EFILandRover Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Ive started putting a disco front end into my s1 trials thingy, and im now stuck. I can either have the spring perches hanging ugly low and losing all my clearence, or I can go spring over and have it sitting way too high. What can I do? Im not particularaly fond of either option. Reason being is that the tie rod his the springs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biasbilt Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Reason being is that the tie rod his the springs Mod your tie rod to miss the springs by putting some bends in it and go spring under, or just have the front end coil sprung and use radius arms etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon White Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Mod your tie rod to miss the springs by putting some bends in it and go spring under, No dont bend it cos thats just horrible! No matter how thick bar you make them fron with a dend in them they just bend far too easily. Keep the trackrod straight as it was intended to be. The only way I've ever seen this done is by packing the spring away from the axle to give clearance hence losing you ground clearance. Dont be tempted to try and move the track rod to the front of the axle either as this screws the Ackerman angles up. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EFILandRover Posted September 10, 2007 Author Share Posted September 10, 2007 Mod your tie rod to miss the springs by putting some bends in it and go spring under, or just have the front end coil sprung and use radius arms etc I dont think I can bend it enough to miss the springs can you? I do have the bits here for a coil conversion and did think about it. But I have a theory that leaf springs will work better offroad as they "roll" over the bumps rather than having to be forced over, since they have the fixed end at the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
istruggle2gate11 Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 I dont think I can bend it enough to miss the springs can you? I do have the bits here for a coil conversion and did think about it. But I have a theory that leaf springs will work better offroad as they "roll" over the bumps rather than having to be forced over, since they have the fixed end at the front. I did mine by using a left hand drive swivel housing, and had the track bar and steering bar all at the front, works perfectly with no issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill van snorkle Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Dont be tempted to try and move the track rod to the front of the axle either as this screws the Ackerman angles up.Jon Not much wrong with reverse Ackermann angles. I have been running reverse Ackermann for about 10 years now and wouldn't go back to regular angles. The following on the subject of Ackermann is copied from a book titled ''New Directions in Suspension Design'' making the fast car faster. by Colin Campbell M.sc.,C.Eng.,M.I.Mech.Engrs published by Robert Bentley Inc. ''ACKERMANN STEERING LAYOUT. Ackermann arranged his steering layout to give a slightly greater steering angle to the inner wheel than the outer. The steering arms are inclined inwards (trackrod behind axle) or outwards (trackrod in front of axle) so that the projected lines through the king pin and tie rod ends converge to meet at the centre of the rear axle. Not all designers adopt the original Ackermann layout. Some use an intersection point behind the rear axle. Others prefer parallel steering arms. There is some logic in adopting a negative Ackermann angle, i.e. one where the intersection point lies ahead of the font wheels. High cornering forces create roll and demand greater slip angles from the outer tyres than the inner ones. The original Ackermann layout, designed to give a greater angle to the inner wheel, is therefore based on a false premise.'' Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jericho Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 I did mine by rotating the front axle forwards until the trackrod cleared the springs,then welded the spring seats/mounts on in that position. I gave it about 15mm clearance between trackrod and springs,which is pretty minimal,but have done a fair bit of harsh driving in the last month and it appears to be no problem. My diff nose is,of course,pointing up at a bit of an angle,so the casing should be over filled with oil to help out the pinion bearing. The propshaft angles are also a little uneven - about 3 degrees at the transfer box,and 14 at the diff - and this caused too much vibration for my taste on a truck that does a lot of road miles.The fitting of a double cardan prop with the double joint at the diff end was a complete cure.(but I'm running an lt77/lt230 setup with a long front prop,so this prob may not arrise on a standard series) As an aside,the uj angles are both in the same direction,not opposite angles as is most common,so I feel in theory they should be 90 degrees out of phase to compensate as best as possible for their varying rotational speed.Can anyone comment on uj phasing beyond the trial and error method? In rotating the axle forward,I have lost all,or most,castor angle,which leaves the stearing slightly twitchy,but it still self centres just fine,and a round trip journey to the far end of Belgium of 1000 miles proved it to be quite acceptable. I am very pleased with the coversion.Its well worth doing.But if I was doing it again I would have a look at the trackrod in front of axle method. Best of luck, Jerry. P.S. HERE is an old thread on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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