advertised flow numbers. So now the question is what might it take to get those flow numbers other than a 3-4K check to the internet guys? I think I saw a broken tube on the flow bench...one more thing.

So I'm pretty sure I understand why take 2 on the upper a-arm spacer had some drama and rework.....there's 2 sizes. Doh!


then cut around the weld


smack it with a big hammer

clean it up....and just like it never happened

Then spacer in the lather to recut the weld prep and on the spindles.


And back to where I thought I had started from


Front end together tomorrow....if nothing else goes wrong.

There was a 90 minute delay when my grinder died 1/2 way through cutting the second one apart. Who had what? how much? I had a boss a while back who worked at dewalt, he told me "buy cheap grinders, we could have make them last any longer than the cheap one" so I settled on a $40 HF option. So far I kind of like it...they claim its rated as the same power as my old one but its noticeably light so I kind of wonder....but it works and its noticeably lighter. The wrench is black and get lost instantly on the bench, when I grab another can of yellow paint that wrench need some.


As I put the spray can down the BWM racers showed up to talk ports and engine theory in general...so now there is a bmw head on the floor waiting on the some love.