Strengthening the Foci

Since nobody said anything on specialstage.com, maybe you guys can help. So, does anyone know of any good ways and/or upgraded parts for the Focus suspension issues that I've heard so much about? The rear setup looks exceptionally weak, and anything to improve it would be great.
Now I've also read that the steering components are weak. Which components are they and how can it be improved upon?

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Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com

I ran a Focus SVT.

Had Proflex on it. My last event in that car (after about 9), we broke a rear shocker. Yes, the design is very weak. The current owner of the car has gone with hot bits.

I also saw, while I was building the car, pictures of the rear sub-frame that had been significantly strengthened. I think it was 4-star that had done that work. I never did - had no issues bending stuff. But it really looked like a good idea.

Front suspension - no issues.

However, that car is sooo nose heavy, and way too low in front. Our skid plate bar was mounted to the front horns. We took some significant hits in this area and the front horns started to show some of the abuse. If I were to build another one, I would tie in the front tower to the front horn, as well as strengthen the very front of it.

Power steering - tends to blow out seals. Wont run very long w/o fluid as the pump will sieze and snap the pulley shaft - btdt. What we did is install a softer spring in the pump. This worked ok, but was not perfect - if you are a full lock full throttle, it would still blow the seal although this only happened once after the spring replacement. The best thing is the spring plus a downerator pulley. We couldn't as we were running P class.

I also started looking at racing racks - but again, in P class that was not an option. But may be something worth looking at.

vbares Wrote:
> Had Proflex on it. My last event in that car
> (after about 9), we broke a rear shocker. Yes, the
> design is very weak. The current owner of the car
> has gone with hot bits.

That should warrant a beating with the Kevvie bat.

I've only seen pictures, but I'd recommend finding Senor' Eric Burmeister, aka Sir Lurch,'s photobucket account and look at what he did in the Mazda 3. I'd say start from scratch with the mounts up top for your suspenders. Build a custom top mount (shit, use Subaru stuff, and then it can be flat), talk to JVAB about a suspender to work with what spec you need (as in lower and upper and travel) and have him build you some bling green stuff. Double skin and tie the top mounts into the cage.

I've not seen the rear beam or trailing arms, but I'm guessing it's similar to the Merkur junk. I left mine stock for the moment, as I still am holding onto the hope of a square beam with Supra differential. But double skin the STA mounting ears, triangle gusset them to keep from bending, and weld a round plate on the STA over where the stock spring sits.

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Grant Hughes

I've seen Burmeisters' rear suspension setup and almost cried at how beautiful it is. Anyway, is that even possible to do with a car thats already caged? How time consuming and co$tly would it be? It doesn't look cheap...
What would be some good ways to lighten the front of the car or just transfer the weight somewhere else?

---

Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com

It'd depend upon where your rear stays already go to in the rear. Time consuming and costly all depends upon how you do it. The way I'd planned to do my rear shock towers in the future is to use a 3" diameter piece of an old truck driveshaft (round, thick, and cheap to free) and build the top to how I need it. For spherical bearings that's just a C channel to a width you want. If using Subaru top mounts, probably larger diameter needed, but just a flat plate on top with three holes around a centerbore.

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Grant Hughes

The suspension issues I have had are as follows.

1) DMS built my strut bodies wrong so they bind and snap stock front sway bar end link from lock to lock. The company F2 sells nice adjustable end links that over came this, only really an issue for tarmac rallies

2) The problem with the rear suspension is primarily in the top strut mount. I have not really found a good solution to this but the Spec cars have seen 2 top mounts fail out of a combined 15 rallies among all 3 cars. I think the top mount failures are primarily a problem with the very small shoulder, ie 1-2 mm that DMS has on the top of the shock. If you are running G2 you could switch to a through bolt top mount like what the XR4TI uses, this would require some fab work.

3) I bent a tie rod, caused the rack to skip a tooth and severely shortened the life of a ball joint on the drivers side when I hit a stump at Sandblast. I did enough damage to the car that I think even upgraded parts would fail. Read, with out the sill bar in the cage I probably would not be able to open the drivers door.

