[Talon]

It has been a while since I have posted, not a lot of work done on the little car during that time, just head scratching and doodling. (I have gotten 14 cords of wood cut, bucked up , split and stacked for the stove though.) It is funny how you either have time or money, not both at the same time. The triple digit work weeks I have been having sure cut into the garage time.

I have sorted out the shifter issue I think. I built the linkages and it seems to work fine, but I didn't get any pictures of that system. I'll show you later when I remember to get pistures.

Here's what I have gotten done on the car. First, I determined two things: that the width of the engine cage was too wide for A-Arms and that the McPherson struts are too heavy. A-arms would either be about 4 inches long, or the rear track would have to be way too wide, like 7 foot. The struts are very heavy, the set out of my donor Ford Aspire, hubs/struts, weigh almost as much as the engine. That ain't a good use of weight.

Anyway, to make it work, I decided to slice the ends off of the engine cage and give myself enough space for a-arms, so that is what I am doing. Slicing about 10 inches off of the ends gives me enough room on the ends of the engine, and room for a-arms that are 13.5 inches long, enough for good suspension travel. I will sort out coil-over setup yet, probably horizontal. Upper a-arm is set up with heims at all three points. I used the DOM tubing and weld-in bungs this time, rather than threading the tube like I did on the front a-arms. I only made one so far, but I got the jig, so the second upper rear a-arm will be fairly quick the build.

I took a lot of persuading to get the hubs to seperate from the half-shafts. That was not easy, but I won in the end. Once seperated, I needed to modify the hub/bearing carrier a bit to fit my screw-in lower ball joints. A simple bracket was built for the top of the hub.

Next it is on to the lower rear a-arm, then repeat the steps on the other side.

It is getting to be fall, so hopefully I'll have more time to work on the little car. . .

TALON