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Author: Subject: What a difference a day makes
bonesetter

posted on 15/8/10 at 08:48 PM Reply With Quote
What a difference a day makes

I have recently become the proud owner of a ZX10R Worx, well proud as of today as until now the car has been handling down right dangerously and I couldn't feel any stoke...

I took the car to Procomp who spent a full day and a half (14 hours!) very carefully checking and setting all the suspension - it was well out, and there was alot to do. They did a very good job.

However, imagine my mental state when after they had finished, the dangerous handling characteristic was still there !.

After a spell of despondent new toy not working blues I decided to take the car to my local Chemix, who praise where it's due have always carried out sterling work on previous performance cars. Upshot was they found the offside rear lower wishbone hub fixing bolt was lose and was allowing half an inch of play

Imagine how hairy this made the car feel, especially when trying to tuck into a left hander...

Tightening up the bolt has taken most of the play out, although it looks as if the bushings have been affected and need replacing to tighten up the last bit

BUT - I went out this afternoon for a 100 mile blat to Bishops Castle and all places in-between, and what a sweet ride it was

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jos

posted on 15/8/10 at 08:57 PM Reply With Quote
I had a similar experience which also needed a rear suspension mount to be tightened up before it got rid of the problem.

Each time i changed gear the back end shimmied and squirmed until the power was back on whichc didnt exactly inspire confidence.

I had the suspension setup by a local specialist too who identified the fault.

Amazing what difference it made, and all because i hadnt tightened it up enough in the first place, LOL





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gavin174

posted on 15/8/10 at 09:05 PM Reply With Quote
if procomp have charged you for 14hrs work is this not something they should have spotted...

why did they give it back to you with "dangerous handling characteristic's"





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bonesetter

posted on 15/8/10 at 09:17 PM Reply With Quote
Should Procomp have picked that up?

Well, maybe.

I know Chemix jack up each wheel and check for play in the wheel bearings, bushings, track rods etc as a matter of routine before they do anything else which picks up the obvious....

Procomp do not road test after set-up, they leave that to you.

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StevieB

posted on 15/8/10 at 09:19 PM Reply With Quote
I had a few things come loose on my Indy suspension a few times.

It's worth checking whether the fixings have come loose again with use, which is what happened to me a couple of times.

I found that a few hours spend with the lockwire tool and some Loctite gave the peace of mind that nothing would work it's way loose again.

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blakep82

posted on 16/8/10 at 07:15 AM Reply With Quote
er, yep, procomp should definitely have spotted that.





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Steve Hignett

posted on 16/8/10 at 09:49 AM Reply With Quote
I had the same problem on my MAC1, it was (on mine) because the rear upright could not be tightened up correctly as it was seperated from the wishbone just by poly bushes, so when it felt tight initially after a few spirited miles it was loose again, I didn't notice this problem until after carefully scrutiny at Newark show where the car would be snaking down the road, using the whole of a carriageway at the back end!

The only way to solve it for my car was to cut the rear 'bones apart and rosejoint them. This did two things, solve that problem and allowed me to correct the rear camber problems that the chassis' have...

But I believe MAC1 RJ there cars now anyway, so shouldn't be such a problem!






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franky

posted on 16/8/10 at 10:02 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bonesetter
Should Procomp have picked that up?

Well, maybe.

I know Chemix jack up each wheel and check for play in the wheel bearings, bushings, track rods etc as a matter of routine before they do anything else which picks up the obvious....

Procomp do not road test after set-up, they leave that to you.


you would have thought after spending 14 hours on the car something as fundamental as that wouldn't be missed

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02GF74

posted on 16/8/10 at 10:40 AM Reply With Quote
14 hours????

2 hours working 12 hours sucking teeth and drinking coffeee?

ok, so I don't know much about this stuff but how difficult can it be??

I'd be writing in to complain and try to get some money back.

[Edited on 16/8/10 by 02GF74]






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germanguy

posted on 16/8/10 at 11:16 AM Reply With Quote
passenger side lower wishbone to hub bolt snapped on mine felt really wierd everytime on load change after hard acceleration it tried to rear torque steer
one phone call to mac and mark has identified it

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DRC INDY 7

posted on 16/8/10 at 11:30 AM Reply With Quote
Procomp did not do the basics very well before setting up the suspension





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Hector.Brocklebank

posted on 16/8/10 at 12:02 PM Reply With Quote
I know they (procomp) post on this site, so its rather strange there has been no "official" reply, which is again strange as they are usually quite vocal regards some of the other kit manufacturers short comings (if you read their past posts)

Maybe the O.P. should have taken (or maybe did) the matter up direct with procomp before posting his findings here.

I suppose we are all human and can miss things though. it dosent inspire confidence that somthing so apparently fundamental was possibly overlooked.

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nick205

posted on 16/8/10 at 01:52 PM Reply With Quote
Did you do Procomp the courtesy of speaking to them before posting? From what I know of them (posts on here and several phone conversations with Matt on car set-up) it sounds un-characteristic for them to have overlooked something like this, even if there's an inherent design fault (as intimated above).

14hrs seems a hell of time to set-up an already built and driveable car?

Did this involve repotisioning any suspension brackets or modifying any parts?

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MK9R

posted on 16/8/10 at 03:51 PM Reply With Quote
Good to see you on here nigel! Your car looks very nice and cracking choice of engine

Nuts and bolts coming loose is all part and parcel of a kit car, especially BEC's . You should periodically spanner check over the car, the more you do it, the more you will learn which bolts are more suseptable than others. Main culprits are propshaft bolts, which can cause a nasty failure, and sometimes you just can't stop them coming loose. On my old ST no matter what i put on the thread, the rear prop to reverse box always came loose, but none of the others?? On my current fury i don't seem to suffer prop bolts coming loose, but then other fellow racers have it all the time. Once you know your way round the car and what spanners, sockets, allen keys you need, you can check it over in under an hour.

