John;
A torque-tube driveshaft solves the problem, too.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: John Burk [mailto:joyseydevil@comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 12:39 PM
To: land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: rear suspention
Most cars with sprung rears have one or both of these problems . (1) Too
much rear roll stiffness (to overcome the effects of drive shaft torque) or
(2) unequal rear wheel loading under acceleration (due to drive shaft
torque) . Both problems make a car more spin prone . Normally the remedy for
oversteer is add front roll stiffness or reduce it in the rear , not easy
when rear roll needs to be high . Independent rear suspension is one
solution . A simpler fix ; use a single torque arm a little to the right of
the drive shaft .The offset needs to be the torque arm length divided by the
ring & pinion ratio . With this design the torque arm exactly cancels the
undesirable effects of drive shaft torque , wheel loading stays equal under
acceleration or deceleration and roll stiffness can be as desired . The only
drawback is wheel loading is unequal under braking . Only the torque arm
should resist axel torque (single link on each side) and only the single
links should locate the rear front to rear . The front of the torque arm
needs to be free front to rear (slot or vertical link) so there is no torque
arm arc to fight with the side link arcs . Hope my description is clear
enough . John
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