Technical SUSPENSION, A-bone question

I don't know about the torsion plates! Remember, you need twist AND some rotation flex at the axis of the rearend...
Like this...

 

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This is also an untraditional way, Volvo PV 544 used this set up during the 60´s. A mild splitted "wishbone" attached to the rearend with rubberbushings and a U-bolt. Then the pinjon house is attached to the body


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This would be by parts "3""5" but it's not real clear which one is on the rear end housing and whick is on the body..Is "3" mounted to the body and "5" to the axle?
Seems that unless the axle doesn't travel far (short travel tube shocks?) those short bars "4" would change the pinion angle greatly.

 

DrJ- A close look in the manual showes that #3 is connected to the body and #5 to the rearend. What i can remember from a long time ago disambling of such a rearend the short bar ends (#4) were embedded in rubber bushing too. Well, Volvo didn´t use this on their later models, they went to a form of parallel fourlink and panhard bar.

 

Grim, the torque arm mounted under the rear could cause a problem with wy plans for a rear cross member under the driveshaft. The rear of the frame is now only 9 inches from the ground. The idea sure is worth reconsidering the design, though. This is why I posted about using a torque tube with a modern GM trans a few months back. Ol' Henry solved these problems long ago.

 

VW's ? Volvos ? alright! you guys are openminded enough for furrin shit . look under an Alfa Romeo Alfetta . De dion rear susp. thin wall tubing with tapered tubes that make up a whishbone like an early ford , use that with a halibrand centresection and inboard finned buick drums as traditional as you would want it , in a Indy sort of way .

 

THIS IS A GREAT POST.........BTTT

 

Torque arm and VERY SHORT forward lower links. The only thing I could criticize on this setup is that the torque arm shackle (at the front of the arm) won't accept a lot of twist that occurs when one wheel is raised. Hell, they even mounted everything in double shear! Good Job!

FWIW, this is the same suspension setup used in late model Camaros except that instead of a shackle to provide give at the front of the torque arm, the stamped sheet metal arm slides back and forth through a bushing.

Snagged these pics off the Metalshapers.org galleries.

 

And a couple more of a Torque Arm. This one features an "L" shape to clear the back of the body and an adjustment at the bottom of the arm at the axle to adjust pinon angle.

I grabbed these from George Cathey's gallery.

 

This has been great input. But let's get back to the subject of split wishbones. The original intention was for them to keep the car flat in corners, right? Well, how can we build a car with conventional split bones so they won't break anything, like beefing up the axle housing to take the stress. Come on you sages!

 

dirty dug....copy the above torque arms (except make a more flexible front connection) and have pivots at both ends of your split 'bones. Also, mount them at the axle centerline, not below as shown in those two examples.

 

dirty , i cut my whishbones becourse my roadster is to low to have any suspension underneath . i thought that the build in swaybar effect was a draw back . thats why i kept them that long , so they bend easier .also a bonus is that the rails are narrower when you go farther to the front , so the bending/binding problem is not as bad , when the body leans in a corner .

 

Nice work there, Metalshaper.
Dug, as stated above, The strongly built torque arm as in the examples above is ideal when using split bones. The lower links on the above setups could easily be replaced by early ford parts mounted outside the rails, BUT the attachment to the axle must be flexible.
The forward attachment should include a shackle or twin heim joint to reduce bind.
But at the end of the day, we're not talking rock crawling max articulation 4-wheel drivers here, Suspension movement is rods is normally pretty limited so we can, er, BEND the rules.
Mart.

 

I used wish bones front & rear . works for me . but not big horse power & I don't spin the tires . just added coil overs with pan hard bar . lower & rides better ..........