Does anyone know what the angle on the trailing link joints are in relation to the link? I'm looking into some nylon joints for building my own trailing links. They are available in 7* and 11*. Will either of those be the right angle?
Blooze has widened the track width on his build so the numbers he has are probably not stock and wouldn't work for your application. Do you have a stock 88 trailing arm? You could just draw it out full scale and measure the angles with a protractor.
Thanks for your kind words there Katatak, and for the advice Fierobsessed, 'Guru, and 355. I am now seriously thinking about redesigning those strut adapters to take advantage of idea to regain some strut travel. That's something I would probably not have thought of on my own.
Well it’s been two weeks since I last posted an update here, but that’s not because I’ve been slacking off. I’ve been busy entering more digital drawings into my computer, saving lots of money not having to heat my shop much this winter.
If you’ve been following along, I realized early on that to design a new cradle for the N*/F40 combination would be silly if I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to study if improvements were possible as well. The problem with improvements is that you need to have a baseline from which to compare whether your modifications are indeed better or not. It sounds easy, but in reality, none of the Fiero engineering or technical data was released as far as I’m aware, so baseline geometry information remains a mystery to most of us. I hope to fill a little of that black hole by reverse engineering the drawings for the stock configuration as a starting point.
To start the ball rolling, I’ve decided to draw out all of the stock suspension components starting with the ’88 rear.
They are only available in an 11* shank offset. I think they may bind a little being that the stock trailing link angle is 12.5* Also looks like they are a 1/2" bore, the stock Fiero bolt is 14mm. So I don't think these will work.
[This message has been edited by Bridgetown (edited 10-07-2014).]
They are the key component that transmits impact loads (potholes and other road bumps) to the chassis. As such, having anything but rubber in these links increases the road harshness w/o any benefit in handling or braking... so why do it?
These links take the punishment of the road irregularities and see some pretty substantial impact loads. The less flexible the bushing it, the higher these impact loads will be. Since I am not aware of anyone breaking a stock trailing link (aware of 1 bolt that broke after a decade + of running poly) they are a pretty good design. If you want to replace the ends with something else, compare the wall thickness and weld bead size at the connection to the center tube between the two styles. If they are not the same or the new part isn't larger, then the new part is likely weaker than OEM (unless it is made of a much higher grade of material).
The pivot links you showed, have what looks like a 3/8 bolt at the pivot section. Once this pivot moves (and the suspension travel will make it move eventually) all the loads will be through that small bolt and it will eventually fail. You can only hope that the mounting tabs elongate and start making noise so you replace them before the bolt snaps and you are left with very little holding the wheel in place (front to back).
I'm pretty sure that the stock links are solid, not tubing. Solid aluminum might work -- tubing might break.
The stock trailing links are tubular with around 1/8" wall thickness in the main tube. I have a few cut open on the shelf that I can get more precise measurements from when I get back to town.
