Thread: The Roofus Special

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Why not just cut the forward part of the springs off, solidly mount the center part to the frame and use them as quarter elliptics. You probably don't want the soft ride that cantilevered leafs would provide in this type of build anyway, and the "choppy" rebound can be controlled with a good set of shocks. Even those upper control arms could be lengthened to give you, essentially, a four link suspension.

Finally figured out how the stock jag suspension worked....I think.

It pivoted on the lower half of the spring pin. The upper half was mounted in rubber such that the pin couldn't catch anything. as the spring cycled, the top portion of the spring pack could move front to back.

Here is my attempt to immitate the function.



more almost free material was used for my spring boxes. ....cop car roll bars that dad bought at an auction. I used the 1/8" panel at the bottom.





I overlapped the tops so I'd have double thickness on top.



The insert captures the spring pin. It is secured by four 3/8" bolts and really beefs up the spring box when it is all bolted tight.

Here's how the box fits into the overall car. The box I just made made will be behind the seat. The front bucket (upside down box) will be under the seat.







Here is a view that shows the eurothane bushing inside the box. It sits over the spring pin.



Still have a lot of figuring out to do. the nuts will be welded to the side of the box to make it easier to re-assemble in a finished car. Need to remeber to keep the bolts accesible when I build more of the rear bulkhead.

Originally Posted by RestoRod

Why not just cut the forward part of the springs off, solidly mount the center part to the frame and use them as quarter elliptics. You probably don't want the soft ride that cantilevered leafs would provide in this type of build anyway, and the "choppy" rebound can be controlled with a good set of shocks. Even those upper control arms could be lengthened to give you, essentially, a four link suspension.

I think the longer leaf will make it easier to distribute the spring loads onto the unibody chassis. Without a "real" frame, it would be hard to build a mount that could handle the torque of a quarter eliptic spring.

Originally Posted by Flipper_1938

I think the longer leaf will make it easier to distribute the spring loads onto the unibody chassis. Without a "real" frame, it would be hard to build a mount that could handle the torque of a quarter eliptic spring.

I guess it would depend on the frame structure and how it is integrated into the unibody. The Austin Healey Sprite/MG Midget used a quarter elliptic rear suspension albeit with much lower HP than you are using.

Originally Posted by RestoRod

I guess it would depend on the frame structure and how it is integrated into the unibody. The Austin Healey Sprite/MG Midget used a quarter elliptic rear suspension albeit with much lower HP than you are using.

Somebody on metalmeet posted a pic of the sprite style mounts. It is a lot simpler than I thought it would have been.