Now that most of the chassis is made and modified the next major hurdle is to finish off the rear suspension shock absorber location and mounts. After trying a lot of different combinations I compromised and settled on running the rear shocks on a larger angle than I would have liked. The photos show the first attempt of locating the shocks.
The first attempted location for the rear shock mounting
I was able to use the gearbox case bolts and fabricate mounts off the gearbox but this needed to be braced to take the suspension loads etc. The next series of photos show the final locations on the gearbox and the fabrication of the mounts and the extra bracing that was needed to support the upper positions of the shocks to the adaptor plate and chassis. Note the extra bracing linking the top of the shock mounting points to the outer suspension pick-up points on the chassis.
Rear Shock Absorber mounts with no bracing
Rear Shock Absorber mount with more bracing
Rear Shock Absorber with side brace to chassis mount
The front shock absorber mounting was the easiest of the lot as all I had to do was mount a shock onto the rocker arm. I had to first make the pivot shaft that the rocker arm mounted to and have it hardened as the needle roller bearings that it mounts into need a hardened surface to make the suspension functions correctly.
Front Koni Shock on rocker arm
The shock absorbers that I purchased for this project was the Koni 2812 series these are a bump and re-bound adjustable mono tube shocks, that would give me the best adjustment range to help me tune the suspension when the car is finally finished and the car is competing at a hillclimb.
The spring rates I will start from to see how the car reacts will be front 500 Lbs and the rear it will be 800Lbs. This is just a rough set-up as I need to see how this feels once the car is on the hillclimb tracks and I will have to change them to suit time will tell…