fot
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: pictures

To: "'Jack W. Drews'" <vinttr4@geneseo.net>
Subject: RE: pictures
From: Bill Babcock <BillB@bnj.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:49:47 -0800
No crank trigger, just a Mallory. 

You've hit on one of the puzzles of this car. Does everything work so well
because it was planned this way or was it luck. I think it's a bit of both.
The car has 50 50 weight distribution--both front to back and diagonally.
It's s within a few pounds of perfect with me standing in the seat.  

The trailing arm rear suspension geometry is nearly perfect. It applies a
lot of force to the upper arms which has resulted in beating out the rubber
mounts and breaking one of the mounts, but it works extremely well. This
year I'm using steering links for the arms instead of the rubber mounted
arms. We'll see how that works. 

The roll centers front and rear are within a few inches of each other. The
front suspension was kind of screwed up, but all it took was tweaking. 

I think Bill Ames was pretty sharp, and Pat Starr (who "restored" it and mad
a lot of improvements at the same time) was even sharper. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack W. Drews [mailto:vinttr4@geneseo.net] 
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 6:05 AM
To: Bill Babcock
Subject: RE: pictures

At 11:16 PM 1/2/2005, you wrote:
>The spring mounting position is as Bill Ames built it (or it might have 
>been Pat Starr).

Amusing. Double trailing arms have to have the right geometry to work
properly -- either those guys were really lucky or they were more astute
than I've given them credit for.

>I'm not sure what you're talking about on the block--perhaps just my 
>homemade mounting brackets for my engine stand.

Yes, that's what it is. Part of my curiosity was due to my interest in the
possibility of a crank-fired ignition system sensing off of the ring gear
teeth. Just one of those idle moment musings that would make an interesting
engineering project.



uncle jack 

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • RE: pictures, Bill Babcock <=