Quote:
Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy
Thanks. I had a co-worker tell me the same thing about the saddles, and although I can see where he's coming from, I had to disagree. To me, the locating pins serve a few purposes. First, they index the control arm at a certain location in relation to the center crossmember, which in turn, helps establish the factory-spec'd caster angle. Plus, they ensure that the rotation of the control arm occurs at the control arm bushing and not on the circumference of the shaft. If the rotation occurs at the circumference of the shaft instead of the control arm bushing, it will wear grooves in the shaft at the contact point with the saddles. If it wears excessively, then the shaft will become sloppy and wear out the other suspension components prematurely . True, the saddles/U-bolts hold the shafts tightly, but during the constant abuse that the suspension sees during normal use, they help to keep the lower control arms from moving from front to aft. If the control arm was only secured using the u-bolts/saddles and hit something hard directly on the forward face of the control arm, it could move the arm back slightly, changing the alignment. I may be over-thinking it, but I think the locating pins serve a very important function.
|
I think you are right. Friction joints are only as strong as the suface tension of the material and the clamping force of the bolts that hold them. So the pins obviously serve the triple function of positively locating the arm/rod assembly for steering geometry, and giving the rod a positive mechanical connection to the frame to prevent the rod from rotating, and to help it withstand logitudinal stresses.
My question is, will we experience undesirable toe-out on turns readings by taking the steering arm on the spindle out of alignment with the pitman arm/center link/idler arm assembly?
It seems to me that given the triangular geometry we will create by doing this, the outer wheel will want to turn at a greater angle than design, while the inner wheel will want to turn at a lesser angle.
The setup of my 1982 C10 is shown, with the steering linkage in front of the wheel center axis.
Your thoughts?
Mike