After seeing that link...I'm going to have to do the universal joints! But, I'm waiting. It works now, must get car driveable...then upgrade the shifting later ;-)
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After a few days of little to no work accomplished in the garage, it was time to get cracking and get something done! Started by making some pipe...
Then I made some holes...
...made some modern art...
and finally started working on the car ;-)
Having removed the torsion bars from the rear, I bought a rather simple "coil over conversion kit" which I knew I would be modifying for double-shear mounting of the rod-end. What I didn't realize is just how much modifying I'd be doing. For starters, the entire rear suspension was going going to be held on by 4 M10 bolts on each side, in single-shear fashion. I didn't think it was very strong, and the offroad Baja guys confirmed they shear the bolts off. The pipe we turned down on the lathe ended up being welded to the back of the mounting plates. These pipe sections are a tight fit into the torsion tube and should hopefully serve to transmit the load to the torsion tube instead of the mounting bolts.
Once I lined up the plates to the suspension arm, it quickly became clear there were further issues. The plate sits a full 3/4" over from where the mounting surface is supposed to be. I considered cutting the welds and bending the plates, but for now have opted to make aluminum spacers to sandwich in between. The guys at the local rally shop are away for an event, so I had to cut some quick spacers in my garage. Eventually I'll go back and make some nice ones on the mill.
Not pictured in the photo above are the extra plates I made for double-shear mounting of the rod end. But here is one side mocked up for testing:
I'm going to order some grade 8 studs to thread into the torsion bar housing, and then the final step will be to make four spacers for the outside plate on the lathe. The studs will allow me to secure the inner plate with a nut, slide larger spacers over top and secure the outer plate with a second nut. This should, in theory, be stronger then just a long bolt with spacer. And hey, can't overbuild your suspension mounts! After a mockup of both sides to ensure everything fit, I tore it all down and gave it a coat of POR15...which is still drying.
Between the fab work and fitting that was pretty much all I accomplished today, outside of mounting the trailing arms. A good clean of the shop was in order...and then I remounted the shifter, having repainted the tunnel last night. Looking at the spindly little stock shifter, I couldn't help but miss portions of my prototype shifter. After a couple of cuts I think I've managed to keep the best of both worlds, eh?
-Dave