Picked up a SST turbo car.. questions

[the_owl]

So I traded my Rhino for a SST Turbo car this weekend. FINALLY! yay
its a forcedperformance kit on a 2 seater + 18. (3 seater)
First and foremost who makes a bolt in windshield for these? My friend had a generic one made for his tatum, real glass with bar attachment for 300$. But he doesnt know the manufacturer now

Second Is there a guide on getting the fuel gauge and possibly the speedo to work on these cars? I dont have a differential in the car.

Thirdly, Im looking for a set of 5 wide and spindle type wheels with dirt tires if possible. Anyone selling a set?

I registered a while back here and have been trolling since. Finally got the trade I wanted. a three seater since my son is now 1 month old. The rhino had to go

Any help or direction is appreciated. My friends are the LSX/mendi types so I have something to prove haha.
Aaron

[whiplash]

HUH! Good choice, I was trying to make a deal with that guy! I just could not figure out how to get a hold of my pink slip to trade it!

[the_owl]

Originally Posted by whiplash

HUH! Good choice, I was trying to make a deal with that guy! I just could not figure out how to get a hold of my pink slip to trade it!

Were you the one with the RZR?
We started talking trade back in May, but he wanted me to buy his wifes golf cart as part of the deal.

[Sandaholic]

If youre looking for a gas gauge contact Remark Industies, the owner of that company(they make the Intelladash)owns a busa rail and sells a gas guage that matches their gear shift indicator

[whiplash]

Originally Posted by the_owl

Were you the one with the RZR?
We started talking trade back in May, but he wanted me to buy his wifes golf cart as part of the deal.

Yep, that was me, Iwas trying to get something together for the start of this season as the build is slow going but I now just have to get it done!!

[Gene]

Congratulations buying a car. Should be fun. Have you read much about front suspension design, chain tensioners, etc?

[the_owl]

I have read a bit. The previous owner has made some modifications to the tensioner design and has included a lot of replacement parts. I really want to go with a Jeffco diff and eliminate the tensioner sprocket setup.

I have a broken clutch cover and bent slave shaft so Its going to be down for a week before I can test drive this thing.

Thanks for the reply on the remark industries. I would really like to find a way to make the factory gauge work. Has anyone done this? Does it use some weird sender that only works in factory tanks?

Also, Is a working speedometer out of the question?

Aaron

[Gene]

My speedometer worked although it needed calibration. Does your engine have the clutch slave bracket and did the previous owner limit clutch pedal travel to prevent overpressuring the shaft?

On the gas gauge your car probably has the typical cylindircal tank that came on the car, at least mine did. You would need to modify the tank to add a sending unit. I'd go with the open Jeffco diff to solve tension problems and would add turning brakes too. That would make a huge difference driving the car as it would turn even with the existing front spindle design.

A few things you can do to improve your car include adding crush sleeves to the A-arm pivots on the front suspension and rear lower suspension. Carefully examine the tubing where the rear upper suspension mounts as that is a point where my frame and others reportedly cracked. The rear bearing carrier bolts are not held in double shear and bending is entirely likely.

[the_owl]

Gene thanks!
very good info!
yes the owner has the clutch bracket mod, has added a specialities sprockets (3 spares too) Impregnated nylon roller with a tube of stock to machine my own. I will examine the frame as the previous owner is a big guy.
Turning brakes require a different rear hub setup?
What will crush sleeves do for me and where can I get them?
Is the front setup king pin or ball joint? Will the Jeffco option require me to get new axles? How does the speedometer read speed? ECU?
Are the air shocks a good option on these cars?
mbn is a great source for info, thanks for the help

[Gene]

You can make crush sleeves http://www.rorty-design.com/images/bush_acetal02.jpg yourself. The crush sleeve is the metal tube inside the delrin bushing. It extends slightly beyond the bushing and is the same width as the space between suspension mounting tabs.

Assuming you don't have a lathe this is what you can do: Remove the front a-arms and rear lower arms. Take careful measurements to determine the inside width between mounting tabs - don't assume they are exactly alike - take and record each one.

Take the A-arms with the bushings still installed to a machine shop and tell the machinist you need crush sleeves made for each pivot point. Give th emachinist the measurements you took so he can confirm them aginst the A-arm. He will then need to remove a slight amount of material from the bushing, enlarge the hole through the bushing and will cut and finish some metal tubes (stainless is good) to serve as the crush sleeve. Each sleeve may be specific to a mounting location like front left upperm lower, etc.

The purpose of crush sleeves is to allow the suspension pivot bolt to clamp against the sleeve rather than the bushing. If the bolt clamps against the bushing it is in a constant pinch and bolt hardware will suffer. Hardware may loosen and on top of that mounting tab holes may get egg shaped.

The front end design is a spindle and commonly called a king pin. It has little relationship to VW terminology. On my car calling it a king pin is more correct because mine has a bolt running from the upper heim down through the lower heim.

Your car is different. To know what I'm talking about requires some research but the principle is similar. The difference is that your car (and SST original design) uses a ball/heim at the top and bottom of the spindle. Think of a 90* heim with threads on both ends. One threaded side goes into the A-arm and the other into the top or bottom of the spindle. Look at your front end, examine the hardware and you should see what I mean.

Your car can't have turning brakes unless you install a Jeffco. Let's assume you have zero tools and must hire someone to do the work. Expect to spend about 7k for the diff, fab work and turning brakes. You will probably be able to use existing axles.

About shocks . . . rear travel on the SST may not be what is advertised. I say that from my own experience. It doesn't matter if the shocks are air or emulsion. The problem - IMO - is that the 12" stroke shock is mounted on the rear bearing carrier and it is IMPOSSIBLE for the rear to travel more than 12 and a fraction inches considering that the shocks are nearly vertical.

Mine has coil over air and is much better than stock. However, mine is completely redesigned from stock with all new rear a-arms and shocks mounted more inward on th eupper arm than yours. That means that the wheel can travel more than the shock. See my build thread for details.

The speedo has s sensor that connects to the countershaft sidecase. It's a magnetic reading. My car came with it so perhaps yours did too. In any case there is no time to look at a speedo. Instead of that consider getting a Lowrance XOG or Garmin GPS and mount that. You can get speed data once your safely stopped. A GPS is fun so go that way instead. My XOG gives real time speed and cost about 200 bucks.