American Motors Xperimental full frame

[Ron S]

Another clutch-less dog style trans?

Robert

No its a Quicktime bell (Thanks Payton), and a new Magnum T56. This going to be more of a driving car (with 335's on the front)LOL

[Ron S]

Got the fins welded on the Dana cover, had more time straightening the cover then I did making and welding the brackets.

[racin66coupe]

what are those for? ( sorry for the dumb question..)

[Ron S]

They will get a series of holes on them, and the watts football will mount to them and should have several inches of adjustment up and down.

[monteboy84]

Just something to think about, but from track experience with torque arm cars, we've found that swinging front mounts like this tend to produce bind under throttle. Basically, as the rearend is trying to drive forward on the angle of the lower links, the torque arm is trying to pull its front link into a straight vertical position. So, once the link is vertical, things are all bound-up. That said, because of this action, we found it to work best when the angle on the link was such that the top was further to the rear of the car than the bottom.

What I've been mulling over on the TA suspension design I'm currently working on is to use a sliding front mount, to look very similar to leaf spring sliders that are used in place of shackles. If it's primarily a street-car though, probably won't make a noticeable difference.

With all that said, your build vision, speed, and quality never cease to amaze me, I'm truly in awe of what you do. Can't wait to see the finished product on this one.

-matt

[John Wright]

Ron left the fan and heater core in this car....LOL

This thing looks tough sitting over those huge steam rollers. Amazing stuff.

[preston]

>Its funny Andrew, the engine and tran are level, and the pinion angle os 0, the drive shaft at ride height will be just about level (no >problem). Now trying to make that body look somewhat good (problem), hoping I can pull it off.

I have the same issue, with 0 pinion angle my driveshaft is only 0.5 degrees angled up to the transmission. Seems to work fine, but twice now in the past 2 years I have finished a track day to encounter a loud rhythmic banging sound at driveshaft speed - sounds like there is missing tooth in the rear end or something. It seemd to go away after replacing the front u-joint. So you may or may not find that there is not enough u-joint angle for them to be healthy (remember how they tell us a u-joint with no angle in it will quickly wear). My driveline guy kind of scoffs at my theory but that is what I have observed. I am waiting for the next "failure" before claiming this is really what is happening (the current "failures" have been too far apart and punctuated by other problems).

If/when it happens again, I may try to raise the back of the trans a 1/4" to see if that helps.

Just one more thing to worry about.

BTW I drove my car on the freeway with 335 Toyos instead of the usual 285 Michelins and other than noticing the "weight" fo the front end package it wasn't bad, ie the dartiness/wandering didn't seem any worse.

[Ron S]

>Its funny Andrew, the engine and tran are level, and the pinion angle os 0, the drive shaft at ride height will be just about level (no >problem). Now trying to make that body look somewhat good (problem), hoping I can pull it off.

I have the same issue, with 0 pinion angle my driveshaft is only 0.5 degrees angled up to the transmission. Seems to work fine, but twice now in the past 2 years I have finished a track day to encounter a loud rhythmic banging sound at driveshaft speed - sounds like there is missing tooth in the rear end or something. It seemd to go away after replacing the front u-joint. So you may or may not find that there is not enough u-joint angle for them to be healthy (remember how they tell us a u-joint with no angle in it will quickly wear). My driveline guy kind of scoffs at my theory but that is what I have observed. I am waiting for the next "failure" before claiming this is really what is happening (the current "failures" have been too far apart and punctuated by other problems).

If/when it happens again, I may try to raise the back of the trans a 1/4" to see if that helps.

Just one more thing to worry about.

BTW I drove my car on the freeway with 335 Toyos instead of the usual 285 Michelins and other than noticing the "weight" fo the front end package it wasn't bad, ie the dartiness/wandering didn't seem any worse.

I can't remember what is in your car for rear suspension Preston, I know the torque arms or truck arms for that matter should probably be alittle harder on front U joints due to the fixed rear suspension mount, and the fact that the joints never sink the way Spicer and alike say they have to. Never had any issues with the Mustang, but I seem to change the car so much, I never give it a chance to wear out. I never thought about it, but 0 on everthing may have the U joints wearing in only one spot, something else to think about.LOL

[RS_Customs]

From what I remember 3-5 degrees combined opposing angles is what you after to keep them in the good zone and the vibration down.

I use to have a good link saved but can't find it. So I did a quick search, there is a lot of stuff out there on it. Here are a couple links if you get bored, lol.

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/91758/index.html

http://www.drivelinespecialist.com/Tech1.htm

Robert

[tazzz25906112]

Congrats another killer build buddy,,,,, guess we'll need another one of those quick 2 hour conversation we seem to enjoy... I'm going though event withdrawals already ;-),,, how about you? LOL....

[Ron S]

Congrats another killer build buddy,,,,, guess we'll need another one of those quick 2 hour conversation we seem to enjoy... I'm going though event withdrawals already ;-),,, how about you? LOL....

I'm right there with ha brotha, I wanta go fast!!!!

[sr73bu]

Great Job Ron! Amazing fab work and creativity!

-Sean

[johngross]

Well if you don't wish to change the angles maybe you could lathe a set of babbit bushings and replace the rollers in the u joints. The rollers are for allowing less wear on moving parts but on relatively non moving (cap to crosspiece) parts, it might work. Besides you like to be different.

[Ron S]

Down bars are done, the door bars are next, and then the rear of the car is going to get real busy with tubing.

[coolwelder62]

The cage look's outstanding.

[RS_Customs]

Can't wait to see the chassis and cage setup with the body pulled back off. Should be a mean looking go-cart lol.

Robert

[Rybar]

Pretty cool build Ron, looks like you have alot fans with your scratch build style. I know I am one myself

[DCPerformance]

Another odd view

I love this pic, be neat to have this view with the body off. HINT HINT

[linkstar69]

Just great work Ron, like the others have said I too really enjoyed the mustang and as a mopar guy I really like the out side of the box nature of the Amc.
I'll enjoy watching how you build the watts link set up, I put one under my 69 dart to take the job of locating the axle away from the leaves, but I just adapted some late model ford stuff to do it, nothing custom like you're doing.

[Ron S]

Getting closer on the cage, and got most of the watts laid out. Have an X that goes between the watts links, and the door bars, and she'll be coming back home.