May the Force of the Spring Be With You

The engineers at Jedi Racing Cars Ltd. in Wellingborough, UK had a recurring problem when servicing their customers’ F1000 single seater racing cars. The half shaft CV pot joint they were using, derived from the original Mini, just wasn’t intended for quick removal and often resulted in breakage of the adjacent casting mounted on the differential. “It was John Corbyn, Managing Director at Jedi Racing Cars Ltd., who came up with the idea of incorporating a spring in the existing design to make the shaft easier to take apart and cut the service time down. He knows the old Mini mechanics inside out so he called the Lee Spring customer service team”, explained Mike West of Lee Spring.

Mike West states, “I went to see John Corbyn and saw the problem first hand.  His idea meant they could separate the joint without having to fully dismantle the drive shaft. With the use of a compression spring, a force could be applied between the two surfaces without being too strong to push them apart. When we looked at the dimensions they had about 60mm at one end and 25mm at the other. I knew that putting a standard 25mm compression spring in situ wouldn’t work and would allow too much movement, especially at speed. Instead, I suggested that a conical spring would be a better fit to his specifications. The conical spring would do the job with a dimension of 55mm at the base, 20mm at the top and an overall height of 30mm. The spring rate was calculated by using a standard compression spring with a wire diameter of 1.4mm and based on the specs, we determined what was needed for the conical equivalent.”

John Corbyn was eager to explain Lee Spring’s impact on Jedi Racing Ltd. John stated: “The team at Lee Spring quickly provided a set of sample springs for test and we have had no problems with the assembly two seasons since. It has transformed the way we work!”

In this style of racing it is important to keep budgets low and speed high between-race service times. With the help of Lee Spring, Jedi Racing now has an excellent and innovative solution to service their CV joints quickly.

About Jedi Racing
Formula Jedi provides exciting, cost-effective racing and has established itself as the premier bike-engined, single-seater category in the UK. The cars use a proven ‘slicks and wings’ configuration with excellent handling characteristics and powered by a 1000cc high performance motorbike engine, going from 0-60mph in just 3 seconds and on to 150mph, while revving to around 14000rpm! Ideal for the novice or serious club racer, for whom it offers a proven and affordable route onto the single-seater ladder from karting.

About Lee Spring
Lee Spring is a global manufacturer of mechanical springs and related products. Lee Spring carries a line of 25,000+ stock springs and manufactures custom springs made to customer specifications. Established in 1918, Lee Spring is an ISO 9001 certified company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY USA and has multiple locations in the United States, as well as locations in Mexico, Europe, China and India.

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