De-Dion rear ends

[Sam_Q]

rms: I have been thinking about what you said and I think I can say that I can use the inertia alone if I am really vicious to make my car oversteer, otherwise its all power oversteer. I have previously helped that by changing the heigh of the back of the car to make it lower in proportion but otherwsie how can I help this problem?

[The Real Roadrunner]

making the rear of the car lower is actually worse for anti squat as the lower arms are then more parallel to the body but this can be fixed by lowering the arms at the diff end (otherwise known as traction brackets).

the way they have done it in that car will increase wear due to the housing not being squared up with the diff centre (or so it looks) but it still does the job.

idealy barrel splined axles would be the go and having the housing cut correctly would give you the best possible solution to what you want but bear in mind its an expensive procedure.

cheers
linden

[rms]

if I am really vicious to make my car oversteer, otherwise its all power oversteer. I have previously helped that by changing the heigh of the back of the car to make it lower in proportion but otherwsie how can I help this problem?

Just about any car can be made to oversteer if you provoke it enough and I can not imagine a Sprinter with enough grunt to have true power oversteer mid corner or exit.

It sounds like you have a problem with spring rates and sway bars. What are your spring rates front and rear ?
Spring rates are the biggest single factor in understeer/oversteer. Until you get the car 'balanced' on springs and bars you will not see any effect with marginal rear camber changes.
Stiffer front springs or softer rear.

RRR is right, lowering the rear can induce pro-squat, which is the last thing you need.

[Sam_Q]

roadrunner: heres my "traction brackets"



crude but effective. I still have my top bars not at the right angle though and for this I want to make two bars with either a curve in them or an offset end combined with a redrilled top housing.

rms: If you dont mind I will PM you as this is going off-topic

[The Real Roadrunner]

while being crude they are still better than half the bodge jobs i have to fix for ppl,

what do you mean by curved upper links? unless the pivot points are changed the affect will be zero.

cheers
linden

[fixeruperer]

if you bolt the traction brackets up wouldnt the diff swing up a bit ?, would you have to get adjustable upper links to even it out?


is that what you meen sam to place a curve into the bar. to shorten it ?

[Sam_Q]

basicly to make the top bars parallel to the road again after lowering the diff needs to be redrilled so that the pivot points are lower down, but if that is done then its possible in theory for the bars to hit the housing at full compression, hence the custom bars.

[The Real Roadrunner]

why would you want to make the top bars parallel? 1 it would reduce antisquat and 2 it would then mean that the diff wont roll as much as they do factory which would then result in the diff flange or tailshaft belting the floor.

it may move the instant centre too far forward and too high also but id need to draw it all up in the positions you want b4 accurate judgement can be made (chances are i wont be wrong)

cheers
linden

[Sam_Q]

right now the top bar leans upwards because its been lowered, if I am not mistaken correcting this will significantly increase my antisquat. Look my explination is bad I think I better do a diagram

[The Real Roadrunner]

you are mistaken, the top arms should be the reverse of the lowers, ie up at the rear and down at the front.

[oldcorollas]

you are mistaken, the top arms should be the reverse of the lowers, ie up at the rear and down at the front.

uh huh
cos teh top bars pull the car, and teh bottom bars push the car

if you want fooyl sik antisquat, then top bars pull the car up and bottom bars push the car up...

edit, does changing the "moment arm" of the bottom bars, by extending the brackets like those above, reduce the antisquat by reducing the force on the arm itself?

or.. since car still goes as fasts.. the bottom arm has abotu the same load on it, but the shorter moment arm top bar has a higher load pulling the car?

hmm.. diagrams..

[Sam_Q]

ok i did a diagram and I was only thinking of the point where the two lines extended from the arms line up instead of the line you got to make from the bottom of the wheel to that intersecting point. In other words I was wrong, thanks for the correction