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Old November 28th 2005, 09:56
GS guy GS guy is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Maryland
Posts: 113
PS: Jason,

The correct location for the tie rod/toe link is on a line that extends from the tie rod connection point at the spindle - that is the exact center of the "ball joint" of the tie rod end - to the virtual swing arm vertex point. The VSA vertex is determined by using a front view (or maybe rear view in your case) of the as-built suspension geometry.

The short version is: remembering you're working from the actual pivot point centers (which may or may not be directly in-line with the suspension members!) - you draw a straight line from the lower spindle (main) ball joint through the lower chassis a-arm pivot point, extending out the other side of the car. Now draw another line that passes through the upper strut pivot point and is 90 degrees to the strut axis (or more accurately 90 degrees to the line that passes through the upper and lower strut pivot points, the exact centers of those joints). Where those lines cross is the VSA vertex and will determine your roll center among other things. Going back to the tie rod - it should fall on another line that crosses that (imaginary) vertex point, but coming from the tie rod joint "center" at the spindle. You have to plot everything out on paper to determine these imaginary points, but the tough thing is doing the measurements from the chassis itself - to figure out where these points actually are in space! I just spent the better part of this past weekend doing just that on my aftermarket Mustang II suspension parts, to be able to reverse-engineer the design and create the proper pick-up points on my tube chassis buggy.

Cheers,
Jeff
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