Where to buy suspension parts?

Well I'm starting to design the front and rear suspensions for my truck.

My question is, where do you buy pieces parts and not just assembled kits? Looking for poly rod ends mainly.

Any good websites that discuss suspension design?

 

what type of front suspension are you wanting to build?

im just reading books and looking at whatever pictures i can get my hands on.

 

Speedway motors? They have lots a shit.

 

kanter

 

I'm lookin to build my own radius rods, 4 bar links, tie rods and panhard rods etc.. Rather not pay $300+ for the prefabbed ones.

Guess i'm looking for a chassis parts source. Looked at Art Morrison but didnt see any individual parts.

 

try http://www.ubmachine.com/index.html

later jim

 

You might also get a catalog from Lefthander Chassis. They carry a lot of suspension odds and ends
and are priced cheaper than speedway. They are a circle track company and have lots of parts that
will work well on rods. The catalog is free and is pretty big. Give them a try!

Lefthander Chassis

 

Deuce Factory has stainless poly rod ends.
Very nice ones.

I'm fairly sure Pet & Jakes has them in mild steel.

They're not hard to make.
Grade 8 bolts with the hex machined round, short piece of .120 wall tubing to fit Energy Suspension bushings, jam nuts to match the thread and you're in business.

Here's a home-made one that's just tacked.

 

Here's a pic of the radius rod.

Bent on a Harbor Freight pipe bender.
The pipe bender dies only fit this particular size of tubing and if you don't try to bend too far it makes a nice bend.

In the pic, it does look like the tubing is kinked from the bend, but it's not.
An optical illusion formed by the steel stored under the car.

Tie rod, draglink and radius rods are made from DOM tubing 7/8 x .156 wall.
Usually a special order, but any steel supply place can get it for you.
It's not that costly so make a point to use the .156 stuff.
It is what the street rod manufacturers use.
.120 wall does not have enough meat to make proper depth threads.

Radius rod poly rings are 1 3/8 x .120 wall DOM tubing.
Panhard bar poly rings are also 1 3/8 x .120 wall DOM tubing.

Panhard bars front and rear are 3/4 x .120 wall DOM tubing.

Bolts for the rings on the radius rods are 5/8-NF.
Bolts for the rings on the panhard bar are 9/16-NF.

Mounting bolts for the radius rods are 9/16-NF rear and 1/2-20 front.
Mounting bolts for the panhard are 1/2-20 both ends.

It's easy to knock out the rings in a lathe, but if you have a bandsaw or chopsaw that cuts square you can cut them out with that.
Hit the inside with a small grinding stone making a small chamfer.
The outside edge you may want to just break with a file or carefully sand a chamfer on with a disc or belt sander.
If you could lash something up so you could spin the ring in a drill press you can make a very accurate chamfer on the outside edge with a file.

A Deuce Factory stainless batwing is used on the car in the pic below.
It is important to have adjusters at all three corners of the radius rod.
An equally nice way to set up the front of the radius rods is with a batwing that will take an adjustble clevis and use Heim joints at the front.

The special taps required for the left and right hand 11/16-18 threads - a not so normal tap size - are available at Speedway.
The other taps obtainable at the usual places.

Tap drill for the 11/16-18 tap is 5/8".

You will need to drill the 7/8" tubing ends in a lathe as well as start the tap in the lathe.
Accuracy here is what you want and a front suspension is no place to be screwing around.

The amount of material cut away by the 5/8" drill in the .156 wall tubing is so small that you won't be able to hang onto a hand drill because the drill grabs.

 

Thanks guys!

I knew C9 would come thru for me, that's the data I was looking for.

Guess i'll hafta buy my machinist at work a 6pack.

Hmmm maybe i'll use all titanium

 

Anything wrong with using heim joints for rod ends?I was planning on using them on my wishbones.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Anything wrong with using heim joints for rod ends?I was planning on using them on my wishbones.

[/ QUOTE ]

I sure don't see anything wrong with it.
Lotta guys have commented that they wear fast.
Maybe so, but the T-Bucket troops use them a whole lot and there doesn't seem to be a real problem with them.

Did you see the under-chassis pics I posted yesterday or the day before?
Titled A little bit trad, a little bit today.
Or something like that.

Key thing is, the post was reporting on an old build done in 67 and how well it had done over the years.
Including the split wishbone with Heims.

 

Another question while I have your attention.

Could I use the same 7/8 DOM for the rear locating arms? I'll prolly be using 1/4 elliptecs held by 2 triangulated arms on top. This will be a bbc powered pu.

 

If you want something beefier for the rear, use 1" OD X .148" D.O.M. to tap 3/4" fine thread.