Well, finally got a chance to work on the car today after about a month of letting it sit.

Managed to get the rear susp/engine sub-frame made up today, and messed around with the engine mounting (just set the sub-frame on top of my "reference frame" ) for shits and giggles. Still all the triangulation needs to be done along with building the A-arm mounting bars & brackets, but I'm waiting on the bushings anyhow, so there's no rush to make the A-arms til' they're here for mock-up. Anyhow, threw in a CV, hub, and wheel just so I can imagine how it might be at ride height. Hopefully I get to work on it tomorrow too.

Pix:








That's all for now.

[Edited on 2/8/04 by turbo time]

Boy does that bring back some great memories!

Congratulations on getting to this point. It will really go fast for a while! Enjoy it.

From just looking at it quickly I can say that it looks good. And its a TURBO! I like that! LOL

Graber

Ah yes, memories indeed...:-)

Looking good....keep at it...

I like the look of that wheel in the bottom picture

Ned.

Those pictures certainly do bring back memories. My advice is to place the drivetrain exactly where you want, then design the suspension, then build the frame in that order. Since you don't know where the inboard suspension pickup points are, hold off placing chassis rails yet.

You have your wheels, tires, and uprights, so spend time now designing your suspension. This is where a great deal of time goes with nothing (physically) to show for it, but it's very important to do early.


[Edited on 2/8/04 by kb58]

Thanks everyone, I was just glad to stop measuring, cutting, welding for a little while to get to play with donor parts finally.

Oh yeah...the wheels are Mitsubishi Starion/ Chrysler conquest (16"x7" front, 16"x8" rear) got em for $50 with practically new Kumho tires, so they'll work out nicely . Problem is, they aren't exactly sticky, and I'm wanting R-compounds. I ought to get those on for mock-up, right?

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My advice is to place the drivetrain exactly where you want, then design the suspension, then build the frame in that order. Since you don't know where the inboard suspension pickup points are, hold off placing chassis rails yet.

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The problem with calculating loads is, no matter what SW you use, eventually you have to feed in some load value. Sure, for glass-smooth surfaces, calculating loads is easy, in fact it's just geometry which can be done with a calculator.

Now imagine the real world, you're cornering and mid-corner, here comes a pot-hole. Just how much is a "pothole" shock load? I never figured what that magic number was.

It all ends up being kind of pointless... since there is no magic "pothole calibration" value to use. All you can do is design the links to handle something like 10x the weight of the car and go from there. You can find strength of columns (for suspension arms) in many mechanical design books. I was going to use 1"dia, 0.065 wall until I did the math. Due to the load that "might" happen at the back of the car, and because more weight is back there, I went to 1.25", 0.065 wall on the lower arms. Is it good enough? I think so, and that's about the best I can do...

Oh and regarding your tires... yes, tires are *extremely* important during design... in fact they are *the* most important component. Wheel clearance is just part of it, as they affect kingpin offset, caster geometry, and camber geometry. Though it sucks getting them now ($$$) it's the only way to do things right. And make sure you get the size you plan to use, not anything else.

[Edited on 3/8/04 by kb58]

Cool, just thought for the future, maybe you'd like to know that you can get camchain/silent chain kits from directauto.com for a really reasonable price for that motor (think its the 2.6 G54B mitubishi/mazda/dodge/chrysler motor).
I mention it as I have the same engine in my shogun (pajero, montero etc) and my silent chain just snapped which drives the balance shaft and the oil pump and the motor seized. Stealing project time for the rebuild