[Land-speed] Sunbeam Suspension

neil at dbelltech.com neil at dbelltech.com
Tue Jun 16 20:43:00 MDT 2009


Mayf;

14 degrees of caster sounds like way more than you really need but who
knows?

My car has a 98 inch wheelbase and is set up for 7 degrees of caster in the
front end, with close to zero camber and <1/16" toe- in. My car is mid-
engine so there is little similarity with your Sunbeam....and mine has yet
to turn a wheel. :(

Regards, Neil   Tucson, AZ

-----Original Message-----
From: land-speed-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:land-speed-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of drmayf
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 7:11 PM
To: LSR
Subject: [Land-speed] Sunbeam Suspension

Seems the List Manager has flagged me for too long a post. So I will 
break it down into theree parts
Par 1
Well, today I declared success on getting the suspension setup. Is it 
right? I do not know, but for sure it is what I have, lol.  Lemme review 
the car first. It has a race strut front suspension with a lower A arm. 
Caster is approximately 14 degrees. Maybe more, maybe less, hard to 
measure.  But it is the same on both sides. In the rear is the 4 link 
system with a diagonal locator link. The bottom link is parallel with 
teh frame and th etop link is out front of the car somewhere. Two 
adjustable shocks and coil over springs. Wheel base on the car is 90 
inches (yeah, it is short).  The rear has 6 degrees of freedom. Because 
I am of portly stature ( nah, fat is the real word),  I found 275 pounds 
of iron in the shop and put that in the drivers seat as lard simulator.  
I made a couple of tools to help me with the front end as I though that 
was the right place to start since it has the fewest degrees of freedom 
to actually mess with.  I made many many false starts because of a lack 
of experience and knowledge in doing this, but I wont address all the 
mistakes I made. Here is what I wound up with to the best I could measure:

Front End
Camber   LF <<1 degree (<< means much less than)      RF <<1 degree
Caster      approx 14 degrees positive
Toe in   <<<< 1/32 inch
Steering wheel centered as measured by a level.

Rear End
Parallel with the front wheels to within a 1/32 inch.
Thrust Angle is as close to ) degrees as I could make it <<<1 degree
Off set of rear to front is approx  9/16 inches  (9/32 per side) Any 
closer and I would have clearance issues. I used shade tree process to 
mount the race frame in the body so I am sure that is the error.

see part 2

mayf


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