Project Chili Pepper

[TomT]

Tom,



What are you planning for the rest of the suspension? Since you are going this far it makes sense to really do something cool in the rear, like a watts link with either a torque arm or 3 link. If you are doing a 9" rear, I would also suggest setting up the housing in such a way that the pinion is centered in the chassis. Now would also be the time to determine your ride height and make sure that there will not be any issues with driveline angles.

Andrew

I realize how ridiculous this is going to sound but we're trying to keep this build as simple as possible. It's one thing to narrow the rear axle and frame rails by moving the LCA's inward and another thing entirely to engineer an entire suspension system. We already have DSE Swivel-Link control arms and we're going to use DSE's coilover kit as well. We have a DSE sway bar too but we'll probably have to have a narrower one bent up to fit the narrowed chassis. So basically it will pretty much have stock geometry in the rear but be better controlled and more adjustable.

I've been thinking about centering the pinion like you suggested. I wonder if any of the axle guys take that into account when they make a "direct fit" product? When we're ready for the rear, I was going to get in touch with Currie. I am hoping to buy an axle with the UCA brackets already welded in place and LCA brakets that are unwelded.

We're definately going to try to sort out the drivetrain angles. I'm pretty sure we're going to do 3 degrees down on the powertrain and 3 degrees up at the pinion (at ride height). We're also going to try to get the engine mounted so that the centerline from the crank to the tailshaft is at 90 degrees from the rear axle hub-to-hub centerline when viewed from above. Once the suspension and driveline are bolted up we'll drop the body back on to firm up ride height (among other things). Wow, that all sounds like a lot of work!