Alex's Big Block Chevy Locost

[Shevalev]

Sorry for the late replies guys,
So today I got a bunch of parts in for the front end. Im running the wilwood drop spindles and QA1 ball joints. I ordered up some road ends, clevises, some extended studs for the ball joints ( due to binding), some spacers for the joints and some other hardware. For the tires i will be running in the rear 345/40/17 and in the front 315/35/17. I should be able to find some traction someway. I have a FAST XFI 2.0 with traction control already with the engine. From my past experience it was able to prevent the rubber from lighting up. Here are a few more pics of the engine in my old kit car. Sorry for the messy garage. My next step is to keep on welding and some reinforcements and to keep planning out the suspension geometry. I will be on the phone in the morning with speedway motors and QA1 dealing with the tech info guys for some tie rod end measurements. Hopefully my idea of mounting the shock to the lower balljoint will be possible is the shock bearing is fairly small. Ill keep you guys posted.

[Shevalev]

Hello,
So im designing the rear suspension on the locost and i have been dealing with the issue of the rear drivetrain, specifically the combination. I will be running a ford 8.8 rear end. I have the axles, the pumpkin, the uprights and hub. The uprights are terrible for my suspension geometry so i have been trying to find a cost effective way to utilize my setup. I have come up with the idea of cutting out the wheel bearing housing right out. When taking the dust shield off from the uprights, i had an extremely hard time removing the 3 bolts that hold it together. I was thinking of using those 3 bolt holes and drilling a 4th one to hold the wheel bearing and hub assembly to my custom upright. I was thinking of drilling a 4 inch hole through a 5mm thick piece of steel which will be the face of the upright and have the wheel bearing housing slide through it from the back and then have the hub pressed in from the front side. I have a few pics that show some dimensions. All the input will help me so throw out your ideas please and thank you.

[horizenjob]

The uprights are terrible for my suspension geometry

Can you explain what you are trying to fix?

[Shevalev]

i am trying to make an upright. here is a picture to show you guys. the paper is the face plate of the upright. i am trying to cut the current upright and to use the holes earlier mentioned to mount the assembly to the upright. will it be ok to use the holes from the dust shield to mount the hub to the knuckle?

[esp42089]

But what are you trying to fix? Scrub radius?

[Shevalev]

i am trying to fix the control arm angles to reduce the track width fluctuation and the camber change at a bump or droop.

[esp42089]

Is making new uprights easier than changing where your control arms attach to the frame? With the cast uprights, you know they are strong enough, beyond a doubt. You are in a way lighter car than they were designed for. With your part, you'll have to make some guesses/estimations on strength.

[Shevalev]

I have decided that it would be best to alter the spindles. Below you will see a drawing and just imagine a line going from the lower joint to the lower frame rail and tell me what you think. That has an angle of around -22 degrees. The goal for me is to have the lower control arm close to 0 degrees. Thus said, i think it is compulsory to do something to resolve this imperfect geometry. Any thoughts?

[horizenjob]

I used a suspension with trailing arms and a reverse wishbone for the lower control arm and a radius arm for the upper control arm.

[Shevalev]

would you recommend to continue the way i am doing it? or should i use some other method?

[GonzoRacer]

Hi Shev-
I went through the same gyrations with the T-Bird uprights in my build. The lower pickup points on the upright are very close to the axle and mount high up on the frame. I wound up adding a second frame rail above the original lower rail and building a shear plate mounting surface between the two horizontal frame rails and mounting the upright attachment points to that plate. I'll go back through the pictures and try to find a shot of that.

Also, you'll find the LCA fits very close to the CV joint on the outer end of the axle. Position the shock mount carefully, so you have room for the spring, the bolt through the bottom of the shock and the CV to all live together happily. It can get a bit crowded. On mine, you have to put the bolt through the bottom of the coilover in one direction only or the end of the bolt is too close to the CV boot!

Iffen it was me, I'd feel better about modding the frame as opposed to working on the cast (?) upright. Your call...


JDK

[Shevalev]

Today I made some progress and took the plunge of making the hub and bearing assembly. It took a lot of grinding and sanding but here are the final results. I decided to utilize the calliper mounting holes to as extra bolt holes that will hold on my bearing. I think this is the easiest and most reliable way of achieving what i want. The other news is that i have done practically all of the cuts for the front chassis. Now it is time to go off to the rear and start bending tubes.

[Shevalev]

Hello guys,
Ive been really busy with school this last week but over the weekend was able to come up with a suspension jig. The easiest way was by using 2 pieces of plywood and to just drill holes through them and put some ready rod through them. I have been dealing with fabricating some options for the heim joint misalignment spacers and came up with a solution. I currently have 10 1/4 inch and 10 1/2 inch spacers which i will apply to this build. The thickness of the ball is 3/4 of an inch. So all together i will be needing 1.5 inches of space. I ordered a 4x2x0.250 rectangular tube and that should do just fine. I am still looking for an inspector who will approve heim joints in Greater Vancouver but still no luck. Worst case scenario I will just redo my control arms for the inspection so that they would have rubber bushings. The main key is to have only 4 axis in total for all the joints instead of having 16 and not being able to fab the rubber control arms.

I have worked through the suspension and was wondering if some of you guys could improve the design of the suspension. Here is the link. Thanks guys.
http://tinyurl.com/zgbtjvv

[Shevalev]

Hello guys,
These last few days I have made a bit of progress. I have had a really hard time drilling all of the holes for the suspension brackets since i am being a bit anal. I am being accurate to the 100th of an inch. I am waiting on a new mitre blade that should come in tomorrow to get the rest of the pieces of 2x4 cut for the brackets. The next step after this is to head over and get the rear mounts done. I am hoping i should be done with all of the suspension mounts by the end of next week. What are your thoughts about adding more reinforcement to the suspension brackets? I have the frame tacked up so adjusting some of the tubing is really simple by using brute force and i was afraid that i would need to add structure to prevent any flex along the z-axis when looking at the vehicle from the front?
Thanks for all the input.
Here is a picture of how it looks now.

[Bent Wrench]

In this pic you have 2 upper ball joints attached to an upright.

I do not believe those joints are designed to carry weight.

They are likely designed for lateral loads not axial.

Also the joint holding business is not designed to support weight.

I hope this is just a modeling exercise.....

You can do that online with software for free @ vsusp.com