Upgraded Tie-rods and ends are available from NAPA. The Ford Contour uses the same connection to the rack but the tie-rod is about twice the diameter. You have to buy the matching Contour tie-rod end. The issue is that Ford made 3 different tie-rods for the contour and the only difference is about an inch in length so it would require some buying and test fitting to get the right length. The other reason I have not gone this route is that focus tie-rods are around $7 a piece from the parts store but contour ones are $60. This was a recommended upgrade in Ford's build manual for the spec focus class in Europe.

If you listen the road racing guys the Power steering pump problem seems to be an SVT only issue that can be solved buy upgrading the O ring on the pressure side of the pump to a brass crush washer. They have also had good luck adding a power steering cooler. A common part to use is the transmission cooler off an automatic focus that mounts below the front bumper about where the stock focus has a hardline bent into an S curve that is mascarading as a cooler. Non of the spec foci have had problems with the PS system.

Overall I am pretty happy with the Focus suspension. If you find a durable solution for top of rear shock I think the rest is fine. Steering upgrades as you see fit.

One more thing. I recommend strengthening the front towers. Here is the design that borrowed from the Custom Cages kit you can purchase.



There is a top plate as well as the pipe that is welded to the side of the tower. One of the other Spec Foci has had some mushrooming of the top of his strut tower without the top plate.

Would you recommend having someone else (like an auto machine shop) weld on the strut tower plates or is it easy enough to do myself?

---

Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com

I had mine done but the my cage builder when he was fabricating the cage. I think if you are handy with a welder you could make them yourself. They are just a flat piece of metal with 4 hole drilled into it.

1fastben Wrote:
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> Would you recommend having someone else (like an
> auto machine shop) weld on the strut tower plates
> or is it easy enough to do myself?

My thought to questions like that is usually if I have to ask them, it usually means I should have someone else do it. But then I usually decide the only way to learn is to do.

If your welding is decent, it shouldn't be too bad.

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Grant Hughes

Hey John, I picked up some salvaged rear trailing arms and rear lower arms today. Do you have any measurements to go along with the 'Y' idea you have? One of the trailing arms is totally bent, well, the part that would be replaced is (the slim, weak part).

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Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com

1fastben Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey John, I picked up some salvaged rear trailing
> arms and rear lower arms today. Do you have any
> measurements to go along with the 'Y' idea you
> have? One of the trailing arms is totally bent,
> well, the part that would be replaced is (the
> slim, weak part).
>
Hi Ben
Been busy, here's my piccies of the arms things here:


Here's the model of what you might try to copy:


And thisis an idea for the link piece, pretty simple:


This is Sierra but you get the idea:


Here's an idea, make the green part, use it as pattern to cut the flimsey flat palte and weld it on. Make the "Y" thing and mod the body to make it easy to mopunt this up.


Got the idea?
Does this sheet actually help?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Roger that, homie. I had a pretty clear idea of how to do it when you explained it on the phone, but the smaller details I was kinda' not sure. The green section is angle iron, correct?

Thanks, btw

Edit; Oh, do you recommend 1/8 iron or 1/4? I have some 1/8 laying around is all.

---

Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2007 01:07AM by 1fastben.

1fastben Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Roger that, homie. I had a pretty clear idea of
> how to do it when you explained it on the phone,
> but the smaller details I was kinda' not sure. The
> green section is angle iron, correct?

Naw I was thinking something a little nicer
>
> Thanks, btw
No Problems, its fun changing the routine.
>
> Edit; Oh, do you recommend 1/8 iron or 1/4? I have
> some 1/8 laying around is all.

I was thinking 3/16 cold rolled.
Make a cardboard template first.
(You know i can probably get you the things flame-cut out for maybe 10 bucks each, then you bend them whatever the inner angle is.
I can help you on this.)
>
>
>
> Edited 1 times. Last edit at Sep 16, 2007 by
> 1fastben.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

How much would you want for the entire build of the parts? Like the whole 'Y' setup and bracket, bushings, etc, just not the trailing arm part/hub attach from the foci since I already have two of them, (well, four if you count the ones on the car) then I can just weld the setup myself once I get it. How do ya like them apples?

---

Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com