D82: Front Suspension Rebuild #4 D2

I built new mounts for the upper a-arms. I've got the mounting bolts vertical now instead of horizontal. I wanted to try this out and see if it would work better than the old design.

With the new suspension design, I needed to move the steering arm from mounting on the bottom of the spindle to the top of the mount. This required a new steering arm. I've used 1/2" rod ends on the spindle side. On the steering rack side, I cut the threaded portion of the factory arm off and used it as an "M14x1.5" weld bung. Saved me having to buy a random metric tap.

A picture of the completed lower control arm and the upper a-arm along with the new steering arm all assembled with the tire.

D79-80: Suspension Redesign and Rebuild #4

I've spent the past week redesigning the front suspension yet again. After getting the last design tacked together I realized that bump steer might be an issue. I did a little research and modeled my design in CAD to realize that, YES, I did have a bump steer issue.

The design below is what I've come up with for the (hopefully) last build. I've raised the steering rack and plan on mounting the tie rods to the top of the spindle instead of the bottom. This allows for adjustments to control bump steer. I need to modify the spindle and build custom tie rods to complete this conversion.

The new design brought the mounts for the lower control arms in about 1.5" on each side. Below is the design for the new control arms. I've gone back to the style of the second design maximizing the steering range. This won't cause the same issue I ran into with the second control arm because the tie rod is on top of the spindle mount and won't hit the rim.

I built the new arm on the frame. It was easier to tack the mounts and build the control arm on the frame than trying to build a jig for the arm. I did the same on both sides and I'm much happier with the latest build than with the previous one. There is much less slop. I also plan on adding some additional plates to strengthen the mounts.

D75: Lower A-Arm #4 D2

I got the passenger side lower arm tacked together. I reassembled the spindle, steering rack, and upper a-arm and threw a tire on to check out if the new design works. The tire hits AT both ends of the rack travel... a couple of shims will solve that.

The finished a-arm.

Assembled passenger side arms and steering rack.

Steering arm and lower arm.

D74: Lower A-Arms #4

I got a chance this evening to get a little work on the new a-arms. Here's my progress so far. Next step will be tacking in the steering rack mount, moving the rear a-arm mounts, and then adding in the rear bar to these a-arms.

D73: Lower A-Arm Redesign #4 + Steering Rack Mount Rebuild

Yesterday I had another realization... the new a-arm design allows the wheels to turn fully outward, but now the wheel hits the steering arm when turned in. After for most of the evening I sat down and redesigned the lower a-arms for a 4th time.

Below is the latest and hopefully greatest design for the lower a-arm. I've done a few things with the design this time.

• I went back to the right triangle shape. This more closely emulates the donor setup.
• I've also kept the width the same as the last set to keep the full range of wheel motion when the wheel is pointed out.
• I've measured the distance that the ball joint is moving forward to plan for enough clearance for the steering rod when the wheel is pointed in.

With these changes and the change to the steering rack mount, I've moved the steering rack 4 1/2 inches closer to the ball joint. This should give me full range of steering motion in both directions.

Lower A-Arm Design #4.

As I just mentioned, I also made a change to the steering rack mount. I cut out a section so that the steering rack could slide back closer to the mount. This moved the rack 1 inch closer to the mount helping achieve the 4 1/2 inch difference mentioned above.

Recessed notch for steering rack.

Steering rack installed in mount.

I plan on installing the modified mount about 3 1/2 inches further back to keep the wheelbase the same as it was with the previous a-arms. This also means no rework on the upper a-arms. It'll move the rear lower a-arm mount behind the upright similar to the first (or second) design.

Steering rack mount in the frame.

D70: Lower A-Arm D3

After a little thought and some quick design work. I decided on the design below as my third and (hopefully) final attempt.

I've narrowed the distance between the two bushings and centered the ball joint between them. The other change I made in this iteration is tilting the ball joint sleeve in two directions, both toward the frame and toward the rear. This should help minimize the ball joint angle with the stock spindle design.

The finished driver side arm.

Lower A-Arm: The Realization

While pulling everything apart, I put the front end back together to take a moment and appreciate all the work I'd accomplished the days before. I even attached the steering linkage and turned the wheel around a couple of... oh crap! I only get one full turn out of the wheel before the rim makes contact with the lower a-arm.

Since I'm not a huge fan of 17 point turns to flip a U, it looks like it's back to the drawing board for round three of lower a-arm design and rebuild.

