CSR owners check your rear suspension mounts

[Jonathan Kay]

3 minutes ago, Dixa1225 said:

CC have plenty of Duratecs , no issues with supply for these engines for the next few years.

Yes, this was stated in the recent online meeting with, IIRC a date.

Jonathan

[ScottR400D]

On 26/04/2024 at 08:59, Jonathan Kay said:

Yes, this was stated in the recent online meeting with, IIRC a date.

Jonathan

There was a post in here recently where a customer’s car was on stop because they had no engines. 
Caterham say a lot of stuff, it’s not always true. 
Time will tell. 

[Croc]

It looks like another option for replacement CSR lower suspension brackets became available.

http://www.beachmanracing.com/csr-lower-damper-bracket

The installation instructions are very helpful. 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54a5bfa5e4b00fb49e124354/t/664960c6758ce06353175e1d/1716084936856/BR+Caterham+CSR+Damper+Bracket+Install+Instructions-V1.1.pdf

 

 

 

 

[David aka Blue7]

Good post, how did you discover that?  Beachman Racing seem to be based in Washington, $897 is about £708 plus postage.  You wouldn't think there are many CSR's in the US to warrant the design and production of an improved Clevis Bracket?  It seems similar the the Team Leos bracket but the sides of the two damper location lugs have been chamfered and the stud has a spacer.  I have no knowledge of the material quality they refer to.  Here is a pic of the two together with the team Leos version

[Croc]

39 minutes ago, David aka Blue7 said:

Good post, how did you discover that?  Beachman Racing seem to be based in Washington, $897 is about £708 plus postage.  You wouldn't think there are many CSR's in the US to warrant the design and production of an improved Clevis Bracket?  It seems similar the the Team Leos bracket but the sides of the two damper location lugs have been chamfered and the stud has a spacer.  I have no knowledge of the material quality they refer to.  Here is a pic of the two together with the team Leos version

 

Beachman Racing is a US Caterham dealer and have a fledgling Caterham race series they organize in the Pacific Northwest region.  I know Bruce Beachman from an old CSR project and was in Redmond, Washington (the US state not DC) two weeks back for a BMW CSL race engine rebuild plus a separate Holden restoration project I have going on.  They were a few miles away from Beachman Racing so it was easy to drop by to say hello.  Bruce had the bit on his bench and we chatted about it.  I told him to post it to USA7s when he had it for sale and available on his website - which happened overnight. 

Full disclosure - I have no financial interest in Beachman Racing or this part.  I have the Team Leos part on my CSR as it was the only option available when I replaced my cracked mount early last year (a big thank you to @SamC for alerting me very early).  Just posting here as its nice to have another vendor in the market supporting Caterham CSRs as I do feel we are neglected by Caterham in their support of CSRs. 

There have been a number of US CSRs where this part has failed.  I am aware of 8 which is significant when you consider Caterham sold somewhere between 35 and 38 CSRs in the USA market to date. 

I'm not an engineer or a specialist in metal material quality either.  But I do know from the government lab analysis of my broken Caterham-supplied shock mount that choice of metal is critical for avoiding fatigue related failures on parts like this.   

[David aka Blue7]

That's a great Technical Guide by Beachman Racing, can this be uploaded to the Technical Guides section under Suspension?   Shaun_E

I will try to attach a copy to this post but in the past PDF files have failed to upload  ... well it seems to have uploaded successfully.

BR+Caterham+CSR+Damper+Bracket+Install+Instructions-V1.1.pdf

[SamC]

@Croc Thanks Mike, looks like a well re-engineered solution. Worth noting for us (semi) metric folks across the pond that it looks like they’ve replaced the M14 Nylocs with 1/2” for the wishbone mount. No drama of course, just different from standard.

Their report ties in exactly with my findings on stress corrosion cracking and the hoop stress which is comforting.

If only Caterham were so proactive eh.

[Geoff Brown]

Cannot beat a good bit of 6061 T6.  Good stress & fatigue resilience. Came across it a lot during my aviation career both in  sheet & billet form.

The only caveat like all aluminium alloy, it must be protected correctly to avoid corrosion/oxidisation. With the CSR this will mean good inspection at least annually due to the mounts being susceptible to 'road rash'.

Copper grease during assembly & I would suggest after assembly the mounts are carefully coated in Waxoyl or similar.