hey guys started searching for quarter eliptic setups on here for front ends, found a few threads but not a lot of info or pics... if you got 2 cents lay it down...Id love to see em..setting up a modified real soon.
My 2 cents is going to upset a lot of people. About five years ago I would have backed using quarter eliptic springs. Now I try to talk people out of using them. Yes people and manufacturers have used them. If you look at the front end mounts people use on Modifieds they get a little beefy looking. The reason in my opinion is that the spring is trying to twist the mount off of the frame. When one front wheel goes up and the other goes down there is no or not enough free play or twist in the front shackle so the quarter spring has to twist. This twist is putting a huge load into the spring and the frame mount. This is where some people say look at semi eliptics on the back of a car, they have to twist also, the semis have double the length and two flex able mounts to allow for twisting. I think Mr. Ford's transverse spring is a lot better idea. Let the flaming begin. Good Luck
^^^Geeze, what a buzz kill. Just kidding. I also am interested in this set up. I would love to hear from both sides. But right out of the gate?
Hahahaha! youre trying to wind everybody up here. 2 degrees of bodyroll will put 2 degrees of twist in the spring EACH SIDE of the centerbolt. I have never seen a semi elliptic spring with a continuous twist the whole length of it. Unless youre stupid enough to mount the front spring hanger at a different angle to the rear shackle . If your frame twists because of spring twist it would have more torsional twist with a crossleaf putting all the compression loads through a central point that is further away from the chassis rail.[than a direct mounted elliptic ] Try and make your frame from square tubing with deep V crossmembers and a spreader bar at each end [ to create a triangle shape when looked at from each end ]
Kerrynzl Not trying to wind everybody up. When a car enters a driveway at a angle one wheel goes up and one stays level or down. with a solid rear axle suspended by semi elliptic springs the springs, in my opinion have to twist. Because of the length of a semi elliptic spring and having two semi flex able mounts everything works smoothly. But if you cut that semi elliptic in half and make one mount solid you have created a new type of stress that is transferred to the frame or the spring leafs. Your comment that a transverse spring mounting point being further away from the frame rail being weaker than a triangle front or rear cross member grabbed my attention. Many cars have been built with a two to three inch pipe cross member and a 3/8"plate with two gussets, typical suicide mount. The center pivot giving a rocker effect when one wheel goes up and one down. Your thoughts please. Good Luck
1984: I built my first 1/4 elliptic rear suspension using a 40 Ford front spring cut in half. The spring was the bottom half of a triangulated suspension setup that is still going strong after 150 thousand + miles, I see this deuce roadster at the LARS show every year. Recently I've done several chassis using Posie's 1/4 eliptics and ladder bars. These included the 2004 NSRA giveaway roadster pu and The Wild Turkeys deuce modified roadstrer pu. The giveaway car has over 50,000 miles and the Wild Turkey has driven the 32 roadster pu from Minn to Ca to the last 2 LARS shows. I think 1/4 elliptic's are a viable option to the more traditional suspensions. I've yet to venture into a front setup but I've been studying the 32 roadster built by Dave Gale many years ago. It had 1/4 elliptics on the front and sat right and worked good.
Here's mine...2100 miles ,so far...handles better than I thought.. I do agree somewhat with all the spring -twist theories...but, I'm not running the Baja and I do go slowly when entering a driveway at a slant...
Glad Turbo26 chimed in allready. Talk to anyone driving a Zipper lakester/roadster. They are sprung on quarters all around (except independent rears) and handle like theyr'e on rails. If I were to build a smaller car i'd really consider them as a way to handle well and sit low
posted else where, my austin-healey sprite has them in the rear, no shakles just a braket on the housing, car weighs 1500 wet, 50+ year tech, no problems here. RD
I race a 1959 bugeye sprite with rear quarter elliptic springs and I race a later sprite with 1/2 elliptic springs I can tell you for sure that the 1/4 springs are way better. Iseem to recall even Jaguar MKI sedans/saloons had them. My high school auto tech class has built a 1/4 setup for the rear of a 46 chevy pickup street rod. Used new heavy duty 130lb bugeye springs too. You can check out how it was done on my profile page..the kids did great work.
I have ¼ elliptic on the rear of my 27 on 32 rails. It's a Posie-style setup by Dave Gale's shop. No complaints whatsoever. Front is monoleaf with beam.
Here is where I'm going with mine. I already have some changes to make like tear shackles and maybe verdure mounts. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
wow that made no sense...stupid phone. Meant rear shackles and beefier mounts. But verdure mounts sounds cool.
"Here is where I'm going with mine. I already have some changes to make like tear shackles and maybe verdure mounts." "wow that made no sense...stupid phone. Meant rear shackles and beefier mounts. But verdure mounts sounds cool." "Man, Im going to get a set of those new verdure mounts for my muffler bearings..." "So I guess I Googled verdure mounts for nothing. Ha" powmia, you owe brg404, adams27 and me a beer. No one is spared or sacred!. Good one, you had me googling it too. Dale Cleveland OH
I should have kept it, or I'm going to make some new mounts and from here on out they are verdure mounts. Just keeping everyone on their feet.
Here's mine, Henry's springs are bent with suspension travel. Henry's cross leaf is quarter eliptic spring turned sideways.
I know you said front, but I've got them in the rear of my '31 coupe. Currently, they are set up as the lower link in a 4 link style.. very similar to the picture above but not triangulated. They have been this way since 2006 when the car hit the street, and worked pretty well both on the street and at the track - rides ok, adjustable height, and cut a 1.55 60' and pulls the left front. Well, it's getting changed because they wrapped up - pushing the entire driveline forward 3 or 4 inches and tearing up quite a bit* in the process. (This was in my quest for 11's with my lil' 289) Perhaps making it more robust would solve the issue, but I'm just going to switch to a torque arm and put the quarter eliptics on shackles. * Quite a bit = spring hangers, trans mount, engine mounts, driveshaft, driveshaft yoke, fan & radiator... that I've found so far.
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