Hot Rods Front shock location?

My question is. Can the front shock on a Model A be mounted to the spring side of the shackle in stead of the perch side? My reason is to give my shocks atad bit more travel. It would actually move them to a more vertical position, which seems good. My top mount is a modified f1 type. Any pros or cons would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Yes, you can. Speedway and others even make shackle plates with varied mounting locations. The truth is most of these cars have minimal travel anyway.

 

Not a good idea. Will change lateral movement on bumps causing steering issues.

 

I actually have the ones in use that Tman posted, bottom pic. Was considering flipping em around?

 

That will work as well.

 

This is how mine are mounted. They work very well on the drag strip and the road. And the roads in Pa, ****!

 

Yea Tman, thats what i was thinking. Wasn't sure as Angledrive mentioned, will change something bump wise?

Roads here do ****. That may very well be an understatement. Ha

 

Don't flip them around, they are not designed to be used that way.

 

Moving shock too spring side of shackle,is a move away from good shock action n control.
First it moves closer to center of car=makes less control by shock,an #2 standing shock closer to straight up cuts down axle shift control by being on spring vs axle> were its needed on axle.
Mad Mikey,* pic. shows a good way,too get more control with shock,being both longer an more out,closer to wheels were shock dose more good. Note that these little brackets are also install right,so schock is on out side of Bone Bolt vs some put them on wrong to the center,cutting back on shocks control.

 

Any reason why? Ive stared at em for a while, multiple times and couldn't come to a conclusion? Any insite?

 

Show us your setup. Like I said, most of these have little travel anyway. Shorty rod shocks are pretty basic dampers

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Mounting to a shackle is a bad idea.
Also, most shocks are designed to be mounted with a certain end up. For general street use, it doesn't matter as far as operation which end. JUST DO AS THE MANUFACTURER SAYS.
For performance and best handling, race car shocks are mounted BODY up. This is to reduce unsprung weight.

 

Heres where im at. Heres a few pics. Zoom in. Youll hopefully get the idea.

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I got a couple hundred miles on it as is, but the circle thing is always at the top of the shock shaft even after a short, less hard trip, without any noticeable hard hits.

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The truth of the matter is that some settling has occurred since the pics. Theres really about 1¼ of space before topping out. Maybe lengthen the top mount? Was trying to avoid that tho. Still on the fence. Hmmm

 

With out going into geometry, algebra and calculus schooling it is not the proper place to mount a shock. Lengthen the top mount or install shorter shocks.

By the way it is a very cool ride, well done.

 

Gotcha and Thanks.

 

Put a zip tie on the shock s shaft right at the top of the shock body. Go for a ride. When you get back You can see the shock travel.

 

Yea thats what i was saying about the circle thing on the shock shaft. It seems to be always jammed to the top even after a light short trip.

 

Better pic of it, circle thing.

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Here are my thoughts: shocks are supposed to dampen oscillations in the un-sprung portion of the suspension. Connecting them to the actual spring only allows the shock to work on the spring, not the m*** of the un-sprung portion. It is controlling oscillation in the spring which indirectly controls the axle. However, you have the shackles involved so it isn't really controlling what you want to have the shock control.

Saw a lot of different takes on spring front sprint car suspensions but the shocks were always connected to the axle.

 

It makes sense for the damper to follow the motion of the spring's free end as closely as possible. Ideally you'd want the damper perpendicular to the curve of the spring, i.e. leaning outwards at the top, but that is likely to look really weird besides being troublesome to mount that way. I'd say it's splitting hairs, though.

My main concern with pivoting the dampers at the spring end of the shackle is structural: you'd be placing an off-centre load on the spring. Because its entire function relies on it being elastic, the spring can twist slightly as a result of that off-centre load, causing the shackles to want to lozenge out of square and twist out of plane with each oscillation. As with a lot of suspension stuff I'd expect the failure mode to be gradual loosening, as holes get worn bigger etc. resulting in slop and noise, rather than catastrophic breakage.

If you can design the shackles to stay square and parallel through all the loadings they see, it should work. Oversize shackle pins post-tensioned to a certain torque might be one option.

 

Sorry to be a bit OT, but where did you get that dropped axle?

 

In a static position the shock looks nearly fully compressed...I'm surprised you haven't broken a mount off and what happens to shocks when they are bottoming out repeatedly...you must be feeling that...

It's your headlight position that is causing you to search for a solution here from the looks of things...that said in Hotrod building we create hurdles when getting THE Look...​

 

Shorter shocks has to be the easiest way to go but from the last pic it looks like you might already have short shocks - or it could be the camera angle. What are the open and closed lengths of the shocks?

Alternatively, it looks like you might have room to mount the shock off the 'bone. Could be a lot cheaper route than buying longer shocks? Do check the swing of the tie rod beforehand though!

I like headlites mounted low .

Chris

 

I had a internet car friend come to Pittsburgh for the first time to visit a family member and I met him at a car show. He said now I see why your so interested in suspensions and handling, this place is like the race course!!

 

It does look like mounting it off the bone would be the easy solution

 

Shocks are to long for that set up. move the lower mount to the wishbone or to the a lower shock bracket the mounts off bottom of the perch pin.

On the topic of your front axle. you should be very wary of that thing. That is an axle made by A conglomerate called The Hoffman Group. You probably got it from Johnny Law or Helix or just off ebay. It needs to be replaced. They are cast in China with what ever ******** is laying around. I've personally seen two break after hitting potholes here in VA. And Pittsburg, has some horrible roads. They both broke clean off to the outside of the wishbone and caused major carnage to the cars they were on. seriously look for another axle for your safety and others.

 

Cant remember exactly. Its been 5 or 6 years ago. Thanks for the warning. Grrr.

 

You nailed it.
The shocks were the shortest i could find. Different mount seems to be the answer. Along with another axle.