Thread: suicide front end

Tweet

I noticed the reversed spindles too---That is not something that I would do, and I would not recommend that anyone else do. If you just reverse the spindles from side to side, it screws the Ackerman up big time. I would run the spindles in their stock positions, with the tie rod behind the axle.

Okay? Whats ackerman?

The short answer is it is the geometry that causes the inside wheel to turn a little further than the outside wheel, which gives you good control on turns.
When you put the arms in front, it does just the opposite, and the tires sort of skid through the turns

Because T buckets traditionally have no room for the arms to go behind the axle, because of the springs and perch occupying this space, the arms have to go in front. I read where Total Performance arms are engineered to correct this problem, but I can't see how, looking at the set we used.

What dictates if you have correct ackerman is if you drew a line from the center of your rear axle housing to the center of your spindle kingpin, it should pass through the center hole of the arm, where the tierod bolts on.

Perhaps one of our computer experts can post a drawing of this, as they so often do, to help understand the principle.

Don

Here ya go.

Just got to add, with over 6k on a TP 23 the front end is A+, NEVER have had a problem, even with the skinnies up front, and the MT's in the rear.

Looking at your picture (very nice bucket, by the way) I see how Total Performance did it. See how the arms go clear out to the sides? If you drew that imaginary line like in Bob's diagram, and extended it to where the tie rod is now positioned, it still is within that triangle. They have bent the arms so far outboard that they are in that plane.

They could accomplish this because of the smallish disc brakes they use. For those of us running drums, it is impossible to do this, without hitting the backing plate.

So, if I can't find clearance behind the axle for the arms and tierod, I am going to be forced to use the stock spindles turned around backwards, and just see how it works out.

Don