Nope, set up is simple. The only hard part is making all the measurements
to use it for your car. The documentation is worthless, but the help is
great. You need to drill down (double-click the topic icons) to get to the
good information. I wound up printing most of the help files as
documentation.
This might help with the measurements:
I put my car up on jackstands, then leveled the centerline of each axle on
each side. I measured first to get a rough value, (I used 20 inches to the
center of the axle) then finished off with a laser level. It would have
been nice to have a transit base, but I got by with a photographic tripod.
Screw-type jackstands would have been great--I used to have a set but I
must have tossed them out--they're useless for everything but this. I got
by with shimming with cedar shakes under the jackstand feet.
Then I clamped a long piece of aluminum 2" angle to the centerline of the
car in the long axis. I measured the center in three places--behind the
rear axle using the outside of the frame, ahead of the front suspension,
and under the door as a check point. I used a plumb bob to translate these
points to the floor, then found the middle of each and snapped a chalkline
down the middle. I made a frame to hold the aluminum angle in the front,
there was a handy place to clamp it on Peyote in the rear. Then I used the
plumb bob to align the top and bottom centerlines--the angle aluminum and
the mark on the floor. I established my Z coordinate at the firewall and
lined up top and bottom lines the same way.
For most measurements, the easiest thing is to use a plumb bob to drop
your X and Z coordinates to the floor, then use a long square to transfer
the points to the centerline and the Z axis to get those two coordinates.
I used a sheet rock square and a tape measure. I think I'm accurate to
about 1/16th of an inch.
The Y axis you measure from the floor to the center of the point. Some
points aren't accessible from below or can't be dropped to the floor. For
those I used the upper centerline and Z axis. I put a long level with a
tape measure refill glued to the edge on the centerline or Z axis and
dropped my plumb. The y axis I used the level and a ruler and then
translated the measurement to the floor by subtracting it from the height
of the level off the floor.
Big pain in the ass. Worse than it sounds. But when I was done I could see
everything that's wrong (and right) with Peyote's suspension. I'm going to
be able to make big improvements with minor tweaks. Turns out there's a
lot of bump steer in Peyote (probably why it's so scary over the bumps at
the end of the straight at Pacific Raceway). I think I can eliminate
almost all of it by moving the rack about a half inch higher. The
shortened upper arm makes the camber go whacky (a technical term) and the
roll center varies with suspension travel. Fixing that is easy in the
simulation, now I need to translate that to metal.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael D. Porter [mailto:mporter@zianet.com]
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 6:25 PM
To: Bill Babcock
Subject: SuspProg3D
Bill--
I just got my copy of the suspension program you'd recommended. Any words
of wisdom on set-up, or peculiarities of the program before I install and
run it?
TIA, and cheers.
--
Michael D. Porter
Roswell, NM (yes, _that_ Roswell)
[mailto:mporter@zianet.com]
Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's within walking
distance.
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