tigers
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: Suspension

To: Theo Smit <tsmit@home.com>, tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Suspension
From: Bob Palmer <rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 13:25:10 -0800
Theo,

Oh boy!! Maybe there's the makings of a real technical controversy here! I 
thought how it worked was pretty obvious, but I guess not. I'm kind of 
wrapped around the axle myself right now, but I'll read your analysis more 
carefully first chance I have. Maybe some real Mechanical Engineer types 
can opine in on this one too. Dan's original article on his torque arm 
appeared in the August '91 issue of Tiger Tales. In it he makes the 
following comment: "There is another minor bad side effect. If you try to 
back up in a BIG HURR"Y, you get severe wheel hop, a very small price to 
pay for its benefits." I submit without proof at this point that the very 
reason the torque arm transfers weight to the rear wheels during 
acceleration is the same reason it transfers weight to the front during 
deceleration (or backing up). We all know that ladder bars lift the front 
end of a drag car under acceleration. Since the total weight of the car 
doesn't change, then less weight in front means more weight in back. A 
single ladder bar in the center would do the same thing I believe. Now we 
have something very similar to the Dan Walters torque arm, EXCEPT that 
Dan's arm is captured in the bushing, so it pushes down just as well as 
pushing up as the axle rotates.


Brgds,

Bob
Robert L. Palmer
UCSD, Dept. of AMES
619-822-1037 (o)
760-599-9927 (h)
rpalmer@ucsd.edu
rpalmer@cts.com


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>