Suspension
If there's one thing that makes or breaks an offroad car, it's the suspension...Front Suspension
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The Rodeo was originally setup for stadium
racing, however the demands on the suspension are fairly similar for
offroad. Because of the enormous side-loads generated by rutted tracks
and heavy cornering, A-arm front suspensions are the norm. The reason
behind this is due to the capacity of the a-arms to completely remove all
side-load from the shocks (aka. dampers). The arms themselves are
located either through bushes or Heim joints (rose-balls). It is
somewhat problematic that even though it is usual to upgrade to nolethane
bushings (to remove slop from the suspension) these types of bushes do not
have as much 'give' as a standard rubber bush and are prone to
self-destructing because of it. The Rodeo suspension points are all
Heim joints (note that a 'rod end' is simply a Heim joint carrier with a
large thread on one side).
Pictured left is the front right suspension. A. Damper, B. Coil-over, C. Hydraulic bump-stop, D. Limit strap, E. Anti-roll bar linkage, F. Anti-roll bar lever arm, G. Upper A-arm, H. Steering knuckle. Note that two dampers are used, however the coil-over damper is functionally restricted by the springs. This is to say that it is quite small and does not contain any bypass tubes (that are essential for tuning the damping rates correctly). Each damper (bypassed damper, coil-over damper and bump-stop damper) is filled with nitrogen (100-200psi depending on the track) to resist the tendency of the oil within the dampers to foam (and hence dramatically affect the damping rates). The nitrogen is injected into the dampers from a standard 2500psi nitrogen canister via a regulator and manifold. The manifold allows for the Schrader valve to be opened/closed without losing some of the charge in the canister. This is exactly what happens when filling a tyre and removing the filling nozzle, however this charge is significant due to the small damper canister volumes in question. |
Rear Suspension
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The rear 4-link suspension allows for large
suspension movement whilst limiting the angle of the drive-shaft. This
is important as uni's (or CV's) don't like operating at large angles of
articulation. The front of the trailing arm is obviously pivoted from
the same location (front-to-back) as the front uni of the drive-shaft.
Yet again the suspension includes a coil-over plus a bypassed damper; for
the same reasons given above.
A. Rear trailing arm (as a part of the 4-link rear suspension), B. Coil-over, C. Bypassed damper. Not pictured is the hydraulic bump-stop. |
Rod-Ends (aka. rose-balls or Heim joints)
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Pictured left is a rod-end just prior to replacement. These components tend to wear evenly around the ball and this results in slop between the ball and rod-end. The spacers in this case were made from aluminium and will have to be replaced (preferably with stainless steel). Note the two lines that indicate the general location of the mounting brackets. This type of arrangement is called 'double shear' and is one of the strongest methods by which to locate a component. A. Rod-end (contains the rose-ball), B. Spacer, C. Lower A-arm threaded socket, with clamping bolt. |
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Pictured is an assortment of rod-ends, spherical bearings and bushings. The individual components are as follows:
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