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  • #76
    As always, if some is good more is better!

    Dan

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    • #77
      Originally posted by DanStokes View Post
      As always, if some is good more is better!

      Dan
      And too much is just enough. Or as we used to say in Dan & Dave's Home for Wayward Wrecks, A job worth doing, is worth overdoing!

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      • #78
        Finally figured out the rear shock mounts. And the only cutting on the body will be 2 holes, 1 3/4 inches in diameter. I'm going to wait to hole saw them until the body is fully mounted to the frame. So here's the mounts, tack welded so far (I've got a marathon of finish welding ahead...).
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        It's easier to see what's going on on the left side picture (so shoot me for not being good with cameras). The horizontal top tube inserts thru a sleeve in the frame and will bolt in from the inner end. It slides into the sleeve up to a stop collar (still to be made. Hey I'm old and slow). The diagonal is at 30 degrees from vertical and welds to the underside of the tube, bracing it from bending and rotating. It only looks like it hits the shock top. The shock is cantilevered in front of the mount by 1 inch. Yes this means single shear and bending loads and a torque acting on the horizontal tube. No it is not beyond the load limits of the materials being used. Why you rightly ask?

        Well the future may include a change to Koni shocks. They have spherical bearing ends, not poly bushings. If I made the mounts in double shear, it would require some rework to mount the Konis. This way they will bolt right in, and only require using a lower mounting point for the lower ends to maintain ride height. Ideal? No, but practical and designed to withstand anticipated loads with an assumed safety factor.

        I know, "When you assume something, you make an ass out of u and me". This mounting is almost identical to what I used 40 odd years ago on the dirt modifieds, but now I know how to calculate the loads, stresses, and failure stresses. So I feel comfortable with my design.

        So the final design issue was to make the lower end of the brace removable so it will allow the tube to slide out of the sleeve. I was way overthinking it. It's in the training of engineers you know. So thinking like a mechanic who needs to get it out the door, I took 2 tabs that weld to the vertical square tube, and a single 1/4 inch thick tab welded into a slot cut into the diagonal tube, captured between the first 2 tabs, and a bolt thru all 3. There, I put this bolt in double shear. Ha, see I can do something right.

        Now when I can crawl around on the floor, I'll do some more welding. Until then it's time to start moving the front eyes for the rear axle down a couple of inches, and fabricating the new right side torque arm/locating link.

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        • #79
          Seems great to me. Remember than many factory shocks have one end or the other (or both ends) in single sheer and it's rarely an issue so I think yours will be fine.

          Dan

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          • #80
            Originally posted by DanStokes View Post
            Seems great to me. Remember than many factory shocks have one end or the other (or both ends) in single sheer and it's rarely an issue so I think yours will be fine.

            Dan
            Well you know what we say "A job worth doing...", but I think from looking at the loads and moments I can reasonably expect that this design should hold up. There will be 2 rubber snubbers between the frame and the rear axle, mostly for bottoming out, but will also double as emergency backup suspension, should anything fail. And also there is only 3 inches of bump travel from ride height. That's where the bump rubbers will be fully compressed.Think of those axle snubbers Dodges and Plymouths used with the leaf spring rear suspenions in the muscle car era.

            A side benefit of those being set like that is I will have a progressive spring rate so I can use soft rear springs. No pogo sticking this way. Soft springs tend to give better grip and handling so if I take it to an AutoX, it should work good, or at least as good as a beam axle, buggy sprung front allows. And if it has issues with the front suspension with the buggy spring, well I can easily convert to coil overs up front. Then I have the same choice for springs, and bump stops on the shocks work the same way as those snubbers in the rear.

            I know, an engineer can never just let it go...As I learned many years ago at the research firm "Better is the enemy of Good Enough!".

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            • #81
              "There comes a point in the life of every project when you have to shoot the engineer and begin production." Said many times about C. Don Paulsell.......

              Dan

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              • #82
                I like to call it Analysis Paralysis!
                http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...-consolidation
                1.54, 7.31 @ 94.14, 11.43 @ 118.95

                PB 60' 1.49
                ​​​​​​

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                • #83
                  Originally posted by Russell View Post
                  I like to call it Analysis Paralysis!
                  You got that right!

                  As an engineering student, I was a non-traditional student, going to college at 27 years old, after 10 years being an industrial mechanic/millwright. I had built and raced dirt modifieds for those years as well. Plus street machines, Jeeps with engine swaps (well 1 Jeep with 4 engines before 1 lived).

                  So some of the indoctrination that happens in college didn't work on me. Then the first position at a research firm, where a priority was meeting contractual obligations, was great training. Any given month I might work on between 10 to 15 projects. And then we had government mandated training on what the government expected from us. The trainer was the one who came up with that phrase "Better is...". And he said if you remember nothing else from this week's training, remember that phrase. Hell, I remember that phrase and nothing else about the course, not even the guys name. For that matter I don't even remember breakfast

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                  • #84
                    Originally posted by dave.g.in.gansevoort View Post

                    "Better is...". :
                    This works great in the networking world as well. My day job is as a Network Engineer and I cannot agree more with that statementt.

                    My favorite saying is once something is running well enough for production networks is to back away from the house of cards.

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                    • #85
                      Notice that Dave G didn't comment on the "Shoot the engineer" comment! Hits too close to home. But to be fair Dave was always super practical at getting on with the project especially compared to most of the enginerds I worked with.

                      Dan

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                      • #86
                        Originally posted by DanStokes View Post
                        Notice that Dave G didn't comment on the "Shoot the engineer" comment! Hits too close to home. But to be fair Dave was always super practical at getting on with the project especially compared to most of the enginerds I worked with.

                        Dan
                        Well I was one of only 2 enginerds that Lenny liked! And you know that was quite an accomplishment...

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                        • #87
                          As posted somewhere here before.......


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                          • #88
                            It's a sickness! We can't help ourselves... Like Dilbert, we have the "Knack".

                            On the other hand, I don't trust computers, like most modern engineers. I still write out the equations and run them by hand, well by HP calculator, RPN. If you don't know, I'll keep you guessing

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                            • #89
                              Got one sitting beside me on the 'puter desk. Once you get on to it it's the only way to fly.

                              Dan

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                              • #90
                                HP 41 by any chance? I remember when I started surveying, it was practically a prerequisite.

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