Megabusa restoration: Front uprights and hub carriers

The next on the list for upgrade this winter are the front uprights and hub carriers. The existing uprights are still serviceable but I am on a mission to save more weight. The Cortina geometry uprights currently fitted are made of steel so is the hub carriers. A potential weight saving of 4kg per side is achievable. To improve the looks and reduce the weight of the steel Cortina uprights a lot of filing and grinding was obviously necessary in the past.

Rally Design (RD) make an alloy upright that is rather pleasing to the eye compared to the Westfield part. I also wanted to retain my Dynalite calipers that I had just paid for at the recent vented disk upgrade.

I also made the acquaintance of Callan from http://www.t89.co.uk/ who is a registered trader on the Locostbuilders forum and offered me his help with the upgrade because he had some useful parts and advice.

The key part that Callan provided were some adapters to take the RD upright and adapt it to the M16 type calliper in the form of a Willwood Dynalite. Apparently RD supplied that part at one time and Callan had a spare s/h set. He titivated them and shipped them (although I am sure he can make some for you) with the rest of the RD kit along with some adapters for the upper rose joints (which I have still to install, perhaps!).

The fitting of all this lot was not easy and was made more difficult by the vented disk which is thicker than normal. My setup is unique I guess, most people would probably be upgrading the callipers at the same time which would already fit the RD kit. Here is a list of all my modifications in case you wish to follow my path.

* Missing M16 x 1.5 castle nuts and Ford keyed washer. The only washer supplied has to be opened out to 18mm. The stub axle has to have 5mm removed to allow the alloy cap to fit. After adding the castle nuts the alloy cap had to be opened out (internally) to stop it fouling the alloy cap with the slit pin.
* The lower Maxi ball joints comes with a 3/8" hole and the wishbones have a 10mm hole. This can and did lead to wearing of the bolts (on previous build) if not changed to 10mm.
* Alloy hub needs turned in lathe to provide the extra room for the vented disk. This amounted to 2mm.
* Brake calliper fits but needs 3mm spacers when the above is done.
* Cycle wing supports are a total misfit to upright, lots of thought went into this as I did not want the expense/effort of adding new wing stays. Minor fabrication welds to the original cycle wing stays. A bit tricky you need two people to get the fit right.
* The Dynalyte calliper mounting bracket fouls the RD upright casting. A chunk of the alloy bracket needs removed but not enough to weaken it.
* The existing ball joints don't fit the RD upright. A search on the Locostbuilders forum revealed the following.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FYI found this thread on Locostbuilders

”TRE (Track Rod Ends)

There are two different tapers and two different threads

1) Escort MkII Escort are M14 with the metric (large) taper. (this also include granadas to 1987, Cortinas MkIII and Mk V to 1982). FT722 , QR1834
2) Capri MkI, MkII, MkIII all up to September 1987, also some Escort Mk I and other fords (Fiesta up to 1993, Orion and Escort MkIII and MkIV, to 1990). are imperial thread and imperial (small) taper. Part number; Ford 6128814 & 5021410. Direct Part Number DR2377, AMR1205
MkII RS2000 uses MkII Escort rack and Capri uprights and so uses a hybrid TRE (M14 thread, but small taper). These are also known as “green” TRE, as they are (you guessed it) Green (at least the For original one, this doesn’t apply to the equivalent pattern parts!). AMR4118. 1564468. AM260

Most TRE labelled RS2000 on e-bay are wrong. I had to send 2 pairs back before spending more money on proper ones. “
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------