Neck height?

[stacebg]

I'm at the 2" mark for normal riding and an inch above the pivot. The 30 degree angles was to show the range of possible motion. The center to center is right at 8.5" when using a bend in the main forks. If you think that the 10" rocker will work better than the 8.5" one will, I can change it real easy at this point. Would rather have it right on paper and then for real in metal, than to have it half-assed to start with.

Point taken and changed.

Thanks for your input.

my bad just looked short..didnt look at your dimmention

. probably ok at 8.5 but if you can go at tad longer without messing the trail ... i would

 

[LarryA]

the yellow is the tubular dropped straight axle...the panhard rod is in green, it just locates the axle in a lateral position it ties the axle to the frame. The purple ring shows the radius rod, which fastens to the frame with a heim in front. The 2 rods go rearward, one ending in the lower ball joint socket, the other rod joins the steering arm on the knuckle. The knuckle is machined flat to fit the strut from the factory, this surface bolts to the pad on the top of the axle end. 2 bolts fasten the knuckle to the axle plate, one of which is slotted for camber adjustment on the car.....this is how I adjust the wheels to be parallel and straight. the pads on the axle are machined parallel with the axle tubing and make the camber 0 degrees. The axle and radius rods pivot in an arc that clears the protrusion of the differential housing. The airbags are bolted to the axle and locate into brackets on the frame. Hope that this makes sense to you!

 

[Eggman]

View attachment 72017 the yellow is the tubular dropped straight axle...the panhard rod is in green, it just locates the axle in a lateral position it ties the axle to the frame. The purple ring shows the radius rod, which fastens to the frame with a heim in front. The 2 rods go rearward, one ending in the lower ball joint socket, the other rod joins the steering arm on the knuckle. The knuckle is machined flat to fit the strut from the factory, this surface bolts to the pad on the top of the axle end. 2 bolts fasten the knuckle to the axle plate, one of which is slotted for camber adjustment on the car.....this is how I adjust the wheels to be parallel and straight. the pads on the axle are machined parallel with the axle tubing and make the camber 0 degrees. The axle and radius rods pivot in an arc that clears the protrusion of the differential housing. The airbags are bolted to the axle and locate into brackets on the frame. Hope that this makes sense to you!

It does make sense, to a certain degree. However, I'm sure it will make more sense now that I have the drive line out of the car now and will be able to look at it without the body in the way.

The knuckle is machined flat to fit the strut from the factory, this surface bolts to the pad on the top of the axle end. 2 bolts fasten the knuckle to the axle plate, one of which is slotted for camber adjustment on the car.....this is how I adjust the wheels to be parallel and straight. the pads on the axle are machined parallel with the axle tubing and make the camber 0 degrees.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Would you have a pic of the inside of this knuckle?

 

[stacebg]

It does make sense, to a certain degree. However, I'm sure it will make more sense now that I have the drive line out of the car now and will be able to look at it without the body in the way.

View attachment 72031

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Would you have a pic of the inside of this knuckle?

r u sure thats not a delorean or maybe a car from mib??? only ones i know that go up side down lol

 

[LarryA]

Forgot to mention that I shortened the drive axles about 5 in. each. (went to the tubular axles from aries K) Wanting to get the rear end as narrow as possible.

And used wheels that were reversed inward too. Knuckles are from a 85 dodge datona... typical k-car parts.



As I remember, the stock crossmember and lower A arms and struts would hit the transaxle if narrowed......so that is the reason for what I ended up doing.

If you do not want/need to narrow your drive line, leave it as it is. Or there are rocker arm setups often seen on bagged ratrods that could relocate your springs. Your drive line looks quite narrow as it is. Anyhow, food for thought..

 

[Eggman]

r u sure thats not a delorean or maybe a car from mib??? only ones i know that go up side down lol

Hahaha, it's not quite upside down yet. But if it was, that would surely make things easier to remove.

Forgot to mention that I shortened the drive axles about 5 in. each. (went to the tubular axles from aries K) Wanting to get the rear end as narrow as possible.

And used wheels that were reversed inward too. Knuckles are from a 85 dodge datona... typical k-car parts.

As I remember, the stock crossmember and lower A arms and struts would hit the transaxle if narrowed......so that is the reason for what I ended up doing.

If you do not want/need to narrow your drive line, leave it as it is. Or there are rocker arm setups often seen on bagged ratrods that could relocate your springs. Your drive line looks quite narrow as it is. Anyhow, food for thought..

