Project car status: all heavy mechanical work done

I found out today that if i dont have the car done, to drive to the shop Thursday, the engineer i want to do the corner weight and alignment will be off to Europe for several weeks with the LeMans series (He's Pirelli's ontrack engineer). So my schedule just accelerated from "whenever" to "yesterday'.

Soooo, after work tonight i put all the chassis reinforcement stuff back on, along with the Techno-Brace. Oh, THAT was fun. As feared, it was several mm out of spec, and the bolt holes did not align with the brace (which Pedro, on purpose, drills to factory spec). What i did NOT expect was just how hard it might be to bring it back to alignment. My ratcheting cinch-down straps simply broke ( i guess the warning label that said "Caution: Made in China" was not just a bad translation, it was true?). So, in desperation i used a bottle jack, braced against the cement wall of the garage (2 x 10 distributing force) through a 2 x 6 PT board, to nudge the frame back into spec. It worked, after much sweating, cursing and mumbling.

Tomorrow i plan to put the axle nuts on, triple-check stuff, and put the car on its wheels and tires (totally crap ones, Bruce can describe them better than me), drive it to let it settle and make sure nothing falls off, and then level the PSS9s. I rough set them at 5mm below max valid height, or 10mm above min valid height (range is 15mm). But i expect it will need tweeking to be level.

Then off the the shop Thursday for corner weighting and fancy-pants alignment.

Any advice gladly accepted.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Mistakes occur when we're running out of gas, so to speak.

And rolling quite nicely, despite 4 wheels pointed in slightly random directions.

I need to do a bit more leveling, but its both very controlled and surprisingly comfortable. I have the PSS9s, to the best of my knowledge, set at "6" all around. 6 = semi soft where 9 = soft and 1 = set screw locks the piston in place.

I actually figured out how to align it, but decided it was not worth the effort, since a real job will be done tomorrow afternoon. Most importantly, nothing fell off or bound or....

I also need to torque the axle nuts. My best estimate from force estimate x length of lever estimate is that they are between 250-275 lb-ft at the moment. I need the car on the ground and maybe a helper to get them up over 300 as they should be.

I think i'll like this.

Its not slammed either. In fact i might drop the front 1/4" more or so.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Just use a long arm, divide the target torque by your weight and stand that far out on the wrench until it stops moving.

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

... correctly.
It should be able to hold way over 300 lb-ft of torque.
Check the shoes, cable and adjustment.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Static weight is one thing, but in practicality, unless one is a Wallenda or a member of Cirque du Soleil, there will be some extra force appllied when getting on, balancing, and getting off. Practicing on an analog bathroom* scale could help determine the calculated distance from the pivot.
* That is, if one still has an analog bathroom!