heim joint ends on trailing arms to get camber - linkpin

[uglydog56]

Tell me why I shouldn't do this.

I want more camber on the front of my link pin car. You can weld on a trailing arm. People weld braces on them, others lengthen them, all the time. A good 3/4 x 5/8 heim is rated to approximately 40,000# load. Side load is typically 10%, so that's 4000# I don't think I can make my car corner hard enough to exceed this. What engineering concept have I not factored in? I want to get a spare set of trailing arms, whack the ends off, weld on some dom tubing, put a heim insert in the end, bush it appropriately to accept the link pin pin, and have infinitely more camber adjustment, as well as caster adjustment, without binding.

[uglydog56]

Okay, I figured out why you can't do this. I'm slow, but I eventually get there. The link pins would flop forward and backward. They have to be rigid radially. Boo. I'm just going to heat/bend like everyone else.

[4agedub]

I have done this years ago on my swing axle link pin race car. Yes, you can get camber easy... but the arms simply bend too much. With a link pin it would actually bind up on itself and prevent the arm from moving further, where with the rode joint they can simply move.

We tried adding braces to the arms etc etc... then went back to link pin and simply bent the arms "blacksmith style" to get 3 degrees camber.

Even with the link pin setup the arms still bend. There is no real solution for this.

On this vid you can actually see the camber change quite a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5lokKO7TSk

[GoMopar440]

Ok, be honest now. You REALLY just wanted to use the camber issue topic as an excuse to post the video of you passing that Ferrari on the track with your Bug.

I would too if I had a vid like that to post. Very cool!

[4agedub]

Thats the only real vid I have where you can see the camber change

and yes... passing a Ferrari 458 on the outside of a high speed corner is pretty cool. The boost controller malfunctioned and it went to 21psi, I was so into chasing the Ferrari that I never checked the boost. It did feel pretty awesome though. Only saw the boost gauge on after turn 4 and backed out of it. Motor thankfully still in one piece even though the logger showed 14.0 afr at 21psi

[Piledriver]

Now need a rear camera, a pic of the face of that Ferrari driver would have been classic.

I'm visualizing something between disbelief and awe.

They add stiffeners for extra travel, possible for lateral forces?
Tried adding strain gauges to see what areas bend most?

[4agedub]

We have tried adding support links to the bottom of the arm, it does help a little... but due to the radius of travel it does bind up.




The other problem we found is that the pan head does flex as well, to tried to cure this by tieing the shock towers to the roll cage and addes braces at the bottom (like the offroad guys) that ties to the pan.



The next step would've been to try a ball joint beam and see if it holds up any better. The car handles exceptionally well, but there is room for improvment.

So instead of spending more time on the link pin chassis be started building a super.

[Piledriver]

I finally registered that you dusted that Ferrari with a swing axle car...
FJCamper will love that.

(somehow managed not to instantly equate kingpin with swing axle, its almost 6AM and well past even my bedtime)