The better to hear you with, my dear?

[moosetestbestanden]

I'm switching to ACB10s, partly because I can't find Avon CR500s, and partly because I want to give them a try. This is a switch from radial tyre to X-ply tire. CC sez (& all the mavens on brit chit confirm) that different camber is required - or rather prefered - at the back. I believe the change is from 1.5 deg. to -.25 deg., or something like that. Which means new ears on the dedion tube. They have just arrived. Here's a picture:

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.carter4/Ears01.JPG

As you can see, they are no longer cast but rather CNC machined. The hollowed out part is purported to save about 200 grams per ear.

WooHoo man! That oughta just about do it! All you poor buggers runnin your porky, old cast ears are doomed! :lol:

[moosetestbestanden]

So I'm about to switch the ears. According to my readings on brit chit, those fellas seem to think that the easiest way to switch 'em is to suspend the calipers (after removing and marking the pads) from the springs and the pull out the hub, disc, halfshaft & all.

So, I'm asking myself, why not just do a simple reversal of the assembly proceedure i.e. undo the JesusBig 200 lb.ft. nut, remove the hub. suspend the caliper (as per the BritChit suggestion) and make the switch (not forgetting the ARB of course)?

Can it really be so hard to undo that nut? Anybody out there done this? I had the devil of the time getting the halfshafts in, particularly on the right hand side and I'm not wild about the notion of glorping diff sauce (both out & in) again. What am I missing here?

Input welcome.

[moosetestbestanden]

Well, I managed to answer my own questions. They are:

1. The Jesus nuts just ain't that hard to remove, as long as one remembers that they are threaded like bicycle pedals (one correct, the other wrong. You decide which is which). I used a cheater only on 1 side and only a little extra oomph was required. The new jack handle came in quite handy for this function.

2. There's no obvious reason to pull out the entire half shaft. It just isn't necessary. You have to undo all of the bolts securing the ear to the tube anyway...

3. There is no reason whatsoever to remove the brake pads. Simply unbolt the calipers and lift up carefully so as not to bend the (stupid) copper brake pipe. I suspended them w/ zip ties from the springs.

4. I am not even smart enough to figure out how they go about removing the hub bearing carrier w/ the disc in place, which is an awkward tool-reach. That part just made no sense to me at all. It simply has to be slower to undo those bolts that way.

It took about 1 1/2 hours, including a trip to the A-parts store for some more Loctite, and Cigar Time. All in all, I just don't get why them fellers over there would do it as they described, excluding those that don't have the Giant Jesus Nut Socket I guess.

For thems what's interested, I've posted several pics of the old and new ears to illustrate the camber difference, which is quite pronounced:

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.carter4/Camber1.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.carter4/Camber2.JPG

I also weighed both old (862 grams) and new (722) grams for a total savings of 280 grams. Plus the weight of the thin ali plate that is no longer required because the new ears are solid where the old ones have a hole. 280 grams! There's nothing but pure speed w/ this change. Lookout!

I experimented by driving the car w/ the ACB10s before the change and directly after. The difference felt as pronounced as the difference in the ears might lead one to believe. Prior to, the car was really twitchy - the back end felt nervous and ready to turn - maybe not a bad thing. After: much more settled. I couldn't really let it rip in corners because of the rutted, rotted, pitted, open storm drain bitumen tracks that are called roads hereabouts, and the cold tires (the 10s feel pretty greasy in relative cold we're experiencing). Discretion was the beter part etc. etc.

Once I get the front dialed to spec alignment wise I should be able to get a good read on the grip difference between the ACB10s & the CR500s. Given that the CR500s are not even available this change pretty much makes sense.