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..... Rear Suspension Part III the Inner Lever Arm


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After completing the outer lever arm on the suspension tube I made the inner arm. I took 4 pieces of 1/8 X 4 inch strap and clamped them together and drilled 5/8 inch holes one inch apart starting 8 inches up and out to the 16 inch position on the arm.

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Then I took one of the above pieces and put a 2 inch hole in the one end and tapered it from 3 1/2 inches wide at the base to about 2 1/2 inches wide at the top. Using that piece as a pattern I cut the other three pieces as close as I could to that shape with the torch. Then I bolted all of them together and ground them around the edges to the same shape and enlarged the hole in all of them to a 2 inch diameter.

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That gave me 4 pretty identical pieces. Two for one side of the car and two for the other side.


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I clamped a temporary piece of strap to the crossmember at 90 degrees. I used that to tack weld one of the arm pieces to the suspension tube both 90 degrees to the tube and to the crossmember.

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Then using temporary pieces of 3/4" thick wood I clamped the second arm to the first arm and tack welded it to the tube.

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Next I finished welding the two arms to the tube both inside and outside the arms around the tube. Then I wrapped a piece of 1/8th inch strap around and between the two arms and welded it all together. Thus the arm is 1 inch wide on the outside.

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Here is the tube with the two lever arms installed. The holes will give me options on the ratio of the movement at the hub vs. the shock movement and spring movement. I probably don't need this many options, but I'm really unsure what springs rates will work best and what damping will work best. I hope to buy a shock and spring at about the middle of what I feel will work and then be able to fine tune them to what is best by moving them up or down on the inner lever arm. The spring will mount in front of the arm and the shock to the rear of the arm, so they will be able to be moved independently of each other.
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