Saturday, March 26, 2011

suspension stuff

Ok, first off id like to thank you guys for having me do this...i learned alot myself researching this.

To the guy with the suzuki, i would start off finding the air filter, usually under the seat, or towards the front of the engine. open that up, check to see if the filter needs replacing, and just follow that until you find a little box with some fuel lines coming to it. shut off the fuel (if there is a valve) and remove the fuel lines, not much fuel should spill out. remove the box, and take it apart being very careful not to lose parts, and to keep track of where everything went. clean everything thoroughly and put it back.
consider getting a "carb kit" for it, to help you out.

hope i diddnt miss any questions.


So about suspension. There are quite a few types, and all are different for certain applications of your vehicle.

lets start out simple (with cars, cause thats what i made the blog with the intentions of)

There is a part that most suspension units have, and what most people think of when they think of "suspension", this is the coil over. Basically a spring over a shock absorber. looks like the picture below. What it does is it provides resistance, yet ability for movement, all while preventing a pendulum effect, or stopping movement after the job is done.
the spring is the main resistance, and the shock (on the inside) dampens it.

many suspension types include this somewhere in their design, quite a fool proof design.


Now that we got the backbone for most suspension out of the way, lets start with the most simple suspension design, which ironically does not include the coilover.
The leaf spring suspension is one of the most common types, but also the most simple. You simply have a few slabs of metal clamped together that flex as a form of movement. This is classified as "dependent" because both wheels basically use the same unit. there is a solid axle that both wheels are attached to, then they are connected to one of these on each side, but as one goes up, the other will be at a different angle to the road, and might drive weird. trucks commonly have this, but cars almost never do.

as you can see, very basic, and not the best as a result.

with the solid axle idea, you can also replace it with a coil over, but it is more common for a leaf spring.


that is the basic idea of a dependent system, how about an independent system?
almost all cars have independent suspension systems, and their design is a bit more complicated.
the mcpherson strut is essentially the most straight forward independent system. you connect the wheel to the hub (what holds the wheel) and that is connect to a top and bottom piece.
the top piece is basically just made up of a coilover, but the bottom is connected to the frame, and holds most of the weight. we call the bottom piece the lower control arm, and it holds most of the weight, and force in this design.

as this is one of the most fool-proof designs of independent suspension, there are a few modifications to this design, some just moving the spring, and the angle, others tweaking the general idea.


another type is a double wishbone type suspension. This has the same idea of a top piece, and a bottom piece, called control arms.
one type of double wish bone has both control arms in the shape of a wish-bone (no way!), and the lower control arm has the coilover attached to it, with the upper control arm acting as reinforcement.


An alternative to this, is instead of the lower control arm being a wishbone shape, it is a single bar, and the upper control arm has the coilover attached to it. this transfers the load from the lower control arm, to the upper control arm.


a little less advanced is something called the "trailing arm" system.  im going to be honest and i cant wrap my head around this. your upper and lower control arms are pieces of metal running parallel to the wheel, and attach to the chassis. the lower and upper control arms are parallel, and the lower carries the spring. *looks at picture one more time and figures out concept*
ok, now the end of the control arms attached to the wheel are attached to ball joints, and the other ends are pivot points. the allows for the wheel to move.

other components to suspension are such as sway bars, and...well thats the major one.
a sway bar just links the two sides of independent suspension together, making them move more as one, to...well...limit sway of the body.

interesting things i found during my research:

corvette uses a fancy suspension type that when first invented, was AWFUL, and hard to control, and just stupid.


this design combines the leaf spring idea, with the double wishbone design. (the one pictured below)
instead of the coilover being mounted to the lower control arm, just a shock absorber is mounted, and on the lower side of the lower control arm, is a leaf spring attached. this leaf spring runs along the bottom of the car, and the other end is attached to the other lower control arm.

after a little further research on this, it appears that the leaf spring in the corvettes are split in the middle, which gets rid of the problems of the original design.
the problem with the original design was under heavy braking, or a very sharp corner, the leaf spring would go to its unloaded position and i guess just make the car's contact with the road very little, and something like this would happen?



this took alot of thinking and research, and this post took about 2 hours to type..please enjoy haha

next post will be about the ajustments, modifications, and geometry of this whole setup, including but not limited to camber, caster, toe, scrub, and we will include some info on racing setup's.