D68: Lower A-Arm D2

The second day working on the lower a-arm started out with a new design. Attach the tubes directly to the ball joint sleeve. This required some grinding to get all the necessary notches into the tubes. I needed something to easily hold a tube while I could grind it down.

The tube holder device thingy.

The front tube and ball joint sleeve mocked up.

The finished product installed.

Both sides finished. One with a ball joint installed.

Lower a-arm with spindle installed.

I am much happier with the second iteration of the a-arm design.

A quick note here. Use a threaded rode when mocking up the bushing sleeves before tacking them in place. This will ensure they are straight and won't bind with travel. I thought I had a decent jig setup until I installed the arm on the frame with the rear mount loose and realized the mount moved when rotating the arm. Turns out the bushing sleeves weren't in line.

D67: Lower A-Arm D1

Here is my first attempt at the lower a-arms. The plan was to make a right triangle shape to simulate the factory control arms. A single plate welded to the ball join sleeve would link the sleeve to the tubes running back to the frame.

3/8" plate with a template outline.

The finished plate next to the sleeve.

The bushing sleeves, front tube, plate and sleeve mocked up.

When I finally got all the pieces mocked up I decided I didn't like the idea of cutting a notch in the tube to attach it to the plate. I feel like this is asking for failure at the end of the notch. Final result of day 1: mulligan.

D46:Front Suspension

I'm still working on my front end... not sure I'll ever settle on a final design. I've made a few changes that you can see in the pics. First, the crossbar that will be the mount for the front lower a-arm and the steering rack has been upgraded to 1/8" from 16ga. I felt like that part is going to see a pretty large amount of stress, and I watched "Senna" around the same time. I don't feel like having a catastrophic steering failure. Not that I really think something like would happen... mostly it's because the bushings I'm planning on using for the a-arms will be 1 3/4" wide and a 2" square 1/8" wall tube has... 1 3/4" width inside. Perfect.

I'm also working on the upper a-arm mounts as well. I'm attempting to build a McSorely-esque design except a little more homemade. I'm not 100% settled on something yet. I keep thinking it might just be easier to make the upper mounts fixed and forget all the complexity with making them adjustable.

Last bit of progress for the day was cutting the new front a-arm mount down tubes. If I choose the route of adjustable upper a-arms, I'll need both mounting tubes to be vertical. These will also work to support for the steering rack crossbar.

D45:Control Arm Mounts

The a-arm and control arm mounts are almost finished. I used a a piece of 2" x 4" 1/8" tubing, cut to width, then drilled, then cut in half. The stages are pretty clear in the second pic. I plan on adding one more hole in the bottom to weld in the final spot in addition to the sides.

D44:Steering Rack Mount Supports

Take 2 of the steering rack mount supports/control arm mounting point supports. I think these will do a better job than the first iteration.

D43:Steering Rack Mount D2 and Front End Mods

The front cross member is almost complete. In the second pic, the ends of the tube have been cut and drilled to mount the control arm (planning on 1/2" bushings). The lower steering rack mounts have also been welded on. My one concern with this is the main tube is only 16 gauge and I'd like something a little more substantial to hold the control arms, so I'm playing with some different ideas of how to strengthen the mounting points. My first trial is the third pic. The idea is to weld supports on both sides of the each end.

While fitting the front cross member I realized I wasn't very happy with how everything was "fitting" in the front end, so I decided to a little more deconstruction and reconstruction. I cut off part of the front and then moved the forward most a-arm vertical tubes and angled them back from the lower front to the upper support that I added a few months back. I'm realizing this doesn't make much sense so just take a look at the last couple of pics and compare them to the last engine fitting post pics to see the changes in the front end.

D42:Steering Rack Mount and Lower A-Arm Mount

I'm eager to get this project to the "roller" stage, so I'm going to start working on control arm mounts and steering rack mounts. If you remember from a few months ago, I was going to use the donor front cross member but then decided against it. Here is the new solution to that.

Using a piece of square 2" tubing, I'm going to mount the steering rack to the front and then use the ends as the front lower control arm mounts (more to come on this). The second pic is the progress so far with the top steering rack mounts fixed. A couple of design comments about this approach. First, the control arm mounts will be at the exact same width and position (looking from the front) as the pivot points on the steering rack. This allows me to mount the upper a-arms anywhere without having to worry about steering rack width and positioning which can lead to bump steer and number of other issues. I'll try to post a diagram to represent this at some point. Second, it allows me to use the donor rack without any mods to the rack or the front uprights.

In case you were curious what the original front sub frame looked like in comparison to the new one, it's in the second pic.