have to say, I wouldn't fancy chucking mine into the roundabouts of BasVegas

Okay.......Santa came a little late but he brought me some goodies



When I saw the packaging I thought how cool it looked with the EMPI US logo. Then I looked a the seal on the top and all that coolness rapidly disappeared



That well known part of the US called Taiwan

Cheers, Lee.

So opened up the packaging and out popped these



I looked at different anti roll bars and the only heavy duty one I could find was the Empi one. A few different companies did them but to be honest they were all much the same price so I went with coolair in the end as they're only just across the river from me and do free delivery and I've always had good service from them. I also bought some coil overs from them at the same time.
Hopefully I'll get them fitted in this week and see how it handles ...... Update to follow with me either laughing or crying

Cheers, Lee.

Looking forward to hearing how they go mate, hope it sorts it for you! Keen to hear your feedback regarding the ARB as the red9 kits only downside for me is the lack of one but depending on your findings I may have to make one fit!!

Sooooooooo.........
Having bought all the bits and bobs and fitted them took it for a drive and................

Felt like chucking a gallon of petrol and a match at it and walking away
Without a doubt the worst handling vehicle I've ever driven and trust me, I've driven some right old sh!t . If it had driven like that when I bought it I would have walked away, it really is that bad.
Had the tracking, castor and camber set up so know it was spot on but still drives like a dog. Thought it might just be that I need to get used to it so took it round my bro-in-laws to let him have a go. He got about 1/4 mile up the road and turned round as he didn't want to drive it any further as it felt so dangerous.
Just been back out in the cold and took the coil overs off and put the normal shocks back on and it's even worse.
It's now back in the garage and I don't even want to look at it.
So,that's it for now. I really really hate it right now

Cheers, Lee.

Stock Rocks

John TC wrote:Stock Rocks

cheers John The only rocks I'm into right now are the ones I feel like throwing at it

Noooo!!!!

Sorry to read about this Lee, and it was all going so well.

Go back to how you liked it and then try parts one at a time?

Sooty.

Yeah I did look at doing that but the problem is that I don't hae any of the old stuff as its all exchange or pay a huuuuuuge surcharge. I did work it out roughly and I should think it will cost me about £600 in parts then a couple of hours labour. But then that would just put me back where I was to start with and I'd still have the choppy teeth rattling ride quality which isn't any good for little Empi.
Given all that I've decided to bite the bullet and have booked it in for a Red9Design front wishbone conversion.
Hopfully once that's done I can sell off what I've had removed to recoup some of the costs. If it all goes to plan I reckon I will be around £1000-ish worse off at the end of it all than if I'd just had the Red9 kit fitted in the first place
I would have held off until the other systems are out as said on another thread but the problem is that my bus isn't drivable at the moment and we have stuff planned and there's no definate date for the other systems yet.
Ho-Hum you live and learn I guess
On a plus note, I folded the interior all up inside it as per the brochure to clear the load area and used it to take my old dishwasher to the tip It wasn't a very fun journey though as it was a bit lil driving a car with two flat front tyres swerving all over the road....

I'm the meantime there's not really wen any work I can do on it as it's too cold to wheel it outside and even if I could do any other work I couldn't road test it afterwards.

Cheers, Lee.

what happened when you drove it then? Still really stiff?

Just caught up with this Lee, so sorry to hear it hasn't given you what you wanted yet.

I admire your ability to remain a little wry and chirpy though, I'm sure I've been a lot more negative about my bus at times.

PS just enjoying the last of your beers, have added a lot of joy to my life over the las couple of months

paul_f wrote:what happened when you drove it then? Still really stiff?

No it was quite a nice ride quality but was just tracking all over the place. I think it's just that the combination of parts don't work very well together on a split.

clymoj wrote:Just caught up with this Lee, so sorry to hear it hasn't given you what you wanted yet.

I admire your ability to remain a little wry and chirpy though, I'm sure I've been a lot more negative about my bus at times.

PS just enjoying the last of your beers, have added a lot of joy to my life over the las couple of months

Aloha Jonthan, yeah to say I was gutted is a bit of an understatement and I just kinda blanked it out for a few days as I just didn't know what to do I'd gone from a driving useable (if somewhat harsh riding) bus to something that felt dangerous and paid a lot if money for the privilege I'm joking about it now but to be honest I really did hate the thing at the time and couldn't bear to even open the garage and look at it
Glad the beers went down well mate

Cheers, Lee.

Soooooooooo.....
I ventured into the garage at the weekend having not really had any interest I've the last few weeks other than starting it up. Thought I'd cheer myself up with one of my wacky ideas
Whenever I'm working in the garage I end up stinking of exhaust fumes and feeling a bit sick as I have to reverse in due to the angle of the garage. So I have a brainwave. I I could connect a piece of long-ish pipe to the exhaust (I know what you're thinking but things ain't quite that bad yet ) then vent it out through the garage wall then I could work on it wih the engine running with no problems. So I bought myself 25 metres of hose and some rubber pipe to step up the diameter and proceeded to find a suitable bit of garage to poke it through. Found a nice little gap up near the roof and then spent half hour looping the rest around the top of the wall and amongst all the random cr@p I have hanging up. Job done I poked the end into the pipe I was using to step it up and shoved that into the neck of a plastic bottle and secured it. Pushes the bottle over the end of the exhaust and fastened it nice and tight with a monster size cable tie. Started the engine and..........

Yup, you guessed it.......nearly blasted a hole in my surfboard when the bottle flew off the end and went whizzing across the garage Despite various attempts to secure it to the exhaust I gave up in the end
I might put my coat hooks in next weekend to cheer me up a bit as theres not much that can go wrong there. Or is there ........

Cheers, Lee.

Ha ha ha ha, you thread makes me laugh, not due to your misfortune, but to the realisation that there are other people out there just like me!

cheers mate, I'm glad to know I'm not alone in my despair:lol:

Any pics of the bug yet?

Reading that about the exhaust made me laugh,remembering my old mans so called mate,he stuck a potatoe over the old guys exhaust when he was working on it,it exploded off and hit dad in the mouth,smashed his false teeth and cut his lip.
Not funny at the time!!
Sure you will sort every thing in the end Lee
Tony C