JUST BOUGHT A WESTFIELD

[Mark (smokey mow)]

A common mistake that can be made when fitting suspension components is for people to torque up the wishbone pivot bolts whist the car is jacked up off the ground. These bolts should only be torqued up when the car is on the ground sat on it's 4 wheels as otherwise it will deform the bushes and lead to some unusual handling characteristics.

That's a cracking looking westfield you've bought yourself there have fun and enjoy it.

[Arthur]

Hi Scott

Definitely not sticky caliper, brakes nice & straight. Just drifts to the left, even on a flat road. Will be trawling though threads to find out tracking settings etc, unless someone has them to hand !!

Has anyone ever produced a Westfield Handbook with all this type of data?

 

My local garage have a lot of experience with "unusual" cars. As well as classic cars, they service & maintain Caterhams, Lotus Eliese's and the like. will get them to check alignment first. Would like to go up to Northampton Motorsport to have the geometry checked out, but its a bit far at this time of year - maybe in the spring.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Has anyone ever produced a Westfield Handbook with all this type of data?

 

Tiggers Website is a good source of technical info for a lot of things

http://westfield-world.com/suspension.html

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I would look at getting it set according to the sort of geo settings on Tigger's site, then treat yourself to a trip to Northampton (or a similar specialist), when you can.

 

The reason there isn't really a handbook with these things in, is that there isn't really "one setting" for each spec of Westfield. Add to that the fact that there seem to be a few different ways of achieving the same result, and it's no wonder suspension, (unfairly) gets treated as a black art.

 

Standard "basic" settings will make sure it handles OK without any nasty surprises.

 

The difference going to NMS, Blink, Playskool etc makes is that they know Westfield's really well, what works, what doesn't, and most importantly, they know how to use their experience to adjust the car to suit you and your driving style and the way you want to use it. This is what takes a great car to being one on another level!

 

Car looks fantastic BTW, great to see someone else out and about enjoying them this morning; it was a bit nippy round the ears up my way though! 

[KugaWestie]

Looks good and nice to see you winter blatting.

I managed a cheeky run out in mine today as well

[Norman Verona]

Car looks great, thought it was me driving at first glance!

 

To add to Marks warning about tightening wishbone pivot bolts when the car isn't on the ground, is because they're large nuts and bolts doesn't mean they are tightened with a 2ft bar. I'm not sure what the torque is but they are not very tight.

 

The reason is that if you over tighten them you'll be pinching the two tabs together causing the bush to be "captured" and not pivoting easily.

 

Having been taught before every nut and bolt was tightened with a torque wrench I was taught that if it wasn't a shouldered bolt to "nip" it up and, if it had a Nyloc nut to use a new one. In those days most wishbone pivot bolts were shouldered and had castellated nuts with a split pin. If the bolt is castellated you can tighten it as much as you want, it will not be closing the gap. 

 

One test to ensure the bushes are free to work is to let the car stand a few minutes then take a measurement from chassis to ground on each corner. Then lift each corner and let it settle and recheck the measurement. It should be very, very close to the original measurement. If it doesn't settle back to it's original height then the bushes are binding.

 

Having waxed lyrical about all that I would get the geometry checked after you've checked the tyre pressures and condition. Most popular pressure is 18 psi.

[Dommo]

A lot of us Cotswold area guys use Dave at Track Developments for alignment.

 

http://www.trackdevelopments.co.uk/home

 

He's just off J17 M4.

[Barwik]

Start with the basics Arthur , I have so many people who come to my garage thinking the worst and have various ideas / poss expensive solutions , start with swapping your wheels left to right then drive it again . ( front and rear )