Mopar Reverse Trike

Nice

Are you going with a single arm in the rear?

As I have said [P[P

soltz said:

Are you going with a single arm in the rear?

As I have said [P[P

Click to expand...

Yeah, just need to configure some kind of side support for stability. Probably weld another mounting point onto the arm so that the end that mounts to the frame is a "Y" shape.

One thing to consider is that the single wheel/arm will be subject to twice the sideways force when turning. The original arm, used as two points in mounting, had the forces split between the two so that one complimented the other making both stronger by splitting the load forces. Another thing, it will be a different kind of side force, since there is only one tire, it will be trying to lay down, or slide sideways. If it tries to lay down, it will add arm twist into the equation.

Not trying to discourage ya, just want you to look at how much force will be on the rear wheel when turning a curve or corner.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I may have to try something beefier along these lines.

...................[P

That looks mo better!

I stripped all the 1985 emission crap off and power washed the drive train to start mocking things up. Unbelievable how much junk they used in the mid 80's; tons of vacuum lines, smog pump, electric carb, etc, etc. My plan is to go with the early vacuum advance distributor and a Weber progressive 2 barrel carb to keep it simple. Iv'e got the power train sitting in the frame and the spindles on the lower control arms, now I can start fabbing some engine mounts.

Hey, how's it going in Missouri? Wondering how the project is coming along. I know that you have already done most or all of this part of the job, but I've been thinking about how a person could use the original frame to get the correct positions for all of the suspension & engine mounts (since with a FWD you can't change the relationship between the two very much, if at all). I was thinking that if you measured the frame to ground position at several points prior to cutting the car apart, you could determine the original positions of each of the mounting areas as far as how they relate to the plane of the roadway. Once that was done, I'd mount the original frame to some sort of frame rack or table, then build brackets (fastened down to the frame rack or table) which would mount to each of the mounting positions. Then you could remove the original frame, position the new frame on the table at the desired road height & stance, and just weld in frame mounts that would mount up correctly to those predetermined positions. That should get everything back in its proper position in relation to each other, and to the roadway plane. I originally thought of this in relation to getting the front clip (sheet metal) properly positioned after a front frame clip. (I saw a 46 DeSoto with a late model front frame clip several decades ago, and realized that it would be difficult to get the sheet metal back into proper position without some sort of guide like that. In that case, I thought that a person could build a sort of template that would attach to the hood hinge mount positions, or some place else on the firewall, and then attach positioning brackets to that to get the proper location for the radiator support bracket, and any other mounting points. If the body is off of the frame, it would be even better to build this off of mounting points on the rear section of the frame itself, as there can be some adjustments or variation in the frame to body mounts.)

Anyway, I'm also interested in how you designed the proper upper control arm to replace the struts. That's one part that could not just be transferred over from the original suspension design.

That's more or less how I did it. I haven't touched it in a while; I'm in the process of putting a big block in my 49 Plymouth. But I'll get back to it eventually.

Glad to hear that everything is OK with you.

How about the upper control arm, have you designed that yet?

No, I've been tossing around the idea of just going back with the factory Omni strut and building a bracket for it. Still pondering that one.

falconvan said:

No, I've been tossing around the idea of just going back with the factory Omni strut and building a bracket for it. Still pondering that one.

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Maybe it can be disguised somewhat by making the strut tower bracket the headlight support. But then maybe that would push the head lamps too far back. (I'm assuming that if you mount fenders on the front at all, you will want them mounted to the backing plate, so they move w/ the wheel. So that would kinda' need to occupy the same space as the strut tower, right?)

I'm going to be building a glass body so if it does have fenders I would probably make them stationary. Once I do get back on it I will probably work on getting the drivetrain mounted and building a more sturdy swing arm for the rear.