Finished up the other side shock mount and put everything together. Next up, figuring out the handbrake setup. The S60R brake rotors have a bigger diameter drum part for the handbrake, so I'm modifying a pair of S60 brake shoes by welding in part of the multilink brake shoes. To not burn up the brake lining I had to weld a part, cool it again, weld, cool etc. Also keeping the brake lining wet. Worked great. It fits too, still need to make a spacer kind of thing that pushes them further outwards, as the S60R rotors have the drum part further out. Before I can finish that and a new brake shield, I need to design the adapters for the S60R calipers. I could finally lower it onto it's wheels again to check the ride height with the Eibach universal springs, it's pretty much spot on. Maybe 1cm higher than I'd like, but it still has a completely empty fuel tank, no drive shafts, exhaust system and 100A heavy ass battery in the back, so I'll leave it for now. No idea how much the springs will settle in either after driving it for a bit, if it settles at all. The springs I'm using are Eibach Conventional Rear springs, 1100.500.0450 (11" open lenght, 5" outer diameter like the stock springs and 450 lbs/in). Anyway, pictures:
Should be interesting to see the weight difference between the 2 versions. I doubt it'll be much though. Both multilink versions will add some weight compared to the live axle, but unsprung weight is greatly reduced.
Ah! Nice to hear that the weight isn't that different. Good point about the easier modding. My aluminum welding isn't the greatest too I didn't realize the lower arm on the mk2 was steel. That does look quite heavy.
I am looking at using the aluminum 8.8 explorer diff, although the bolt in axles makes the BMW diff attractive. From my internet research I think the aluminum 8.8 diff is about 70lbs vs about 110 lbs for the BMW diff, which is a pretty sizable difference.
PS: Maybe I will go to the J/Y and do a weight breakdown on all the piece parts.
Should be interesting to see the weight difference between the 2 versions. I doubt it'll be much though. Both multilink versions will add some weight compared to the live axle, but unsprung weight is greatly reduced.