Comment with any questions! :)

58 comments:

  1. Woah, thats cool stuff. I always wish I knew more about how cars worked. I'll definitely be following!

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  2. Nice breakdown of different suspension types, very informative.

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  3. very precise post. Even though I don't have a car right now, I'll just follow for the future.

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  4. Looks like you did a lot of research, good stuff.

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  5. Very nice explaining on types of suspension. A lot of engineering on these babies, huh?

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  6. Wow interesting read. I now realize how little I know about suspension systems.

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  7. Feel like i was back in autoshop. :D

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  8. Sick this is going to be super helpfull!

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  9. A lot of explanations, helped a lot

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  10. Wow, you definitely know your stuff! Some pretty specialized stuff too, impressive.

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  11. I didn't know there were that many kinds. really informative.

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  12. wow you really know your stuff man, sweet.

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  13. very informative, thanks for sharing. my skill in automotive assembly has increase by +1. :D

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  14. I found many Strut in the park trash can i wonder if they were aluminum so i can sell them.

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  15. good info, ive been wanting to read into how to change the suspension on my scion tc, just to lower it 1 1/2 -2"

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  16. they are absolutely not aluminum...that would break, and bend very easily

    and they sell kits for suspension upgrades, you just get the correct one, and change the corresponding part.

    be sure to check out my next post on what helps, doesnt help, and stuff like that to make sure you are doing it for the right reason

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  17. I'm getting my first motorbike in a few months and i really wanted to learn more about them.

    Thanks for the informative article!

    ;D

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  18. The amount of engineering that goes into suspension on cars is intense. All to hold it up and make it drive nice! Subbed, love the content!

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  19. I learned a lot, I don't know anything about cars

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  20. Awesome blog man! Keep up the good work! It will pay off!

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  21. i forgot to go over bike's oops...:/

    sorry guys, i will include it with next post, along with the pictures hopefully

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  22. lots of very usefull information here!

    im following and supporting from now on!

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  23. really informative, i learned a lot (i knew practically nothing). so thanks, following.

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  24. I wish I knew as much about cars as the author. All I can do is change oil and tires.

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  25. Wow this is quite interesting! Are you a mechanic by trade?

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  26. Wow have you ever thought about getting into mechanics/customization? my ex b/f once cut the roof off of his FTO coupe to turn into a ragtop, and the thing colapsed in the middle, total write off.

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  27. Great post dude! Quite interesting stuff.

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  28. Really interesting, keep up the good work.

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  29. suspensions seem like they dont work, and i dont know much about cars/ or trucks and i think tires should be all rubber, but thin, then they wont pop
    following

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  30. So much info. I'd love to learn more about cars so I can work on them myself. great blog. followed

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  31. as a mech eng student this blog is of much interest to me, following

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  32. this did take a lot of research! nice post

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  33. I never thought I'd ever learn how suspension worked, but this is interesting. I've always been interested in Cars, and I'm looking forward to buying one soon. Great blog! Looking forward to more future informative posts.

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  34. Putting a new suspension on my BMW this week!

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  35. Really interesting stuff! I'm looking forward to this!

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  36. Interesting. I've always been kind of interesting about how cars worked, but not motivated enough to actually find out haha.

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  37. wow I just learned more than I did in all of high school reading this post. Good stuff man.

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  38. good stuff there. ive always wondered how all that stuff worked thakns for the info
    followed.

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  39. next post is consisting of what i promised (geometry basically), and just answering questions also.

    ASK AWAY!

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  40. the pictures are of really high quality. nice work! following you.

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  41. I can finally become a better mechanic....finally! I'll feel like more of a man.

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  42. Very impressive and informative, followed! ;D

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  43. woah man, nice article you wrote!

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  44. I wish I knew a little more about cars.

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