haha I actually have one... but its not for this car. . . I swapped to a set of 7.60/15 Allstate guardsman tires, I picked 4 of them up, used for $40. "the cheap tire is the right tire" .
Tim is right on, I'm driving the T on non-rainy days, and building a 20x40 shop to share storage with my dad. We just put up rafters today, and I'm hoping to have it closed in (maybe with the outside done) for my open shop/ car show on June 27th.
the one I've been driving the last couple years was .72 the one in the car when I built it, that is back in it now, is .86 I have the one you gave me, and I think its a .72 as well, I just have to decide if I wanna polish that case, or swap the 5th gear to the current trans. either way it has to come out of the car, so nothing will change till I get the shop built. .
Well, you guys asked for it, and you know I take too many pictures, so here goes. Mid April Me and a buddy flew to Cali for a flash trip, visiting some friends and picking up some parts, then building a mold and loading a truck and trailer to transport some shop equipment to Missouri for another friend. The nose and tonneau cover molds will be put to use, on another new project, hopefully soon. but you'll have to come to my open house on June 27th to see if I pull that off. While I was away in Cali, The slab for my new shared storage shop was poured. both dad and I need more room, so we decided to go together on a new 20x40 shop So out came the work truck. and after the first couple days... we had walls, and of course, the first thing you have to do to is christen the new shop.... I've been driving the roadster to work almost every day (including today) and I've been having fun changing things up with another construction job. The view is always good at least. Side note: I got this super neat print from my buddy Alex Mcginnis, he's starting to sell prints of photos he's taken, and he started a new instagram page, "@photosbyalexmcginnis" that you should check out. Its already framed and on the wall. I'll report back when we get some more progress, but as of right now, it's more carpentry than hot rods. .
Hmmm; I like the flames - all you need to do is replicate those on the T. read: Real Fire. . & that 'gl*** piece looks su****iously like a copy of the back of an early speedster, or indy/board tracker. . Yup. I like. Marcus...
Who's ready for an update? In between the many days that it has rained in the past few weeks, I've managed to drive the roadster a bunch. It's been my daily driver to work lately since my pickup is an oven once it sits in the sun. (and a roadster ride makes you forget about the heat) I even got to drive it out to the local lake to meet with friends and let our kids have fun. Oh the joys of a beater. But here about a week ago, I broke a clevis on the way home from the store, and I put the car in time out till this last weekend. I have talked to so many people in the past 2 years about this problem, and I've had a bunch of people give me a bunch of opinions on how they think I should fix it. The problem at hand: (with the front of the hairpin dropped down) I drive my car hard, but for the amount of cars running down the road with very similar rear suspension, it seems like more people would have this problem. So the only explanation that I can begin to reason with is since the front edge of my hairpins are so wide, they are pulling double duty, as locating devices and as long antiroll/ sway bar links. So since I cannot rebuild my car with more triangulation to remove stress from the joints, I will do the next best thing. Beef It Up. Enter the solid Heim. This will effectively replicate the same joint I had before, but with a larger factor of strength. So I ripped into it. After removing the bracket for the caliper, I found an issue. Even with that bracket removed, I still wouldn't be able to drill out the top hole on my hairpin mount to the larger size without removing my axle. I really didn't want to do that, since removing an axle in this car requires taking the entire trunk off to access the rearend, and then tearing apart the rearend (that currently doesn't leak) to pull the axle. So I cheated. I drilled out the lowers to 5/8 for the heims, and welded a sleeve in the uppers, to make them 3/8, and installed a new, longer (for correct shank length) 3/8 grade 8 bolt. On the bottom I used a 5/8 grade 8 bolt, and as I finished the second bottom hole, my drill bit ****ed in, hit the bracket behind the hole, annnnnnnnnnd.......... Luckily it happened on the second one and not the first. I reinstalled everything, and got it all stuck back together. And I also took the time to match the hairpins up so the rearend was square, and once again, it drives straight and accelerates straight. Side Note: YES. I know. For optimal strength, the heims should be in double shear. I have a couple ideas about future upgrades to the setup, and may change things up after this year. This gets the car on the road with a much smaller chance of breakage for the summer. I'm keeping this car forever, no need to hurry into things. In the meantime i've been running like mad trying to finish the new shop, and reorganize my main shop so I can have an open house On the 27th. You know the deal, be there or be square. .
I've come around to the single shear rod ends even the threaded portion of a grade 8 5/8 bolt is rated at 26,000lbs in single shear.
Curious to see how these hold up, any thoughts about putting a brace between the ends of the hair pin? Seems like that could also limit deflection. basically like that. I’ve seen them done with flat plate with holes in them or to keep with an early hot rod idea you could put a circle of solid round rod in the space with an initial in it like early nerf bars. I think a flat plate with a zillion small holes drilled in it probably fits the car better. Anyhow hopefully the solid heim does the job, but was curious if it had crossed your mind.
Is there a panhard bar from the axle housing to the opposite frame rail to keep the axle from moving side to side? Do the semi elliptical spring keep the axle centered?
Went back to page 7 and found this. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/just-a-big-model-t.1276032/page-7#post-14753083 He has modified a lot since the first ***embly, though.
@pprather he does have a pan hard on the back of the car. It was rubbing the tires on the side of the turtle deck. I don’t believe the quarter eliptics keep it from moving like full springs anchored on both ends would do.