Interesting, I was looking at it last night and could see what you were talking about with the hairclip links. Narrowed the track? I'm thinking that at 60" track I should be ok. Of course it depends on the width of the tires and the offset of the rims.

 

[stacebg]

Hahaha, it's not quite upside down yet. But if it was, that would surely make things easier to remove.

photo is upside down!!

 

[Eggman]

Hahaha, it's not quite upside down yet. But if it was, that would surely make things easier to remove.

photo is upside down!!

Was wondering what you were talking about. It's not upside down on my computer. Don't know how to fix that.

 

[stacebg]

Was wondering what you were talking about. It's not upside down on my computer. Don't know how to fix that.

thats weird but is right side up in thumbnail

 

[Eggman]

View attachment 72017 the yellow is the tubular dropped straight axle...the panhard rod is in green, it just locates the axle in a lateral position it ties the axle to the frame. The purple ring shows the radius rod, which fastens to the frame with a heim in front.

Question for you LarryA, if the steering knuckles are fixed to the tubular dropped axle, would this not eliminate the independent operation of the suspension?

 

[LarryA]

Yes it does....After some thought and a bunch of reading on this site, the independent vs solid axle debate seemed to end up with independent suspensions using/ needing sway bars, which tie the independent suspension together, in essence making it back into a solid axle......using this assumption and the fact our roads have few pot holes, but plenty of frost heaves,(which both rear wheels hit together) independent seemed less important......then of course dealing with the struts.

So I did what I did.

Also Stacybg had made some adjustable rear geometery, for lean or crown on the roads.... so I made my air bags with independent air pressure capability.....seems to help steering pull in a crosswind...our roads have very little crown.

 

[Sidecarbill]

You have to keep an eye on a setup like that. The old hotrods that used the hairpin type setup. Would usually break a chunk out of the axle where the brackets were welded on. When you corner things will twist. Twist turns to metal fatigue. The axle becomes the sway bar.

 

[LarryA]

I have read where the I beam axle would supposedly allow some twist and the tube axle didn't, causing possible breakage......I would be more concerned about twist with a four wheeled vehicle than with a trike, but who knows?

 

[Eggman]

Thanks for the sharing of knowledge guys. I have learned a lot already.

I've been working on thinning out my wiring harnes for the 3.8 and trans. Wow, what a job.

 

[Eggman]

From what I am seeing on the schematics, unless I'm missing something, there isn't a need for the body control module.

Yes? No?

Thanks.

In OK City for the weekend, found out there is a Rewaco dealer in town. Might have to go check them out.

 

[LarryA]

I did a similar thing with the harness.....1990 dodge datona 2.5 turbo computer and sensors on a 2.2 turbo engine.

I mounted the computer and plug where there was room and near the power distribution area. then layed the wires to the appropriate sensors and outputs.....then spliced on the connectors.

Regarding the body module....I did not have to use it. Dodge had a security feature that most owners could disable easily, and I was lucky that the engine computer has this feature disabled.

For me, the factory manuals were indispensable.

 

[Eggman]

I've ordered an acrual Oldsmobile factory manual. The chilton/haynes pos leaves a lot out of what I need to know. Luckily, this one didn't have a security module. Not that I could find anyway. I'll know sometime in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Eggman]

Finally found a front end that I like well enough to follow the design. The most important measurement is the trail, the distance between where the center line of the neck meets the ground and the center line of the front axle. Correct? Doesn't matter where the rocker pivots in relation to the axle. Please correct me if I am mistaken in the interpretation,

 

[stacebg]

Finally found a front end that I like well enough to follow the design. The most important measurement is the trail, the distance between where the center line of the neck meets the ground and the center line of the front axle. Correct? Doesn't matter where the rocker pivots in relation to the axle. Please correct me if I am mistaken in the interpretation,

View attachment 72712

correct trail is most important personally i find 1.5 - 2.5 is the sweet spot

you want enough distance so the rockers can move the full travel of the shock so the wheel is going mostly up and down with a real short rocker u have very little travel and the wheel is doing a lot of movement front to rear.. which will change the trail some if the pivot is below the axle the ride will be better than with the pivot above the axle.. hope that make sense.. do put the tube from one rocker to the other... much more ridged than with out it... never cared for a wishy washy front end!

 

[LarryA]

eggman/stacybg....when making my triple trees, I was uncertain about the offset of the neck/fork tube holes in the trees so I copied a harley fx type of bike....tried to think/read of the characteristics of various offsets and gave up and copied

Any thoughts on this?