Early / Late Steering Knuckles/ Hubs for A2's

[JOESELLSVW]

I'm doing some needed maintenance on my reace car as well as finally getting around to installing my new BSI trans (4:32 ring and pinion with Quaife and expert Stu rebuild!) My first question has to do with the steering knuckles.... which is better? Are the later (bigger?) ones better? I'm replacing these parts with new and want to know what to order. Also can anybody give me an idea of lap time improvement at Summit Point going from the std ring/pinion and no limited slip to the 4:32 and Quaife? I know that I'm going to go thru a learning curve with different shift points and being able to roll on the throttle a little earlier with the diff, but can anybody tell me .25 or .50 sec/lap? Joe

[Bill Miller]

Joe,

I think a 4.32 may be a bit much for Summit. I was hitting 6800+ w/ a 4.20 in my car (5th at the end of the front straight).

Bildon can probably give you the answer on the A2 knuckles.

You gonna be at Summit Labor Day??

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MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI
SCCA 279608

[tschwenke]

All A2 info below, that is what you have?

Isn't bigger always better? We have one car with the small and one with the big. The big ones have double the replacement interval as the small, but the parts are 2x as much (hub/bearing). It all equals out except the labor. FOR NOW.. It hasn't hit Stu yet (I don't think), but we purchased one small bearning directly from SKF and the price for the small ones has gone up significantly. We were in a pinch so that is why we did that (and yes, it was ordered through a corporate account). Now maybe Stu's supplier can still get them but I expect them to go up.

Also, the late hub looks much better, the radius at the end of the shaft portion is much larger (high stress point) and the overall size is I think 5mm (don't remember if that was radius or diam) larger.

We love our Stu built boxes and the 4.23 (4.32?) + quaife had improvement, for what is is worth, we have never run out of gear (Mid-Ohio, Grattan, Nelsons, IRP, Road Atlanta). Yes, you have change shift points and sometimes shift when it feels early, but look at the torque curve and stay in that range.