Rear ARB

[Pete]

Has anyone had experience of retro-fitting a rear anti roll bar on a De-Dion axled car?

I bought one yesterday and the destructions said that two bolts need to be inserted through the base of the inertia seat belt boxes. These seem to be sealed in, with the access being via a small panel in the rear wheel arch rivetted to the chassis. Is this right?

also, the illustration in the manual indicates that the bar passes above the upper diff. mounting brackets. On my car, this area seems to be full of fuel pipes and I am not sure if the bar will go through.

 

Any advice would be gratefully received.

 

pete

[Paul McKenzie]

Yes, drill out the rivets from the triangular covers of the box holding the inertia reel belts - inside are two sets of two holes which you break through and drop the captive u-bolt through.

The bar will go through - you have probably got the car resting on the de-dion - rest it on the chassis jacking points instead.

Paul

[Alex Wong1697456877]

Good luck getting it over the diff. It will go. Honest.

 

Actually, some have had no problems doing this. I struggled big time though but got there in the end.

 

Alex

[Delberts Wallet]

Pete,

 

This is one of the first things I did on my Seven. Getting the bar over the diff isn't that difficult, It will go. One thing I had to do was to remove one of the rear shocks (if pushing bar from left side of car, the right one)as the bar sits on the outside of the shocks.

 

Good luck

 

Gareth

 

 

 

Who Dares Twins smile.gifsmile.gif

[Chelspeed]

Theres a small rectanguler hole thro the ally panel behind the seats at the top where the inertia rell seat blet would leave the reel area. You can use this hole for access into the sealed area without removing the triangular plate from under the wheel arch. It's a small hole so it won't be easy!!

 

I used this hole to remove the arb mounting bolts when I moved from this type of bar to a different one but it's obviously easier to just reach in a grab something (telescopic grabby thing) than it is to reach in, line up and insert bolts. Worth a try though.

[WILL FLY]

The bolts Caterham supply come pre-welded to a plate forming a sort of U bolt. Use a pair of mechanical fingers (any tool shop will have these) to drop the U bolt into the holes through the rectangular seat belt hole behind the carpet on the rear bulkhead. Once you've trial fitted the ARB, remove the boot floor (wooden bit) and see where the ARB rests on the diff. Carefully grind away most of the web on the top of the diff where the ARB touches it. this can be done in situ if your careful. Protect bits you don't want to grind before doing this. Get a length of clear plasti pipe the same diameter as the ARB and slit it along its length. Fit this over the part of the ARB which is above the diff and secure to the ARB with cable ties. then fit the mounting blocks bearing in mind one is thicker than the other, I think the thin one goes at the top and the thick one on the bottom. Use some washing up liquid, or Hellerine to get the bushes onto the ARB (do this before fitting to the car smile.gif there's a couple of pictures in the rear suspension section of my build diary on the web site.

 

See willfly.net for more info.

If you don't spin you ain't trying smile.gif

 

[Pete]

Thanks for all the tips lads. I feel a lot happier about tackling it now and will probably have a go during the Christmas holidays.

 

Roy. Thanks for the tip about grinding the diff. It appeals to my destructive tendancies wink.gif

 

Thanks again

 

pete

[WILL FLY]

Don't get too carried away with the angle grinder, Caterham supplied Diffs are bl**dy expensive. Don't forget the plastic pipe round trhe ARB, otherwise you'll have another rattle that would baffle a VW engineer for life smile.gif.

 

See willfly.net for more info.

If you don't spin you ain't trying smile.gif

 

[Paul McKenzie]

In fact I'd say make sure you actually need the angle grinder - I certainly didn't on a '96 chassis, and I'd not heard of this prior to Will Fly's posting, but maybe the clearance is reduced in later chassis?

Paul

 

[Mark H]

Guys can this mod. be done on an early de dion ? (arb.) smile.gif

mark.

[Pete]

OK. I'll be gentle with the diff, even though I enjoy a good grind.....

 

Thanks again for the tips

 

pete

 

Edited by - pete on 17 Nov 2001 17:09:54

[Pete]

OK. I'll be gentle with the diff, even though I enjoy a good grind.......

 

Thanks again for the tips

 

pete

[Pete]

oops!