Felicia Rear ARB

[pinkskud]

as long as the rolling motion of the car induces twist in the anti roll bar then it is going to resist this twist and hold the body straighter.

[TeflonTom]

good old pinks has come up trumps again for me

the little weld on brackety thingies have arrived this morning

[TeflonTom]

i've cut down the ends of the bar, i think i underestimated just how 'hard' this arb is, it took a full 20 miniutes of sawing with a hacksaw with a new blade:O

sanded off the powder coated surface in preparation for welding, and bent the brackets that Pinky-McSkud kindly made for me, also i need to make some spacers to go between the bracket and the beam

Edited 21 September, 2008 by TeflonTom

[TeflonTom]

i've been doing a bit of testing on the axle beam, and i'm surprised just how much it flexes.. i'm also going to try and figure out a way of fitting the original arb back on.

[pinkskud]

running two i think would be the best option

[TeflonTom]

all welded now

i've removed the arb and dropped it off to be powder coated

the cost so far is still not changed, but i'd expect a friendly fabrication firm would do that for about a tenner, and i estimate about £20 to have those brackets made

so lets say roughly £43 so far

Edited 24 September, 2008 by TeflonTom

[TeflonTom]

quick lick of paint on the old girl...

[pinkskud]

thinking about it, and looking at a mk2 golf rear beam i think you could increase the torsional stiffness a lot just by boxing in the first 6" of the beam from each end. if ya get what i mean?

[TeflonTom]

you mean a gusset??, yeah that would work, you wouldn't have to worry about clearance for the fuel tank like you do on the mk2 golf either... the space inside the 'legs' of the felicia axle only has the exhaust and the spare wheel recess, so there's plenty of room

[TeflonTom]

powder coated:)

just have to machine up some spacers now

[pinkskud]

pimp!

[TeflonTom]

pimp!

it certainly looks better than it did

before

after

[rigsby]

I hope the bolts to the bottom shocker mounts are only temporary, if not you will have to get some longer ones to go through the shocker and arb

[TeflonTom]

yeah, i only put them on there to use as a jig for welding to hold it in position, i'm going to get some decent high tensile ones that go through the shock like normal then go through a spacer then through the arb, then a nut on the end

[TeflonTom]

right i've almost finished this now, all i need to do is make up some spacers 24mm long with a 10mm hole in the centre

[oldskool]

Can't wait for the roadtest report :thumbup:

[Phil-E]

How did you get one with this?

Interested in doing something similar.

Thanks

Phil

[Cepheuz]

do you guy's mind telling me what is the purpose of this?... i'm sorry to be a duft, but when i go up a hill in a corner my rear wheel lift up due to the H rear Axel, and i though that i did not need a roll bar since there is not a lot of lateral movement like that...

any way, fitting a skinny bar to a huge axel doen't look like it make a big difference in driving stability

i would love for someone to answer, cus i love learning new things (and my friends are'nt realy mechanicaly inclined)

[Phil-E]

Although there isn't a lot of movement in the rear axle there is some and the anti roll bar acts as a spring to hold it straight and resist any flex.

It probably doesn't make a huge difference but paired with stiffer suspension etc it would.

Phil

[pinkskud]

i have just finished fitting a mk4 R32 golf front ARB to the rear beam of a felicia.

the idea is that the bar is not a brace to stiffen the beam. but a spring to control the twist.

the standard rear beam is VERY twisty, i can twist it 4" by hand. but the R32 ARB is so stiff i can only move it 0.5" by hand.

[Phil-E]

What "adjustments" were needed to the bar itself and did you have to put new fitments onto the axle beam itself?

Phil

[pinkskud]

the ARB is as it came off the R32, i even kept the inner mount rubbers and clamps, so i can replace them with standard ones if needed.

but the rear beam has two mounting plates welded on to match the slightly modified standard inner rubbers. and two little brackets welded behind were the shock bolts in, there for bolting in the ends of the ARB.

[Phil-E]

Cool.

Good job!

So os there no stiffer bar that will slot into place of the original without trying to fit a longer one to attach to the bottom of the suspension too?

Phil

[TeflonTom]

omg, i'd forgotten about this thread, have you got any pictures of yours ed?

[pinkskud]

i have but getting them on to my steam powered laptop could be fun. will se what i can do.