Post by enigmas on Apr 24, 2015 10:55:58 GMT
There's always been quite a bit of discussion on the Board with regard to the P5s suspension, both front and rear. Currently there's a major focus on the rear suspension metalastic bushes which do double duty as both a suspension 'noise' isolator and a rear leaf spring shackle. Given the various commentaries I thought it might be interesting to highlight some alternatives and or modifications to the rear suspension.
A while back I was looking at Winston Sewell's hotrod P5 coupe and came across some photos of the rear suspension. He seems to have retained the original rear leaf spring setup including the rear metalastic bushes. Given how he uses the car at times (extensive burn outs) ladder bars have been fitted to the diff housing and run forward to a transverse tube which is most likely welded in alignment with the front spring pivot points. The ladder bars transmit all the torque forward taking the load for power delivery away from the springs which are allowed to function purely as a suspension medium. There doesn't seem to be a panhard rod fitted to help locate the diff laterally, but I doubt the car is designed for high speed cornering. From what I can see of the bushes used on the ladder bars at the diff brackets there may be some binding on turns. If the forward points where the ladder bars pivot were triangulated there would be negligible to nil bind (but I'm surmising as I can't see the front pivot points clearly)
Interestingly there doesn't seem to be any allowance for leaf spring extension and contraction during suspension movement, although there may be some allowance for it built into system. Perhaps only the rear section of the spring flexs. The usual method for leaf springs and ladder bars is to have a 'roller' system that allows slight movement back and forth at the centre bolt location of the spring.
A while back I was looking at Winston Sewell's hotrod P5 coupe and came across some photos of the rear suspension. He seems to have retained the original rear leaf spring setup including the rear metalastic bushes. Given how he uses the car at times (extensive burn outs) ladder bars have been fitted to the diff housing and run forward to a transverse tube which is most likely welded in alignment with the front spring pivot points. The ladder bars transmit all the torque forward taking the load for power delivery away from the springs which are allowed to function purely as a suspension medium. There doesn't seem to be a panhard rod fitted to help locate the diff laterally, but I doubt the car is designed for high speed cornering. From what I can see of the bushes used on the ladder bars at the diff brackets there may be some binding on turns. If the forward points where the ladder bars pivot were triangulated there would be negligible to nil bind (but I'm surmising as I can't see the front pivot points clearly)
Interestingly there doesn't seem to be any allowance for leaf spring extension and contraction during suspension movement, although there may be some allowance for it built into system. Perhaps only the rear section of the spring flexs. The usual method for leaf springs and ladder bars is to have a 'roller' system that allows slight movement back and forth at the centre bolt location of the spring.