Once upon a time in my youth, early in my skateboarding prime, I managed to snap 3 kingpins in one day. Same truck, same trick, 3 different grade 8 kingpins. NEVER broke another one ever again. Years later in engineering school, I did the math to see what it would take to break a kingpin in shear and it blew my mind. It doesn’t make sense. Your clevis issue is like that. Should be fine, but for some reason it isn’t. You’re a busy guy and your beefier material is probably good enough. But for funzies next time you have the rear suspension apart, ***emble with hairpins only (no springs or shocks), with rear under a jack and rear frame on stands. Cycle the suspension up and down, like one side of axle goes up, other goes down, etc. Intent is to make sure suspension can articulate freely without any binding. That’s the only unknown that flags as a “maybe” to me.
No, the joint on the frame side is A normal heim, it has to move. Exactly. The fronts of my hairpins have been single shear for the whole time, and they take a bunch of stress. Haha no, that would make it worse. The hairpins need to flex. Yes. Sort of? I originally thought side to side motion was the reason the clevises were breaking, but I added a panhard rod and didn't see any change, so while I recommend one, I don't know if it's exactly necessary. Case in point the front end has never had one and it works just fine. Man if it was rubbing tires on the trunk we would have a big issue. Actually it's better than a buggy spring, cause buggy springs has shackles in that plane, that allow the axle to move side to side.
That's on the list of things to do eventually. It would be an interesting exercise for sure. The main mental block I have is that I've talked to people smarter than me, and none of them can explain why I break clevises on the rear but the front is ok. Theoretically it's the same stress of a straight tube and a pair of hairpins with a lack of triangulation. In therory the hairpins must flex a little to allow articulation. .
The clevises may be the same front and rear, and the suspension similar enough to be called the same, the weight is even probably close to the same, but the load is different enough to shear the rears occasionally. They seem to shear at the minimum cross sectional area, which makes sense, but why is yet to be determined. There’s gotta be some perfect storm combination of torsional load, shock load, and compression bottom/tension top load, etc.
its really weird, cause sometimes I've sheared them at places I can explain, such as coming in a little hot on an inclined driveway at an angle, or somewhere with an extreme twist, but sometimes they just... break. .
Have you given any thought to using a rod end with a rubber or urethane bushing? It's very likely the transient shock loads that are killing them, something with a bit of cushion should do the trick I'd think.
Joe, just a spitball here, no engineering background. Front has more brake load, rear has more power load. That early pic I copied looks like you might have enough room on the left side of the diff and loop to add another hairpin/arm forward in that area. Probably preferable to have it the same length as the 2 sides. Might be easier to fab than the double shear on each side. Again, just a wild thought.
Sorry I have my little girls birthday party that day, don't think I could squeeze them both in Thanks for the update, always good to see your T out n about!
Looking at the photos now I was obviously remembering a different car rubbing but I’ve seen you drive and it didn’t seem that far fetched at the moment lol
I always enjoy reading your updates. Regarding the suspension failure you experienced, the only other possibility that comes to mind is the rear axle twisting under acceleration. As power is fed into the differential, the pinion tries to climb upwards; this causes the leaf spring to wind up into an "S" shape. When that stored energy is suddenly released, it triggers wheel hop, which continues until you lift off the throttle. I installed CalTracs back in the day to suppress this. Since you have a quarter-elliptic spring, it likely offers less resistance to that movement, meaning the twisting force is transferred directly into the hairpins. I once saw a video of a light truck showing exactly this: the pinion rising when accelerating, dropping back down when the load decreases, and immediately rising again when the throttle is applied. I think the correct term is "axle wrap." So, it’s not just the suspension load that the hairpins have to handle. Just my two cents. Regards, Harald.
Clevis hairpins on the back would work with coil overs or a traverse rear spring with shackles. However with quarter elliptical springs, you need an upper locating arm parallel to and of a similar length as the quarter elliptical spring. This suspension lets the axle rotate with 3 points of movement, both upper trailing arm pivot points and the lower spring bushing. Your setup has only 2 movement points, the front hiem joint on the hairpin and the lower spring bushing. If your hairpin is flexing, thats a sign your suspension is fighting itself. You can replace the hairpin with a single trailing arm with a hiem joint on both ends. A better solution would be to relocate a single trailing arm to be parallel and similar working length as your quarter elliptical spring like the above picture. Good Luck!
This would be a possibility If I made them double shear, I wouldn't want to run a bushing in single shear. I've never thought about adding another link in the middle, but I suppose you could. It would have to shorter, cause there's not room inside the loop with the driveshaft installed. If I wanted to do a form of four link with short lowers I could probably put one to each side of the hoop. interesting thought exercise, at the least. Thanks for your well thought out reply Harald. This is something I have thought about, and it may be a factor in killing them. the hairpins ARE the only thing keeping it from twisting, and in theory, if the axle mount side of the hairpins were spaced apart farther it would lessen the load seen by the joints. I've put thought into mounting joints in different directions to make the load disperse differently, but in the end, there is a lack of help to the rotational torque applied to the axle. the answer may be some form of torque arm in the center, or making it flex more, by making a multi link setup. one thing is for certain, I will push the limits of it, and test whatever suspension goes under it. Hot Rodders gonna Hot Rod. .
This would only work if my spring did not have shackles, which it does. I was advised against this form of suspension by a couple people, cause it seems simple, but in practice, it makes your spring length the only thing determining the pinion angle, which causes it to change as the spring compresses, which is not good on u joint angles. thanks for the thoughts. .
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