Front Suspension Mods

[Max (Allan)]

As forum seems to have gone very quiet of late I thought I'd post info about mods I did to front suspension earlier this year, which I originally posted in reply to Shamea2 "Back on the Road" topic in case anyone was interested.

The offside camber angle on my Ace was set at 1.5 degrees negative resulting in uneven tyre wear. However, the suspension on my car had no adjustment for camber. So I cut off the upper wishbone metalastic bushes and replaced them with rose bearings and set both camber angles to 0.5 degrees positive.

The rose bearings, being much narrower than the original bushes, also enabled an increase in caster angles of around 1 degree, which totally transformed the handling!!! (In my original post I said ride was harsher since fitting the rose bearings. However, I subsequently discovered the locknuts were not tight enough.)

[Flyinghorse]

Max,
That looks like a very sensible/smart  modification. I am not a ACE Brooklands owner  but that takes your set up very close to whats on the Mkiv CRS -I did an article in Action for setting that up around Q4 2013  and had been supplied by John Owen a method to adjust caster & camber simultaneously. (Its proportional to the Thread pitch)

On the CRS you can also adjust the rear camber--not sure how the ACE is set up but might bring further dividends.

Graham

[Max (Allan)]

Hi Graham

Reassuring to know my mod's in line with "official" AC practice, although in reality using rose bearings was the only practical solution. The nail biting part was deciding where along the tubes to cut off the metalastic bushes  – the rose bearings didn't come with overgenerous threaded section. (I have track record for measuring twice, cutting once and still getting it wrong!!)

Agreed – caster can be changed by lengthening/shortening the two wishbone legs relative to one another by means of the rose bearings. But using that method means each adjustment for camber will throw out the caster angle and visa versa – bit of a pain. So I decided to adjust caster using shims to reposition wishbone assemblies forward/back within the original journal mounting brackets, thus leaving camber unchanged.

Like the front suspension my Ace doesn't have any geometry adjustment on the rear and came from the Factory with wildly negative offside rear camber. But I fixed that years ago by repositioning the upper wishbone relative to the rear hub carrier. Its always baffle me why AC didn't provide the Ace with front & rear geometry adjustment.

When purchased from Duncan Hamilton in 2000 the handling was so bad, thinking something was wrong I stopped and had a butcher's underneath after a couple of miles. There wasn't – just poor design. It's been a challenge, but after numerous mods over the years for handling and ride car is finally a joy to drive.

Max

[paho]

Hi Max,
I read "Back on the Road" and this topic with great interest as I'm dismantling the suspension on my Ace. Are the rose joints used in the mod of the type called "Johnny joints"?
The reason I ask is that I can see what I think are rose ball joints in the top left-hand corner of your first illustration, but the one's mounted look more like Johnny joints.
/Paho

[Max (Allan)]

Hi Paho

They are rose bearings fitted with rubber gaiters to keep out the elements. I used 16mm bearings as I felt 12mm bearing to match the 12mm fixing bolts weren't sufficiently beefy. I obtained the parts from McGill Motorsport    https://www.mcgillmotorsport.com   who also stock the required 16/12mm reducers. However, I wanted maximum lateral bearing movement within subframe brackets to increase caster angle, so machined up slimmer reducers to suit my setup.

Over the years I've done a number of mods to the suspension & steering geometry.



Max

[Max (Allan)]

Paho. For some reason when posting reply some of my response wasn't included: -

.... who also stock the required 16/12mm reducers. However, I wanted maximum lateral bearing movement within subframe brackets to increase caster angle, so machined up slimmer reducers to suit my setup.

Over the years I've done a number of mods to the suspension & steering geometry.

Max 

[paho]

Many thanks for the clarification Max, the gaiters fooled me. /Paho

[AcemanToo]

Hi Max,

Do you by any chance know what the top ball joints are off? They look a little like XJ6 ones, but are they?!

[Max (Allan)]

Hi AcemanToo

Although repairing Jaguars was my business for 20+ years I can't say I ever looked at the Ace front suspension and thought those ball joints look like Jaguar, but that maybe because I've always been deeply involved fixing other things when working on the suspension!! But aren't they Ford Mondeo/Sierra or similar?

Thinking about it I don't think they are Jaguar, but that doesn't mean they can't be adapted. The distance (pitch) between the two mounting bolts is the critical measurement (the ball joint width could be adjusted either by machining or shimming). Pitch according to XJ6 workshop manual is 1.75 inches (44.5mm). (Wonderful things old time Jag manuals – gave all possible info necessary to fix the cars. Not like modern manuals that give away nothing of use!!). The bolts are 3/8 diameter (10mm), whereas from memory Ace joint uses 12mm (1/2 inch) bolts. This could be overcome by boring out holes joints to 12mm or inserts in wishbones or machining up bolts and nuts with shoulders.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I do have a Daimler Double Six sitting in the garage alongside Ace, but getting wheel off for detailed comparison would be a lot of hassle (too much junk in the way!!).  :( Let me know if distance between bolts is same (1.75 inches).

[AcemanToo]

Hi Max,

Many thanks for your reply! I've got an early XJ6 / Jaguar 420 top ball joint for comparison but haven't got round to taking the Ace wheel off to check the dimensions. I've searched a whole load of Ford ones such as Sierra, Mondeo, Granada etc, but there's no similarity at all to any of them. Once I've checked dimensions, I'll post my findings here.