Extended steering

Well, the extenders have arrived, I reckon I spent all of five minutes before I had to try them on for size, and five minutes after fitting one I forgot I'd not taken a photo... here is the 'other' one;

As you can see, these are really well made. The male thread is for the MX5 TRE, and the hole in the right hand side is for the Sierra rack.

It did occur to me that the steering rack lock nut was designed for the Escort rack, and wouldn't fit on the MX5 TRE. I had to refer back to the picture I'd been sent to realise the extender fully screws into the TRE (and can be spannered tight), then the female end is where the adjustment is made.

This is what I had before, the Sierra extender in place but no room (and wrong thread) for the MX5 TRE;

I wasn't going anywhere with that one. Here is the proper extender in place (apologies in advance for some of the photos, the car is actually on it's side...);

This was the first trial, fully extended suspension. The angle of the TRE does look quite severe, but part of it is the loose ball joints on all three joints, as well as the really bad camera angle. It's at full extension and not bound, which is what I wanted to achieve. This photo shows the extender tight in the TRE, with the Escort lock nut on the rack. There's about three or four threads left for adjustment, I'll find out whether that's enough when everything is tightened up and there is an engine in there.

With the suspension wound in a bit (to better show a 'normal' angle) the TRE looks much happier;

Bottom angle shows how much space is between the steering arm and the bottom wishbone. This was another 'internet complaint' with the design of the suspension. Under full extension and lock the steering column would get friendly with the lower arm. I 'might' have to put some collars on the rack to reduce steering lock but I'm fairly sure there is enough room.

So there you go, a tiny (but very important) cog in the whole machine. I have to send out a huge amount of thanks to thelatheman, the amount of time and hassle he's saved me is brilliant. I started this build with the idea of it being locost, what I should have aimed for is 'best value', and these extensions are definitely that. 

Next time, back to the bodywork...