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Front spindle / carrier setup questions

Posted: June 21st, 2011, 10:12 am
by BLS
Since it has been awhile, I'm playing catchup here. I had a spindle with carrier on the workbench last night for study. One of the first things I'll be doing is rebuilding a front beam. When you install offset bushings, the linkpin remains parallel to the ground (horizontal) while the kingpin/spindle takes a slant as a result of the offset bushing. Is this correct?

As a result, the carrier can touch the trailing arm. Is this the clearancing required? Looks like grinding the trailing arm slightly would be OK?

Now, there is still a problem I'm not understanding. Since the pin is parallel and the bushing offset, the spacers and pin face will be out of alignment with carrier face since it is now "slanted". Wouldn't the face of the carrier on each side need to be refaced to remain parallel to the pin? In other words, the carrier faces need to be refaced such that they are 90 degree's to the pin. I've searched and see some evidence of this but can find no direct comments that spell it out.

I realize the answer may be to send it to an expert for installation, which I might do. But I still need to understand it completely.

Re: Front spindle / carrier setup questions

Posted: June 21st, 2011, 10:23 am
by problemchild
You are correct about the clearancing procedure. The guys who do it regularily will have fixtures and specific cutters so that they can slide it into their mill and machine those surfaces in a reasonably short time. When the bushings are 1.5 deg, the machining is light. As the offset increases, you have to worry about the sides of the link pin head and not merely the underside of the head, thus removing more and more material.

Re: Front spindle / carrier setup questions

Posted: June 21st, 2011, 5:25 pm
by BLS
Thanks Greg, that helps quite a bit.