Rear suspension: why? how?

[DavidLaver]

Its a forum filter - I spelt it out in full with no stars.

David

[Harvey]

Confirmed - it is the filtering process in the software. It's user-configurable and I had thought of setting up some amusing alternatives... Does anyone remember the spoof "Goodfellas" sketch by Harry Enfield? ("Flip you, you muddy funster!")

[inthedark]

Actually the filter can be bypassed if you prefix your words with ^^
 
so go ^^f456778mmklkdn ^^y6n b+lloghhbnkrgvb

Oh ^^B*jj** it seems to have stooped wooking

'the colonel'

[DavidLaver]

Lets try again:

^^testicles to Alton Towers is a great read and actually a half decent guide book - it even mentions the Southport Lawnmower museum.

David

[DavidLaver]

Oh Bo11ocks to that - I'll just use 1s instead of ls.

[DavidLaver]

Just to keep the thread off track - the promised pictures...

David

[Scarpia]

I had no idea that R2D2 was so well endowed.....

[johnturner]

I have only just caught up with this thread and haven't dug too deep because it began to make my head hurt, but if the leaf spring is attached to the body only by a pivot at the centre I can't see how it can cause either side of the car to go up or down?  Turning quickly to the wheels; my Lambda wheels are stamped 'Rudge Whitworth Milano' and I assume bought in from there. The 'Brevete' on the Augusta wheel presumably refers to the daft Michelin Bibendum rim which seems to have been introduced as an attempt to get round Mr Dunlop's well base patents. And on to dampers: I hadn't realised that Telecontrols were fitted as original equipment to, at least some, Aprilias.  I have never driven a car (Aprilia or otherwise) on which they worked, which may have been their age and the lack of the proper fluid.  But I am not sure that I see the need to be constantly twiddling with what are pretty simple friction dampers and always imagined that they were fitted to provide the driver with something to do once synchromesh had taken the carnival spirit out of gearchanging. Like Colin, I resorted to telescopics and fitted a set of Spax to the back of the Augusta, which can be accomodated by building a bracket to reach down below the axle rather than up into the body; but the VSCC won't like them.

[JohnMillham]

One of the first Aprilias I drove, Maltby's "GV" was fitted with Telecontrols which worked. Regrettably, the VSCC will not allow telescopic dampers at the rear of Augustas or Aprilias, but I imagine that hydraulic "lever arm" dampers would be OK - and they work well on at least one Augusta I know of - Karl Sanger's.

[DavidLaver]

Here's the Augusta dampers - complete, nothing bent or broken, and very little pitting.

Anyone know what the disks should be made of?   Any recipes for treating wooden disks?

I must admit I really like the idea of telecontrols - but prefer the "cable and lever" type for just being "so obvious".   

David

[donw]

William

The British Lawn Mower Museum is above Stanleys in Shakespeare Street.

http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/

Don

[Scarpia]

Isn't that next door to where Latimers is or used to be?.

It's at least 25 years since i've been in Stanleys but my recollection means this must be one of the smallest mueums in the land.....?

[ColinMarr]

Extraordinary! The article I was trying to find on 2nd Feb about the Aprilia rear suspension was by Paul Frere. I now read in today’s The Independent an obituary to Paul, who I had assumed had died years ago. But no, he died in Brussels on 23 Feb, aged 91.

The obit includes: “He did the things he did best unobtrusively yet supremely well, be it driving racing cars, or the latest road models, or writing about them with his unique insight and perspective.”

Yes, I agree. I must find his article about Aprilias.

Colin

[JohnMillham]

Your Augusta dampers look very similar to mine, except your's are keeping company with varuious Austin Seven engine parts. (I must get round to rebuilding mine sometime, but they seem to work OK even though they are as rusty as can be!) They have wooden discs which used to be impregnated with tallow, but since ERA owners use oil on theirs, so do I - it's easier to find and it works fine. They don't need to be done up very tight, but it's advisable to have both sides tightened the same amount. Andrew Maclagan wrote a piece for Viva Lancia a while ago about using his ancient typewriter as a weight to balance the settings on his Augusta's dampers. I'm not wading through years of the magazine to find it, though. Oh, for an index.
 

[ColinMarr]

“Oh, for an index”! Yes, I agree. Please have a look at what I posted yesterday under ‘Pulling the treads together’ to see what an online index might require.

Anyone out there who knows an archivist or information science guru who might be able to advise?

Colin