Part drawings?

Hello,
My name is Craig and I am an engineer.

OK, now that that is out of the way I am interested in doing some pretty crazy things like completely build my own frame. I can handle the structural strength calculations, but I want to use off the shelf suspension parts. I would like to plan ahead rather than just go to a junkyard and take measurements. Does anyone know where I can find engineering drawing of parts like spindles, rear ends, engine blocks etc. I don't mean the full package but enough dimensions that I could decide whther the part would work for what I want...

A dealership "service" manual would be the first place to look, but be prepaired to pay a fortune for it. Several hundred dollars would be considered cheap. The dealership might not even want to sell it to you so you may have to ask around. Chances are they wont have one for anything over 10 years old, also.

Would those just be exploded parts diagrams or would they have actual dimensions on them? For example, I am trying to decided what spindle I should use given a particular double A-arm geometry...

It's hard to say. I have one for my dirtbike and it does have a few dimensions, but it's mostly blowups. I have used real engineering manuals for things like Coffin feed pumps, Terry turbines, GE generators, and GE turbines. Even those don't have dimensions on their drawings. In fact, the only manual I have read with dimensions for everything was a Babcock and Wilcox boiler manual that included the orignial build drawings.

See if you can track down a factory rep and ask him. They should have access to blueprints.

Welcome to CHR, Craig. Why reinvent the wheel??? The geometry for the Mustang 2 type front ends is very easy to copy if you want to build your own pieces. The time and equipment necessary to build all your own components could quite possibly exceed the cost of the available suspension packages sold by numerous vendors.........

Craig---I too am a design engineer, and have been building hotrods for close to 40 years. You will not find drawings like you are talking about----anywhere!!! There may have been proper engineering drawings of all autoparts at one time, but they were all propietary, and never released to the public. The only drawings available are "envelope" drawings of components giving maximum overall sizes that are put out by aftermarket parts suppliers, but nothing that you could incorporate into a design drawing. Get out your tape measure and join the rest of us.

Dave, thanks. I am trying NOT to reinvent the wheel by figuring out what off the shelf parts would work best BEFORE i go to the junkyard.

Brian, thanks for the definitive answer. I guess I have to settle on some parts before I start the design.