nascar rear suspension

I wish they went into production with this. Called them 4 months ago about it and they said it wasn't gonna happen. Time to make my own. I wish We could get some dimensions from them...

 

I did get the dimensions of the one they make now. The width is 31 5/8, height is 5 3/4 and the brackets are 11 3/8 apart. I took measurements on my 49 and I came up with needing these measurements.

 

That's what I was thinking too. I have a set of arms from a NASCAR team. They are very well made. I was thinking maybe even just putting a bolt through the frame to catch the top of the crossmember would all it would need to keep it from twisting.

 

A truck arm is a ladder bar is a SOCAL rear are split bones, etc. I think they are all basically the same, just depends on the spring type and location of the hairpin / bar / arm (inside or outside the frame), eh? Gary

 

Gary, you're right that the articulation/geometry is almost identical in these truck arms vs. "Pete & Jake's - style" ladder bars and some split bones setups... as long as the front part of the arms are a lot closer together than the axle end. If the arms/bones/bars are basically parallel (or close to it) the geometry is very different, and there's more torsion on them.

Regarding the crossmember on the R&C purple pig, it does seem like an odd design, but looking at where the arms mount to it (right at the bottom), I doubt twisting is much of an issue.

Here is the crossmember I built for my Fleetline. It only attaches to the bottom of the frame, but it's only 2" square tube. The plates on the far ends were welded to the bottom of the frame, and the two tubes pointing forward were welded to the back side of the factory K-member. These forward bars are aligned with the intersection of the factory diagonal braces that make the K in the K-member.

 

Slide, do you any pictures of your setup from under the car?

 

Not any good ones right now, but perhaps these will help?

 

Beats the heck out of nothing, my preference would be for a bit more bracing, but I tend to rally the crap outta' my stuff.

 

Here is my version of a truck arm style suspension. Hope it works out pretty decent. I understand all the concern over tubular construction, but I am hoping the way they are stepped, will allow some flex in them. Its been a trick getting them to tuck under the car, all that shows so far is the very lowest part of the shock. Just using some small wrecking yard coils in front of the axle (removed)

 

Slide,

Can you get a picture of your crossmember mounted in your car with the arms attached?

 

What about this? www.nolimitengineering.com
www.rodandcustommagazine.com/techar...talls_trailing_arm_rear_suspension/index.html

 

A whole lot of good stuff in here. i think this may be the rout that i am going to take

 

I like it too. Simple, versatile and a proven design. If you have the room, a Chevy C10 set up is cheap and easy to adapt. When the time comes, I'll look at aftermarket arms as well.

Bob

 

I built my own crossmember to attach my set of ebay NASCAR arms.



It does not quite lay frame but you can see the can of brake clean just fits under when the bags are deflated.




It still rolls when fully deflated but the turning radius is not great as the front tires will rub when turning. I have not got it on the road for any driving as it is still in progress.

 

What do you plan on doing with your exhaust? It looks like clearance might be tight.

 

Glad this old thread was revived! All I can contribute is that I had a 3/4 ton Chevy, forget if it was '61 or '62, that had those torque arms and the torsion bar IFS in the late 60s/early 70s. Best handling truck I ever owned! Not towing and empty, you could actually toss the tail out and dirt track around a curve on asphalt if you needed to after running up on a curve too fast to just drive it thru.
Pulling a dirt oval race car and trailer, it was well behaved and even allowed me to maintain control when I blew a trailer tire doing about 75mph. And all this was when the race car was eating all the available cash with none left for stuff like new shocks, etc. on the tow truck!
Top that off with bringing 5700# of gravel home from the gravel pit, and yeah that was good suspension. Never understood why they dropped the torsion bar IFS.
At 74.5 yrs. and also having Asbestosis and a real bad back, no longer able to do a frame up complete fab&build, but if I were able and did a full build, the truck arms are what I would use.
Dave

 

I have a CP crossmember in my shop waiting to go on to my '56 F100....

 

i will use em on my 53 lincoln

 

I'm gonna run them on my '58 chevy truck.

 

Thread fro the dead.... really good read.

This might be the ideal system for my COE build.

As th F5/F6 trucks have a long wheels base of 134" is there any reason notto make the arms longer than the stock Chevy truck items?

I understand the longer the arms, the better and if possible the theoretical point at which they would join should they continue beyond their mounting points would be the UJ at the front of the drive shaft to give the most stable pinion angle?

Just one more thing [/Columbo] as these will be custom made for my application, is there any reason why they couldn't be constructed and mounted to the rear axle in a more traditional ladder bar set up like this...



My theory is that they are strong in the direction then need to be, but will allow a little torsional flex over their longer than stock length to help with the minimal bind issue up front which can then be further helped with a decent rubber bush?

Also, with the frame rails being straight and not notched or raised over the axle, the longer than stock arms will be at a more horizontal angle which will reduce bump steer affect and not give too much anti squat (not that I'll need that in a F6!!)

Thoughts are always appreciated.