As mentioned in the last entry, I've installed the rear suspension so that I can check for how the tyres will fit inside the guards. While I believed I measured things up ok (re-measured several times!), you never really know until everything is actually put in place.
Things like including the thickness of the disk brakes are a trap if you forget. And it all gets worse if you are running tight clearances to begin with.
So here are some shots of the RRS "3-Link" rear suspension after it has been put in place.
First a photo looking to the rear, showing the torque-arm as it's installed. This arm pivots from under the gearbox and doesn't let the diff' twist upwards/downwards (at all) as it would normally do when using the old leaf-springs.
And now you can see the location of the axle reasonably clearly, this time including the watts linkage. The long torque-arm doesn't bolt up to the diff housing directly, it bolts up to the face of the pinion support, and then has those "extender" bolts that bolt up to the flange of the diff casing. I used vernier calipers to accurately measure the "pinion face to diff case flange face" to make sure I set the "extenders to the correct distance. I also use spacers against the axle housing to mimic the thickness of the diff casing (flange thickness).
The photo below shows how tight things are with the 9" wide wheel rims (that have wider tyres as well). However, nothing touches thru the full suspension travel, or when one wheel lifts as the other drops (so the axle pivots).
The following photo is a bit ordinary but gives some idea as to how the car will look from behind with it's bigger rubber. In reality, it looks great!
And this photo shows the nice fit of the tyres in the wheel wells when the car is the right way up. Notice that the coil springs don't droop anywhere near as much as the old leaf springs.....
So that's it for the rear suspension. All I needed to do was get it "dummied up" and completed. Thankfully, only some very minor work was needed on the body. Being a long-weekend I just had enough time to remove the 9" housing, store all the 3-Link suspension pieces away and assemble the diff itself.
These next two photos show the Currie "9+" carrier installed in the housing.
What you can't see of course is the 35 spline Detroit Locker and big 35 spline axles.
As for weight, bloody-hell, this diff will drop about 2 tenth from an E.T. I would imagine. It isn't a feather weight! I will weigh it and put that weight in this blog entry. I just need a buddy to help me move it around!
So that's it for the rear suspension - it all seemed to bolt in ok. I had to make a few tweaks of course because my chassis wasn't perfectly original. But the result is extremely robust and should be fun to play with when tuning it to get the best performance out of it.
Next steps will be to work forwards from the doors on the shell to get it ready for paint.
