Thread: Time for new rear shocks, need your advice

Tweet

Originally Posted by SBC

What keeps a transverse spring setup from rock and rolling left and right, since everything rides on a single pivot point?

Same thing that keeps coilovers from rocking and rolling.

A sway bar - and not a panhard bar as Henry Rifle points out
The panhard bar serves to locate the rear axle transversely.

You would be amazed at the difference in rocking sideways and body lean with coilovers and no sway bar.

The pic shows a Deuce Factory sway bar on my 32.
The 31 on 32 rails car shown above has the same sway bar, but mounted higher and mostly out of sight.
If you look close at the photo in post #11 you'll see the Heim Joints that connect rear axle and sway bar.

Duh! All I read was side-to-side. My bad . . .

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Duh! All I read was side-to-side. My bad . . .

Nah.

I came on a little harsh with the panhard bit.
Didn't mean for it to sound the way it did.

You good . . . me just not so bad....

I didn't take it that way. Momma always told me that ready, fire, aim usually wouldn't work.

Some one talk about Air ride (air Bags) for the back. That should be some fun.
I may try that so i can set my coupe down in the back when parked.
Give me some info.

Could the ride of the coilover suspension be improved by mounting them at a 60 degree angle and running a sway bar of 35" or 36" length so that the sway bar would react sooner to the body sway? The upper coilover mounting would have to be narrower than what C9's 32 chassis picture shows. Just a thought. I believe the Deuce Factory sway bar is approximately 27" in length and 3/4" diameter. The longer sway bar would need to be a larger diameter to use this setup.

Originally Posted by deuce4papa

Could the ride of the coilover suspension be improved by mounting them at a 60 degree angle and running a sway bar of 35" or 36" length so that the sway bar would react sooner to the body sway? The upper coilover mounting would have to be narrower than what C9's 32 chassis picture shows. Just a thought. I believe the Deuce Factory sway bar is approximately 27" in length and 3/4" diameter. The longer sway bar would need to be a larger diameter to use this setup.

Not a bad idea, but it seems that cranking the coilovers over so far would give the chassis/body combo too much leverage on the springs.

The ride on my 32's not bad, it's the lack of travel that is the problem.

The 32 has a panhard bar as long as will fit between frame rail and rear axle.

The 31 on 32 rails roadster pictured above has a much shorter panhard.
I like the long ones, but this should do ok.

I ran into a bit of a packaging problem with transverse spring, 4 links inside the frame rails, sway bar and the panhard.
I still have to make and package fuel tanks under the chassis as well as have room for the battery on one side and fuel pumps on the other - ahead of the rear axle.
(I'm striving to have an empty trunk - got tired of the fuel cell always being in the way in the 32's rumble. Not to mention the limitations of the rumble . . . never again.)
The way things are working out - so far - I'll be able to carry a spare tire.

Clearances are pretty tight, but the rear suspension has been cycled several times during the chassis build when it was sitting on a frame table.
No problems and things operated smoothly.
(Spring disconnected fwiw.)

I should gain some clearance between panhard and rear axle when the rear axle gets adjusted 3/8" - 1/2" forward for a better visual fit in the rear fender area.

My pal has a 29 full fendered roadster with the very short aftermarket panhard bar and handling is ok on it.

Both TCI and Chris Alston Chassisworks have larger diameter sway bars.
Alston's is aimed at the drag race crowd and may be overly stiff for our light street-driven cars.
The TCI makes it - imo - for street use and looks to be stiffer than the Deuce Factory sway bar . . . although the DF sway bar does the job just fine on the 32.
Not to mention its small and compact and the reason I got another one for the 31.

I don't know the center to center measurements on Hiboy Gal's roadster chassis. The coilover angle on the DF chassis is about 70 degrees. C9's should be close to this. The upper spacing should be around 31" to get the DF sway bar to fit. To get the 60 degree angle Aldan calls for, the spacing at the crossmember would have to be 26-27". Would this be too narrow to give the coilover enough leverage?

Originally Posted by HiboyGal

Oh and I have horrifying news for you: real drama my friends:

When I was taking out the radiator I BROKE A NAIL.

Could have been worse, you could have ripped it off completely, now you know why (most) mechanics keep their fingernails short.

Thanks - I believe I'm getting the gist of things now -

ok im doing my setup now on my 32 roadster now i have in my hands a set of qa1 coil overs but they are 16in in lenth while at rest out of car ...im sure i need the shorter ones correct , if so where do i start with this ....im building a steel roadster with a winters quickchange ..any info is always appreciated

found these on ebay ......which ones are the ticket for a roadster


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/QA1-P...QQcmdZViewItem

Too involved for Faith ... as she has a already finished roadster .



But a coil spring rear end will provide a great ride. Not something you just change over to with a up and going roadster ... but when building a new car ... It is the way to go IMHO ... The coil springs were at the Powder coaters at photo time

The 4 bar suspension allows great adjustments, The sway bar keeps sway to a minimum and the coil springs allow smooth ride. I use a TCI rear sway bar setup ... ( chrome )



The chassis shown is my 32 3W ... but I have the same exact setup under my 32 full fendered Roadster ... but with less spring rate.

my frame is setup for coil over shocks and im running pete and jakes ladder bars , ill post pics of my frame in a few minutes

here are some pics ....