The flanges for the rear axle hub will be a tight slip fit onto the axle body, this way once I position them they should stay relatively square, however once welded the machine shop will take a final pass to finish up the surfaces so that the wheel and pulley/rotor will be perpendicular with the axle rotation.
They will also be ordering up all of the steel that I will need for the project, as they have better connections than I do and I have been having trouble finding a couple of sizes that are needed for the project.With MIG a little bit of 'coffee-shake' works well for getting a nice bead, while with TIG you want to be rock-solid steady and work in a dead-straight line. It is a bit tougher due to the fact that your other hand has to be feeding in the filler material consistantently as well. But in the end if you do it right nothing looks as good as a TIG weld...
This is a pricy mono-shock but has tons of adjustments to it, from spring tension to dampening. My thoughts is that since the rear is controlled by a single shock/spring combo that only the best would do.
Above are pics of the shock unit. The twist ties ensure that the rubber end bushings stay in place...
Here is the machine shop that I used: ArrowHead Machine Works (Todd Deahl) : 304-789-6490.
I will be welding on the flanges onto the rear axle hub, once done it goes back to machine shop for final machining to ensure that all surfaces run true! Due to other plans will do the welding next week, taking this weekend off to visit friends.
Above is shot of all parts produced. Rear suspension page will have additional close ups.
Basically from top to bottom, left to right are:
- swing arm pivot tube
- rear axle hub
- intermediate shaft
- rear axle shaft
- swing arm pivot shaft
- front upper A-arm brackets
- swing arm pivot bearing holders
- spacers for axles
- rear flange for wheel mounting
- rear swing arm shock spacer
- rear flange for pulley/rotor
- rear brake disc spacer (goes between the rear pulley and rotor)
I would have thought that this error would have been caught by now...
The plans call out for a 3/8" spherical bearing, this is used for brake balance bar arrangement (Fig 5.17), since I am not going this route it is not needed. I plan on using a single master cylinder (make yet to be determined).
I MIG welded the flanges as it is *far* easier than trying to TIG weld a flange to a round shaft, one hand to hold the torch. Need one for the filler rod, one foot for the remote foot pedal and nothing to rotate the shaft as you weld it. You could weld a section, rotate it and weld, rotate it and so on, but I think that you get a better quality weld by doing it all in one pass. Make up some simple Vee blocks out of plywood to hold the whole thing so that it rotates easily as you weld, be sure to turn up the juice so that you get good penetration!
Also today I cut up all the parts needed to weld together the engine subframe. Rather than butt weld everything and then go back and fill in the empty voids in the 'empty' ends of the tubing, I cut all of the mating parts at a 45 degree angle so that when welded they will not have open ends and be neater in the long run.
I have to drill the holes for the pillow blocks as well as the swing arm mounts before I can weld it all together.
Before you start welding be sure that you have a good flat table to work off from. I have a metal table that was left at the house when I bought it, the table surface is not very flat so what I did is to lay on top of it a large piece of 1/2" thick aluminum plate. It makes a good flat surface to work off from, you can also use this technique with a wood workbench, just make sure that it is stable. You can clamp your parts directly onto the plate to help hold them as you are welding, use a carpenters square to setup the parts and don't rely solely on the cuts being accurate for alignment, when done whole assembly should be flat and square.