One of our netter friends has had a spot of trouble with the deDion rear
end in a Caterham Seven. Emmanuel Crouvisier, AKA "Twingles", was en
route from Calgary to Chicago when things came somewhat adrift. The car
is now in safe storage in Alexandria, Minnesota, whilst he and his
father arrange for transport and repair. This failure is ill-timed (is
there such a thing as a well-timed failure) as the elder Crouvisier has
plans to drive the car at Gingerman next weekend.
Those of you who are familiar with the suspension setup may be able to
tell us something about how this happened and how it may be repaired.
Apparently the the rear wheel was allowed to toe in so that the inside
sidewall of the tire rubbed on the trailing link, causing the tire to
blow out. The tire is noticeably displaced forward in the chassis. See
the pictures at
http://www.twingles.com/digicam/tireblow/
I'm not aware of the failure mode here, mostly because I don't know how
a Caterham deDion works.
Is it a fixed-length deDion tube located laterally by a Panhard rod?
Is is a telescoping deDion tube with the hubs located laterally by
fixed-length half-shafts?
Something else?
Either the trailing arms failed and allowed the entire deDion tube to
steer to the left (how does the LEFT tire look, Twingles?),
or the deDion tube bent and allowed just the right hub carrier to toe
in,
or both
or something else I have not yet envisioned.
If anyone has experience which can shed light on this, please email
Emmanuel Crouvisier at
twingles@en.com
or his father at
tts@techtranslation.com
ADthanksVANCE
Phil Ethier
"Hey, Mister Dee Jay! I just want to hear some rhythm-and-blues music
on the radio." - George Ivan Morrison
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