gldgti
22-06-2005, 11:05 AM
Okay everyone,
NOTICE!!! I accept NO RESPONSIBILITY for any damages or injury, finacial burden etc etc etc that may be incurred by you attempting to manufacture, install and use thar bar described below. BE WARNED!
by request, here is how i made my lower stress bar. you can see pics of it on my webiste http://scramjetsite.8m.com by going to the "photo page"
i currently have no pics of this bar installed. will try to do this in future.
The technical stuff:
This is a two point lower stress bar for the mk1 golf. Mine is a diesel with a 4 speed gearbox - i dont know about the differences is size between the 4 sp and 5 sp boxes but my bar fits nicely under the mounting bracket that goes from the rear of the engine/tranny to the chassis, with about 8mm clearance to the bracket. The bar does not protrude more than about 10mm below the sump.
I made my bar from some 30mm OD mild steel pipe (seam welded type) of rather heavy duty nature, with a wall thickness of 3mm. To mount the bar, i used some 50x50 mm steel angle, two peices, both of which were about 5mm thick.
To make the bar i measured roughly how long it needed to be, plus about 200mm. (cut to size later) I used a drop saw to cut the pipe on the an angle where it needed to bend, and reversed the pipe so that the intermediate angle produced an overall bend twice that angle measured. this is so that the weld area is equal on both sides of the pipe and leaves the end product with a nice finish. the actual finished angle between the straight part of the pipe and the outer end pieces is approximately 25degrees, so cut of 12.5 deg should get you this angle.
I used a mig to weld the pipe for saftey reasons, as i wanted to be sure the welds would be strong enough. if your handy with an arc welder, by all means try that. i had access to a mig so i used it ;-)
When i had the bar made up, i measured the distance between the front wishbone bolts, or lower control arm bolts, and used this as a reference measurement to cut the bar to size. i then welded on the end brackets made from the 50mm angle. YOU MUST BE SURE THAT THESE ARE IN LINE WITH EACHOTHER! If not you will have a twist which will not allow you to bolt the bar into place without stressing the bar, the wishbone bolts etc etc etc. be warned...
Once you have the brackets welded into place, all you need to do is make sure it will fit. i bolted mine on so that the bar itself is oriented infront of the wishbones so that i hade plenty of freedom to ajdust the position of the bar simply by changing the final position of the holes.
to bolt the bar on, i jacked up the car so that ther was no weight on the front wheels. I then took out both front wishbone bolts, and bored a hole on one side, making sure the hole was sqare to the bracket!!!
then i simply moved the other side of the bar into the ideal position for clearance etc, and marked the poistion of the second hole.
once the bar is bolted in, do not attempt to torque up the bolts while the car is on axle stands, you may pull the car off onto yourself etc.
torque up the bolts again after 100km to make sure they arent loose as the bar will need to work itself in a bit.
keep in mind that in doing this you are reducing the amount of threaded length of bolt into the chassis by about 5mm because of the brackets, so be mindful when you are torquing up the bolts. do not over tighten them!!!
i know its diffucult without good pics. i will endeavour to get some useful images up soon. meanwhile, look at the ones on my website.
please ask anything about this, as i have probably not explained everything well enough.
aydan
NOTICE!!! I accept NO RESPONSIBILITY for any damages or injury, finacial burden etc etc etc that may be incurred by you attempting to manufacture, install and use thar bar described below. BE WARNED!
by request, here is how i made my lower stress bar. you can see pics of it on my webiste http://scramjetsite.8m.com by going to the "photo page"
i currently have no pics of this bar installed. will try to do this in future.
The technical stuff:
This is a two point lower stress bar for the mk1 golf. Mine is a diesel with a 4 speed gearbox - i dont know about the differences is size between the 4 sp and 5 sp boxes but my bar fits nicely under the mounting bracket that goes from the rear of the engine/tranny to the chassis, with about 8mm clearance to the bracket. The bar does not protrude more than about 10mm below the sump.
I made my bar from some 30mm OD mild steel pipe (seam welded type) of rather heavy duty nature, with a wall thickness of 3mm. To mount the bar, i used some 50x50 mm steel angle, two peices, both of which were about 5mm thick.
To make the bar i measured roughly how long it needed to be, plus about 200mm. (cut to size later) I used a drop saw to cut the pipe on the an angle where it needed to bend, and reversed the pipe so that the intermediate angle produced an overall bend twice that angle measured. this is so that the weld area is equal on both sides of the pipe and leaves the end product with a nice finish. the actual finished angle between the straight part of the pipe and the outer end pieces is approximately 25degrees, so cut of 12.5 deg should get you this angle.
I used a mig to weld the pipe for saftey reasons, as i wanted to be sure the welds would be strong enough. if your handy with an arc welder, by all means try that. i had access to a mig so i used it ;-)
When i had the bar made up, i measured the distance between the front wishbone bolts, or lower control arm bolts, and used this as a reference measurement to cut the bar to size. i then welded on the end brackets made from the 50mm angle. YOU MUST BE SURE THAT THESE ARE IN LINE WITH EACHOTHER! If not you will have a twist which will not allow you to bolt the bar into place without stressing the bar, the wishbone bolts etc etc etc. be warned...
Once you have the brackets welded into place, all you need to do is make sure it will fit. i bolted mine on so that the bar itself is oriented infront of the wishbones so that i hade plenty of freedom to ajdust the position of the bar simply by changing the final position of the holes.
to bolt the bar on, i jacked up the car so that ther was no weight on the front wheels. I then took out both front wishbone bolts, and bored a hole on one side, making sure the hole was sqare to the bracket!!!
then i simply moved the other side of the bar into the ideal position for clearance etc, and marked the poistion of the second hole.
once the bar is bolted in, do not attempt to torque up the bolts while the car is on axle stands, you may pull the car off onto yourself etc.
torque up the bolts again after 100km to make sure they arent loose as the bar will need to work itself in a bit.
keep in mind that in doing this you are reducing the amount of threaded length of bolt into the chassis by about 5mm because of the brackets, so be mindful when you are torquing up the bolts. do not over tighten them!!!
i know its diffucult without good pics. i will endeavour to get some useful images up soon. meanwhile, look at the ones on my website.
please ask anything about this, as i have probably not explained everything well enough.
aydan