Back about a year ago or so, I had concerns about the stay bars from the diff to the suspension crossmember -
Sparky's winter/spring/summer/autumn work
Currently there’s a piece of 40mm x 20mm box section bolted each side of the diff. These are connected to the suspension cross member by stay bars which have a rose joint at the diff end (inside the box section) and clevis pins at the cross member end which connect to adjustable M14 studs passing through two tubes welded into the cross member.
The suspension cross member appears to be twisting so time to check it out.
I’ve been sat at home during lockdown, and have been playing with some ideas.
All will become clear
I’ve got a few bits together and have now started making up brackets etc
I have some 40 x 20 box so have made some new bits for the side of the diff, as I don’t need the cut out for the rose joint now
Instead of a rose joint, I have decided to fit a rubber bush to attach the stay bar to the box section, but this will have to be set into the box section somehow, as I don't want it hanging down underneath too much.
I have found some rubber bushes but they have a 16mm hole and I don’t want an M16 bolt through it so have made up a couple of sleeves from some 16x2mm tube. This is a very tight fit and now gives me a 12mm fixing hole.
And bonded a couple of 1mm thick washers to the outside to get some clearance. I then made up a couple of ends for the stay bars to weld some M14 bar to.
I welded the studding onto the end, then added a short piece of 18x2 tube and welded that on as well – that should be strong enough, even if it’s not too pretty
I did manage to cut out one of the brackets from some 2mm plate and will beat it into shape and weld it as soon as I have some more time.
So two jobs under way, replacing the stay bars with something less problematic - my thinking here is that if I work out where the circle of where the diff is trying to turn, and make the stay bar a tangent of that circle (i.e. at a right angle to the radius of said circle) it should make it work better. Also, I am going to do away with the clevis pin arrangement and pass the stay bar through the tubes in the cross member.
Secondly, I am going to mount the cross member better, so it cannot twist.
Richard