Loud Bang!

[122 Vega]

Something didn't seem quite so right today, the car seemed to be pushing just a little bit,, and I developed a hell of a loud clunk in the rear...It was like failed 156E x 10...

let's take a little look, maybe my endlinks are just loose again...

So a little welding reinforcement is in order for tomorrow, I think Ill do all four just in case...

Britt

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Weld on the strut? That's not a little dangerous? I thought about those endlinks but figured I'd rather the endlink break rather than the strut tab so I stayed stock even tho the sway bar is 22mm & the tabs on the illuminas look much sturdier than oem. I noticed the trailing links are still oem. There is a group buy somewhere on here or group buy to be, maybe, on some like the AWRs. Not sure they'll be much cheaper. Be careful fixin that strut, wouldn't want a different kind of zoom zoom boom. How much "spirited driving" did it take for that to happen? **edit** also noticed no rubber firewall grommets on the endlinks. Do they make much noise on regular basis?

 

[122 Vega]

Yeah, trailing links aren't legal in STX. I'm not actually welding on the strut, there is a steel housing and the actual strut insert goes inside it.

I was thinking about changing the height of the tabs anyways...

relatively "spirited" in the back hills out in rural Oregon.

it's to be expected with how damn stiff the car is now, I suppose it'll only get worse when I get the Delrin bushings in and a few other things...

Britt

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Figured that might be why about the trailing arm thing after seeing your sig again. If you move it then you'll have to break the others first, lol. Good luck on the fix.

 

[khaosman]

Damn, that was a pretty clean break.

Those AWRs are very stiff, as I found out in Justin's car. Real nice though. In fact, I was thinking about buying yours if you had to part out. Glad to see you're still out there playing with the MSP! It'd would have been cool to see it at Topeka.

 

[Shift_Lost]

relatively "spirited" in the back hills out in rural Oregon.


Britt

gotta love roads like Germantown eh(glare)

 

[Macs MSP]

Yeah, trailing links aren't legal in STX. I'm not actually welding on the strut, there is a steel housing and the actual strut insert goes inside it.

I was thinking about changing the height of the tabs anyways...

relatively "spirited" in the back hills out in rural Oregon.

it's to be expected with how damn stiff the car is now, I suppose it'll only get worse when I get the Delrin bushings in and a few other things...

Britt

Britt,

Where did you see that Trailing Links are not legal? AS far as the rules go I thought they stated that you could use them. I would look again at that because I have been working out my parts list for months and listing everything that's legal for the car. Trailing Links are one of them. I thought you even had them on your list of things to get.

Mac

 

[122 Vega]

Only items that control lateral movement are legal, trailing arms (which everyone here refers to as lateral arms) control fore/aft movement. The four true lateral links that allow some camber movemetn are legal. Those will be changed. I had been up 29 hours when I replied, so I may have thought he was talking about "lateral arms."

Germantown is nice, I usually run from Sylvan to the end of Skyline, turn around then drop down either Logie Trail or Rocky POint Road (although both are getting really rough now) then back up C. Pass to my house. There are far too may bikes out on these roads now, so I have to go at 4am when all the nut-n-twig eating byciclists are sleeping. It's sad how these roads have changed in the last 20 years, I mean Thompson Road has side walks now?

I think this broke because of the length of the endlinks, there was too much preload on the bar. I need to lengthen the endlinks to reduce it.

Britt

 

[Macs MSP]

Only items that control lateral movement are legal, trailing arms (which everyone here refers to as lateral arms) control fore/aft movement. The four true lateral links that allow some camber movemetn are legal. Those will be changed. I had been up 29 hours when I replied, so I may have thought he was talking about "lateral arms."

AWR refers to these as "Trailing Links." They do control lateral movement so they are legal. I recomend getting these. I've already purchased them and they are nice and beafy compared to the stock toothpicks, plus they come with polly bushings.

Have you added anything else to the car lately? I talked to Tony at AWR the other day. They seem like a great company to work with. I'll most likely be ordering my set of coilovers around Christmas.

Mac

 

[CorkSport]

Good thing you can re-weld yours, but that does suck.
At least I'm not the only one that has done it. I broke both tabs off of my Mazdaspeed struts with the AWR endlinks, no welding on those.

 

[xelderx]

Tony assured me that the endlink tabs were strong enough. They look plenty strong. Now we just need to get the welds up to strength.

 

[122 Vega]

I really think it was because of the effective angle of my swaybar, Tony was supposed to send me the longer endlinks with the coilovers, but he mmust of forgot, but he didn't charge me, so it's okay.

I do not believe that this is any kind of design flaw. Before I reweld them, I will take pics so you can see the angle I was running so I'll see if you agree with me. The bars ends were certainly not parallel with the ground as they are supposed to be.

Be back with pics in a few,

Britt

 

[122 Vega]

Tony did only weld a short spot on each of the four sides of the tabs where they meet the strut housing, I am going to weld them all the way around.

Britt

 

[122 Vega]

AWR refers to these as "Trailing Links." They do control lateral movement so they are legal. I recomend getting these. I've already purchased them and they are nice and beafy compared to the stock toothpicks, plus they come with polly bushings.

Have you added anything else to the car lately? I talked to Tony at AWR the other day. They seem like a great company to work with. I'll most likely be ordering my set of coilovers around Christmas.

Mac

You guys are all telling him that I sent you to him right? jk. What have I added? Well, my AFC 2 is going in right after the endlink fix, then now because of stupid rule changes I have to add weight to my seats and make brackets to mount to the factory holes. Lame. I full cage will be going in soon, but probably that'll be my Xmas present to myself.

I am looking for an FSDE engine and trans combo to build as a spare for next year, put in the Quaife LSD, and then the legal over bore (if I can figure out what OEM oversize pistons are available) and a few other legal "tricks."

Anything else? I don't know, but I am starting to look at other daily drivers, but I enjoy driving the car so much that I'm sure I'd miss it.

Brit

 

[Lt. Dan]

Hmm.... poor penetration?

 

[122 Vega]

No, definite break right down the middle of the weld, I think I took a picture of it before I fixed it. It is just too much preload with the short enlinks,

Britt