Catorce

And it's milled.

Fits nice now, no gap.

There is a bit of a trick to doing these for all you garage machinists. I am by no means a pro machinist; I am self taught by books, videos, and practical experience. Even so, I learned a few things over the years.

Lots of times when you mill down valve covers, plates, or other flat objects that have taken a warp, your biggest challenge is not machining the piece, it is SECURING the work piece. I heard a great machinist once say:

"A new machinist will say, how can we machine this piece? A veteran machinist will say, how can we secure this work piece?"

When I was new at this, I would take a warped piece like this cover and put it on the table and torque the **** out of the clamps. Then I would machine it flat. Then I would release the clamps....

WTF? It's still warped! Machine it some more.

Wrong strategy. The clamps are strong enough to bend even heavily gusseted aluminum enough to alter the shape. Then you machine it, then it springs back.

This piece was secured only tightly enough to hold it flat and still, just a hair over finger tight....that's the right way to do it.

And I have lots of screwed up parts to prove I learned this lesson

Catorce

One of the things that allows the Devore car to fit such huge rubber is these custom banana arms Bob built. They are long enough to decamber the car nicely, and easily adjustable as well. Basically, you max out the camber eccentrics on the arms first, then don't touch them. After that, you adjust camber from here only. One easy adjustment spot.

The hardware on these arms was corroded and rusty, which is not good because a) it's ugly, and b) you need to be able to easily adjust these.

I took the arms apart, painted the bodies, and replated all the hardware. If you don't have a plating setup at home, GET ONE. Sending your **** out to be plated in one big bag and then getting it back not knowing which piece goes where sucks. For less than $300 you can zinc plate your own stuff at home. I have been using it for years.

Here you can see the refinished arm next to the unrefinished one. All threads coated in Liqui Moly for posterity.

Catorce

Next up, the rear suspension comes apart. I will inspect and refinish every piece on the rear end, firstly to see what I have and how Bob did it, and second, because it's a race car and I don't want to leave anything to chance.

First thing I did was use the impact on the axle nuts to remove the axles. Was pleasantly surprised to see a generous coating of Liqui Moly on the axle shaft....it slid out with one little tap from the sledge. Thanks Bob, wherever you are.

Next up was removing the custom arms. They look good, just needed some cleaning. All delrin bushings, all in good shape.

Took the hubs off, and although the bearings seemed free to rotate, I am not taking the chance. Last 928 I owned I had to replace a wheel bearing with the suspension in the car....NOT fun. So I pressed the hubs out, then pressed the bearings out.

That circlip was so nasty I had to use the heretofore unused massive ratcheting circlip pliers

danglerb

This all looks great, despite the fierce Calif winter it makes me think we should have some kind of OC get together maybe after the holidays.

Catorce

Sounds great!

And I had to put on a jacket today to go with my shorts and flip flops!

skpyle

Thanks for the posts, very interesting to read and follow.


Seth K. Pyle

Catorce

Thank you Seth!

skpyle

You are quite welcome!


Seth K. Pyle

Carl Fausett

Adam,

I see what appears to be a little bend in your Weissach leaf spring. It could be just a parallax illusion from the camera angle or barreling from the lens.

The spring should be straight. Compare it to the other side.

There are a lot of discussions about this element of the Weissach axle. Some say it should be strengthened anyway to prevent it from over-reacting to the higher loads of wide racing tires.

Anyway - just bringing it to your attention.

Catorce

Didn't see that.....will check it out later today!

Good catch!

Rob Edwards

Or you can just cut it off:

Catorce

This is true....

Catorce

Which reminds me....

The Devore car has NO REAR SWAY BAR....or at least none was installed at the time of my ownership. Considering what needs to be done in order to remove this, I think the lack of a rear sway bar may have been intentional. I mean, why would he not have one in there considering you have to remove or at least move the crossmember to get it in?

Seems like he intentionally left it off. Why?

Discuss...

Carl Fausett

Faster lap times, that's why.

Check with Mark, but when I crewed for him a LOOOONG time ago at Road America he had learned that with his spring rates and his rose joints (heim joints) everywhere, he was fastest with the rear bar disconnected.

I don't run as high of spring rates as Mark does, and I find my car likes a little rear sway bar. Emphasis little. I use the rear sway bar from a 78/79 model because its the smallest/weakest one they made.

I expect if i go up to stiffer front and rear springs this year I will find I will no longer need a rear bar either.

Carl Fausett

BTW: The rear sway bar can be swapped out without dropping the transaxle. You do have to lower the transaxle a little bit, and it comes out the driver's side.

I wrote this up initially in 2004... http://www.928motorsports.com/instal...structions.pdf