rear upgrades?

[wickermonkey]

I'm starting to look into upgrading the rear axle/diff/suspension/brakes and i'm not sure on what route to go down. Fabrication wise im ok and have got a welder plus most other things to get the jobs done so im not necessarily after a straight swap but dont want to take on anything major.

[MarkyB]

What engine are you going to use and how do you plan to use the car?

[wickermonkey]

1275 marina engine, standard at the moment with a hif44 carb and stainless exhaust. Used as a dialy driver but on quite a fun windy road

[bmcecosse]

So - just stick with the axle you have ! Make sure you have bump stops in place, cut a good inch off them, and drain/refill the dampers with SAE 40 (or 50) oil.

[IslipMinor]

The standard Minor rear axle is fine with a moderately modified 1275 engine. The 4.22 diff is also good with a 5-spd box, unless you have quite a bit more power to be able to use a 3.9 - I have a Toyota 5-spd and 3.9, but 5th gear is slighly lower than in a Type 9, so 4.22 is good.

The first weakness in the rear axle is the halfshaft, so be careful with taking off smartly! Once on the move, they don't often cause much problem.

Suspension wise fill front and rear dampers with a straight SAE40 oil and see how it behaves. After that the guiding principle is work up from the ground - tyres, wheels, brakes, suspension and finally the engine to take advantage of all the good work done to make it handle and stop!

[bmcecosse]

Without a doubt, better tyres/wheels make the biggest improvement to the general handling.

[wickermonkey]

disc brakes are already on the front plus ive got minilites all round. will be filling the dampers with sae40 after ive borrowed some from work.