Five Link Suspension Complete

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Finishing off work on the 5 link rear suspension. Panhard rod now in position and fully welded. This required me making up a bracket to mount it to the de-dion ears in double shear instead of single shear for extra safety in case the rod-ends fail. I also had to fit tube "Y" and fully weld before placing the chassis to panhard rod mount on top. All bolt holes drilled out to 1/2inch and "S" grade 1/2 inch UNF bolts fitted throughout to match the rod-ends. Numerous washers added as required. All rod-end tubes welded up.

Panhard rod axle mounting bracket

  

Overall view if rear axle link arrangement

Panhard rod chassis mounting bracket

Front view of rear axle arrangement

Rear Suspension Progress

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Just a quick update showing some recent progress:

Here you can see the chassis as it stands tonight. The main step forward is the addition of the trailing arms which are now fixed to the new chassis mountings (shown below in more detail). You can also see the transmission tunnel is virtually complete and I now have a steering column and rack which I hope to start work on soon.

 

Here is a close-up of the new chassis mounts which I've fabricated to attach the trailing arms to. As I've said before, most Locost's have their trailing arms outboard of the chassis but mine is inboard for reasons described earlier. They are made from 3mm steel plate welded to a 25mm SHS tube. I drilled the holes through both plates before welding to ensure that the holes were exactly in line. I then installed bolts to maintain alignment while welding. Lots of washers needed to achieve correct spacing just now but I intend to get spacers cut from some 1/2inch i/d tubing later.

Here is some detail of the diff mounting. You may notice that I have had to change the seat back chassis arrangement due to a problem with the trailing arms fouling tube O3 on full bump. I have only changed the driver's side so far so you can see what I'm doing. I intend to add a couple of extra braces between the point where the new diagonal tube meets the shortened tube O3 and the centre of tube O. This should give decent triangulation and hopefully give even more strength than the original design.

 

Cortina uprights sourced from a fellow builder assembled onto the wishbones.

One of the five Capri Laser (RS Style) (13x6J 19mm Offset) alloys which my Dad got for me. As I said earlier, these will probably not fit over the Sierra rear calipers so I'll probably end up selling them. Drop me an email if you are interested in buying them. They are all in similar condition to this one with tyres in various condition including one brand new one and this rather perished one which was flat on the car. The other three are legal but not by much (maybe 3mm). I have a full set of "loose nut" style wheel nuts for them. Make me an offer for them if interested (SOLD)

That's all for tonight but stay tuned because I'm on a roll. My aim is to have the chassis rolling by the end of June at the latest...maybe sooner!