Recent Posts

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Ace, Aceca & Greyhound Forum / Re: AC Ace AEX-1010 Found

« Last post by AE 501 on Today at 10:17:15 »

Dear fastpace,

the engine mounts seem to be ok for the Weller engine. The foot boxes must have been expanded to fit the V8. Same as with my car AEX 201, where they tried to fit a Corvette engine. The mounts for the original Mossbox seem to be in place as well, but the accelerator pedal is not original. And there is a strange stiffening plate in the middle of pictures 9 and 10 on the inside of the rear wishbone?

Chris

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Ace, Aceca & Greyhound Forum / Re: AC Ace AEX-1010 Found

« Last post by AEX146 on October 18, 2021, 12:57:21 »

Dear Fastpace,

Thank you for posting the photos of AEX1010.

Just to try and answer you questions:
1. The overall condition of the car looks good and it doesn’t look as though there’s any serious damage to be concerned about.  Clearly there’s some rust on the chassis tubes but it doesn’t look serious. From my experience the main chassis tubes can sag in the middle and this causes the bodywork around the doors to crack but t doesn’t look like you have that problem. Indeed the bodywork looks in pretty good shape.
2. As regards the foot boxes: I am pretty sure they would have had to be altered to get the new heavier-duty and wider transmission installed. The fact that the battery has already been moved to the boot/trunk is a plus in my opinion because it makes space to extend the foot box and move the pedals back a few inches. People are a lot taller than in the 1950’s and the foot box on an Ace is quite short.
3. Engine mounts. Photo 27 looks as though it might be a Weller engine mount but then I presume some adapter plate has been made in order to fit the Chevy small block. If it is a Weller engine mount you may see the chassis number 1010 stamped on the top face.

Kind regards,
Ben

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by paho on October 18, 2021, 09:24:00 »

Hi Max,
if its good enough for your Daimler, then its good enough for me!
BR/Paho

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by Max Allan on October 17, 2021, 23:46:01 »

Hi Paho

I can't claim to have used any more technical approuch than to copy the same gap as my Daimler Double Six which looked about right and proved okay in reality.

Regards Max

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by paho on October 17, 2021, 17:41:41 »

Hi Max,
that's about the same as mine (whew!) Mine's about 13,5 cm both sides when I'm sat in the driving seat with weight distribution 50-50 front/rear measured transversly.
I forgot to measure before I changed the coil-overs so its quite a relief to know I'm not far off!
BR /Paho

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by Max Allan on October 17, 2021, 14:10:39 »

To clarify I went for wheel arch clearance of 2 inches (3 fingers for convenience) which equates to 5.25 inch ground clearance measured at sill lower lip.

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by paho on October 16, 2021, 17:22:52 »

Hi AcemanToo/Max,
I have'nt experienced the coil binding problem that others have reported, but my supplier took that fact into consideration for the front coil-overs. From the outset I have tried to keep to the origonal specs for the car, and not change the "base line". I made a miss by not measuring the origonal ground clearance figures for the car. But the tyre/wheel arch clearance figures were never has much as 4", mine are 2" at a pinch. (4 fingers for me is 3")

I sent complete examples of the front and back coil-overs with the calculations I had made based on the figures given in the topic and calculations I had made. The figures corresponded roughly with the tests made on the examples I sent to SDV so we went with those figures.

I knew the car had experienced a broken front spring, off-side front if I understand the service invoice correctly, which was replaced in 2011 (both sides) this could have been caused by the coil binding problem reported by other owners. I think the replacements came from Redline. I have checked through the other invoices I have and believe the rears were replaced in 1999 and the fronts replaced in 2001, the invoices refer to shock absorbers so I assume the origonal springs were retained.

To be quite honest the rears looked terrible, with totally "decomposed" bumpstops, very rusty springs and shocks. The springs on the front were in better condition. I now have a completely new set which were built up by SDV "in-house" using H&R sport springs mounted on SDV's own shock absorbers with adjustable lower spring perch and locking collars; they re-cycled the upper-mounts from the Koni shocks I had. They look similar to Dgoose's coil-overs illustrated in "Reply #9 on: June 12, 2014, 13:06:51".

I'll send you (AcemanToo) a copy of the specs I derived from the origonal post sent to my supplier.

As a footnote I also triggered the inertia switch on my Ace last week. took two days to work it out too! I dropped the rear of the car abruptly when releasing the hydraulic jack. So I've also updated the " Non-starting" thread.

BR /Paho

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by Max Allan on October 15, 2021, 19:47:18 »

From my experience there isn't a problem with the rear springs becoming coil bound - only the front springs have that problem! The rear springs are much lighter than XJS.

The thumping is a result of the shock absorbers hitting the bump stops because there is insufficient travel available between ride height to maximum deflection. I first experienced it going over a repair in the road. The shock was sufficient to trigger the fuel cutoff valve causing car to grind to a halt. Although I had only had car a short while at the time I had spotted the valve in the boot so knew what had happened. 

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Rear spring dimensions and rates

« Last post by AcemanToo on October 15, 2021, 16:31:46 »

Hi Paho,
Many thanks for your reply and links to past answers! Apologies also for the lateness of my reply - simply forgot which is really no excuse at all when you've taken the trouble to help me.
It was very interesting to read that the spring coils are too close together on the rear springs - it certainly helps explain why the back end makes so many thumping noises when the road isn't as smooth as glass!
Do you know if the springs were tailored to the Ace or were they just picked off the shelf somewhere, maybe XJS or similar?
Once again, grateful thanks!

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Ace 'Brooklands' Forum / Re: Non-starting

« Last post by AcemanToo on October 15, 2021, 16:26:41 »

Mine turned our to be a faulty ignition switch on the steering column! Replace it with a Ford Transit one and it's been fine ever since!