Lomax 223 rear wheel problems.

[Jack602]

On Pembleton Super Sports the Citroen rear crossmember was shortened, rather than the arm extended.
I have not heard of any arm failures on Pembletons.

[AlanM]

There wasn’t any arm failure but some cracked chassis have been reported.

Alan

[Rocketman1955]

I guess each kit car marque has it's own issues!

Going back to my original question, who has the cabability to repair/rework deformed Lomax 223 rear arms?
From this thread it does look like there is a demand for that capability.

[AlanM]

Any good engineering firm should be able to do the rework given Bob’s photo and sketch which have been previously approved by the men at the ministry.

Alan

[Rocketman1955]

Thanks, I agree welding on the webbing is relatively straight forward, but my question relates to the fixing of the stub axle/backplate to extension piece.
That is not so straight forward to get the alignment of the wheel correct relative to the axle tube/chassis.
I know Bob used to have a special jig for this work.
Has anyone taken over that tooling or who else might have that capability?

[cmwbob]

The rear arm jig was part of the handover of tools and parts to Graham.
I know his first priority was to get setup for body part manufacture with the engineeering / bracketry side taking lower priority.

Any one wanting rear arm upgrade/repair should contact him via his new website lomaxcars.co.uk.

Bob

[AlanM]

Thanks, I agree welding on the webbing is relatively straight forward, but my question relates to the fixing of the stub axle/backplate to extension piece.
That is not so straight forward to get the alignment of the wheel correct relative to the axle tube/chassis.
I know Bob used to have a special jig for this work.
Has anyone taken over that tooling or who else might have that capability?

My local engineering fabrication shop has a massive flat plate steel table some 20' x 10' with numerous 'V' blocks and straight edges etc. They could easily line up and weld your axle arm as no doubt could many others. Don't forget that somebody made the jig in the first place and I doubt whether it was a specialist engineering firm. Of course they would need the swinging arm mounted on an axle tube to assist in the alignment.

It's not a difficult job and I would not have any qualms about doing my own modifications if Mungo was a 223 as opposed to a 224.

[cmwbob]

Hi AlanM,

I will have you know my engineering qualifications did not come on the back of a cereal box. Mind it was back in the days when you learnt on the job and got qualifications via day release and night school.

Was one of the first (and still a member) of the Institute of Diagnostic Engineers.

Cars, whether tinkering, driving, racing etc was a hobby (apart from a spell at Surtees when it was my day job machining all the fabricated F1 and F5000 suspension and steering parts) and thus into kitcars and Lomax I found myself.

[Rocketman1955]

If I go to a 'capable' external engineering company it would be good to know the detail of the construction at both ends of the extension piece.
Primarilly the stub axle/backplate end.
A Lomax(?) sketch I found on the web just shows a 6ins extension behind the backplate to centre the wheel in the body.

Can an existing deformed arm be cut and rewelded correctly aligned (maybe the wheel will end up slightly off centre?)

Were the original joints welded butt joints or did some of the stub axle protrude into the extension piece before welding?

If anyone can provide information or sketches detailing the joint that would be useful.

[AlanM]

Hi AlanM,

I will have you know my engineering qualifications did not come on the back of a cereal box. Mind it was back in the days when you learnt on the job and got qualifications via day release and night school.

Was one of the first (and still a member) of the Institute of Diagnostic Engineers.

Cars, whether tinkering, driving, racing etc was a hobby (apart from a spell at Surtees when it was my day job machining all the fabricated F1 and F5000 suspension and steering parts) and thus into kitcars and Lomax I found myself.

Hello Bob

I apologise if my comment looked like a criticism, that was definitely not the intention. I was expressing the opinion that any decent engineering firm had the facilities to resolve Rocketman’s problem, and also that you don’t need to have huge engineering facilities to make a simple Jig.

Alan