I've discovered the heart stopping limitations of swing axles! I was playing
around in an empty parking lot, thinking that all of the complaints about
swing axles were frivolous, enjoying the mild oversteer as the rear suspension
tucked under on hard turns. I was taking turns harder and harder, ending
up with more and more oversteer, and having a great time steering the car
with the throttle when it happened: the rear suspension must have tucked
under too far, and I lost almost all rear traction. The car spun 2 or 3
times, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do. I ended up facing back-
wards, and had actually broken a weld on the exhaust system from the flex.
I'm glad that I know the limit is so dangerous, I might have been tempted
to approach it on the regular road if I hadn't had this experience in the
parking lot.
The funny thing is that I'm convinced that the whole problem can be solved
by simply putting a limit strap on the rear suspension. Things seem to work
fine (even if with a bit of oversteer) until the rear wheels _really_ tuck
under. Has anyone tried limit straps on the rear suspension? Has it worked?
On a completely different subject, I needed to make the vinyl in the car
look nice (well need isn't quite accurate, but you know what I mean) and it
was suggested to me to rub vaseline onto it. I had my doubts, but it really
worked! The stuff now looks like it was Armor-All'd. I've heard that Armor
All causes vinyl to crack and fogs up your windows; does anyone know if this
vaseline trick has similar problems?
For anyone else who wants to try it, all you do is wipe a small amount of
vaseline onto the vinyl in question, and wipe it off with a dry clean paper
towel. The vaseline seems to dissolve into the vinyl to some degree, so
it doesn't end up greasy if you use little enough vaseline.
Joe
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