Ok...so I've been doing some research on setting my suspension up and I've been reading alot about Drive Line Angle, Instant Center, and Center Of Gravity. Currently my driveline angle is 2.5* with my pinion angle currently at 0*. No as far as IC, with a torque arm car how do I go about finding and adjusting my instant center? I know I'm supposed to find the instersection of the torque arm and lca's but besides getting a straight edge and piece of graph paper is their an easy way to do this? A formula perhaps? I have found a few IC Calculators (http://home.earthlink.net/~whshope/id28.html) but I'm lost as to what measurements they are asking for. Also how do I calculate my Center of Gravity? What measurements do I take and what is the best method the figure it out? Also while I'm at it what is a good baseline to set my adjustable front and rear coilovers to? Currently 2 front and 7 rear. All input would be greatly appreciated.



-Dave

 

Hello, your instant center is where your torque arm and lower control arms would intersect if they were longer. You can adjust this by using lower control arm relocation brackets on your rear end. By dropping the rear of the control arm down it moves the instant center intersecting point rearward thus making the car transfer weight better. Thats a rough explanation. If you have any more questions give me a call at the office. Our tech dept is open till 6pm est mon-fri.

 

CG is not an easy calculation

With our Formula SAE car, we would calculate the CG height (from ground) by raising the car on its side until the point where it wanted to tip, then from that angle we calculated it. One heck of a site. It really is something to watch a race car and driver being able to sit at a 70 degree angle. Of course we also had a CG from Unigraphics off our full car model. Also our suspension guys had a ton of little toys and software to determine things. I just stayed in the machine shop and worked on the drivetrain. Suspension stuff went way over my head.

 

What about when the LCA's and T/A almost run completely parrallel. In theory my IC would be somewhere right behind my front tire....that just seems wrong.....

 

still looking for some insight....