Quarter elliptic front springs- photos wanted.

I'm considering something a little different and would like some help gathering info on quarter elliptic sprung front suspensions. I've got a '37 Plymouth curved tube axle and think it might look good out in front without the twin springs.

Thanks, Dan

 

Try a search, there were a couple post on this a few weeks ago. Had some good pic's too.

Later, Mark

 

Here's a couple:sorry for the poor quality on the green car;it was shot at dusk w/no flash.

 

another;same builder different car

 

One of my favs,Jon Gobetti's Dodge mod.Sorry,no detail pics of the frontend.

 

Here is a pic of mine.
Whats important is to have properly functioning shock absorbers.Or even consider a sway bar.They look killer, but I would guess that all the above cars wobbles like hell at above 60mph.( mine did anyway) The reson for that is that you loose a lot of weight above the front axle with the engine set back that much.( and you loose even more weigh at speed) And vintage lever chocks mounted that far back on the wishbone gets a improper ratio. Other than that the front end works great, Resonably comfortable, and good cornering at speed. Its not impossible to do a good handling setup , I learned from my shock mistake that its important to consider function over looks. My 2c anyway.

 

How's this?

 

Thanks guys for the pics and tips. I found this feature of Wayne Gapp's 65 Comet AFX car awhile back and thought it was interesting. Gapp ( as in Gapp & Roush ) was a Ford engineer and this car was super light weight with a SOHC motor. I figure he knew what he was doing. He also used an Econoline steering box.
Dan

 

detail

 

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How's this?

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That works for me.
It uses the spring as the lower bar of a parallel four bar suspension and while the upper bar looks light, it's in tension during braking so t's probabaly lage and strong enough for the duty.
On the other hand, the car CougerDan posted I wouldn't run on the street because I wouldn't run a car on the street without front brakes (maybe without rears but not without fronts) and that system has a too-light rod and too-light "batwing" on the bottom to take braking loads since it would be in compression during braking. It's probably quite sufficient without brakes though because the loads are way less.
Both of them are going to change caster when the spring "unwinds" but parallel leafs do that to caster too, so that's not a problem.

The Cougerdan car is safer in the event of spring failure because the car's frame will fall on the axle before falling onto the ground like a "suicide" suspension will.
Yes, I have had springs break on cars...they don't handle well at all after that.

 

This is a neat take on the idea. Use a spring in front style bone and twist the spring perch back 90 to be used for the 1/4 elliptic shackle. I have not seen this one done before ....



Later,
papa al

 

gotta red x here.

 

Crap! First StarPhoto bites then the pic fails. I was able to link and display in the post preview ... but it fails when posted to the board

Anyway here is the link .. Big pic of 1/4 elliptic idea

later,
papa al

 

I don't know the secret handshake that lets me see the pics.
Dan

 

Thats weird. Now the pic shows in my original post ... maybe cached. I will have to experiment. The second post is just a link to the site. Does it not work for you Dan? This is the guys site WackyDave. He has hundreds of great photos.

What is the error you are getting when you click on the link? As far as I know there is no password etc.

Later,
papa al

 

Hmmm. Does not work from home ... who knows Anyway, click on the website link, go to CarShows 2003, then toward the bottom choose LA Roadster Show, then go to page 12 ... and that is the front suspension I was trying to show you

Later,
papa al