Oh and just noticed you are in clent!! I grew up in belbroughton and don't live a million miles away now, you should bring the car for a blat over to cleobury for a chat and a pint

[Edited on 16/8/10 by MK9R]





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bonesetter

posted on 16/8/10 at 05:55 PM Reply With Quote
The purpose of this thread was to share my new car's now working joy, not for the thread to deteriorate into a Procomp bash.

As most of you know one half of Procomp is incapacitated with feet fractures so a day setting up turned into a day and a half. I was there the whole time and and the long time taken is only testimony to the thorough job Procomp do. Every adjustment is followed with a suspension settleing and then retested. Then I get into the car to see if there's any change with driver's weight applied, and then someone else climbs on each rear corner in turn to simulate what will happen to the car when 'live'. This says if camber or toe is coming on or going off, amongst other things as well probably.

Ivan worked on the car pretty much the whole of the day, without a lunch stop (there was an hour's interval with a pre-booked gearbox look at too). There was a couple of extra jobs to do - the dampers needed extra length ends on them as they were too short and the front ones needed air removal as they had been fitted upside down. Matt was on damper dyno duty. For 200 quid it can't be beaten.

And with all that the wishbone play and opposite side wheel bearing play was not spotted. I've spoken to Matt today - he seems to think it wasn't there when in their garage. I say it was there before and after, but was very surprised the play was missed with all the checking. Well, no tears shed here, the main thing is the car is right now

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bonesetter

posted on 16/8/10 at 06:02 PM Reply With Quote
Austen - Yes, for sure I'm going to be checking all the bolts regularly now, especially those propshaft ones Procomp's visit not only got me much more familiar with the car, the guys know alot about all the various kits, and gave me the rundowns both good and bad about most of them, from where they came, and how they have progressed (or not) - quite an eye opener, especially as all I had was a tiny bit of e-knowledge...

I'll take you up on the pint offer, cheers

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procomp

posted on 16/8/10 at 06:18 PM Reply With Quote
Hi

Having recently been pointed in the direction of this thread by Nigel. I will correct a few WRONG assumptions and comments that are being made.

Nigel knew there where a lot of problems with the car before bringing it to us. Despite setting the cars geometry up there remain a few problems. Some of the basics such as wrong length dampers supplied with unmatched valving and mounted the wrong way up ( now the right way up ) by the original owner builder. still need to be addressed. bushing problems as with most kits where also present and still need addressing also.

When the car left us there was no notice able play in any of the joints. A fact witnessed by Nigel who spent the whole 14Hrs present with us whilst we rectified faults and sett the geometry.
He was charged our standard fee of £200 for a full geometry setup and a further £56 for machining work on front camber adjusters. Also reworking of the dampers to provide some extra droop travel and parts needed to achieve this.
Tea / coffee breaks where not charged for as they where consumed whilst working flat out for 14 Hrs.
At present we are continuing to help Nigel to overcome some of the problems that are still present on the car.

As for remarks regarding test drives. well i love the job of test driving cars. But due to currently being restricted to a wheel chair ( 1 possible two heels fractured) it is kinda hard to do so presently.

Cheers Matt






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Flamez

posted on 17/8/10 at 07:06 AM Reply With Quote
Are you sure the dampers weren't intentionally inverted. You can spec upside down dampers from gaz and a lot of Mac owners take that route.





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ash_hammond

posted on 17/8/10 at 08:22 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Flamez
Are you sure the dampers weren't intentionally inverted. You can spec upside down dampers from gaz and a lot of Mac owners take that route.


I agree, the dampers can be inverted.







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procomp

posted on 17/8/10 at 11:11 AM Reply With Quote
Hi

The damper work for a few hundered miles when run upside down. Despite the fact that GAZ AVO Protech say you can.
The seals are simply not good enough to stop air entering the damper body. The air rises to the top which is now where the valve adjuster is and gives no control of the oil flow through the valve.

Anyone who has witnessed these dampers being tested on a dyno whilst upside down will confirm the problem. As found on Nigels car above.

Even if they did work upside down there is no real world noticeable advantage gained by doing so in the application of a basic kitcar.

Cheers Matt






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grusks2

posted on 19/8/10 at 04:32 PM Reply With Quote
Last time out mine was doing the same, twitching with every gear change and on braking and hard on the power.

I put it down to very very hot day and tyres going off.

I just checked over the car for the first time this year ( only used it once due to no time ) and my rear wishbone to hub bolt was loose as well drivers side, correction very loose.

Checked over every other bolt i could get to on the car / engine all ok.

might drill and wire them....????





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bonesetter

posted on 19/8/10 at 05:05 PM Reply With Quote
I think the problem with fixing the nuts or for that matter paint spotting them to easily see any losening, is you will still get bush wear, and this needs taking up periodicaly.

Checking for play (wheel bearings too) on a lifted wheel is needed as well as the spanner check...

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grusks2

posted on 19/8/10 at 07:28 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bonesetter
I think the problem with fixing the nuts or for that matter paint spotting them to easily see any losening,



I went round every nut & bolt with a drop of tipex when i built the car, but its rubbed off on some of the nuts where i'd check them last year. Might use some nail vanish, might last better





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*AL*

posted on 21/1/11 at 11:59 PM Reply With Quote
Today i found my diff bolt very loose! Always good to check the car over.
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