Well there was discussion in the tubular control arm thread on the rear suspension and how to make it better. I'm going to outlay the choices that I can think of that we have and let get some real discussion going.
I want to talk first about what our rear suspension really is. Here is how I look at our suspension. Its a standard trailing arm at its heart, but missing the axles. The axles do provide for support of the suspension and limiting of its travel in trailing arm. We instead have a twist beam, which also limits similar motion that the axles would, however it also acts as a huge swaybar with a non-linear swaybar rate. The last part is what @!#$ everything up. The other thing that sucks is that the mounting points have to be kind of flimsy and soft in order for the suspension to go through its whole range of motion without binding. Does anyones else have a different view or something to add to this?
Now our options for a better rear setup.
Currently we can sway in the irs from the grand am/alero. However that limits out shock and spring options and if you already have a nice rear coil over setup you're @!#$ out of luck. You could get custom coilover shock bodies made with konis or motons or bilsteins or whatever but thats going to run a couple grand to over 10 grand right there.
Next option is the setup juicedz4 is running/going to run which uses an actual swaybar that connects to the chassis rather than just a twist beam stiffener that we call a sway bar.
Thats it for stuff thats been done.
Now I have 2 ideas for a bolt in/weld in solution. Custom double A arm setup designed to use a stock style rear shock setup. Welds in the same place that the n-body irs welds in, give us correct suspension geometry and the ability to run whatever rear brakes we want. Its expensive, and tough to do. I'm considering designing it for myself to run in street mod fwd.
The other option I came up with uses the stock trailing arms. BUT involves cutting the twist beam out and putting in "axles" along with a swaybar like the one juicedz4 made. The trailing arm mounts will need to be beefed up and the bushings replaced with something more substantial.
Anyone else have ideas? I like the custom double A arm setup the most but it'll be the 2nd most expensive following custom coilovers for the rear of the n-body setup.
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How about a bolt in or weld in K brace setup ?? ( very similar to Dan's )
Mantapart used to sell a kit for the 3rd gen, but I have never seen it
Jason
99 Z24
LG0/LD9 for Life
10 Year Bash Veteren
why not see if somebody like OEM could make n-body compatible mounts for the STD coilovers? as far as I know, he's already making a longer bottom mount to help even out the std's. I would think it would be possible to design something to work with the n-body knuckles that would screw on the std's.
I actually really like the last option, seems like it might be fairly easy for a person with go welding skills.
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strat that would work too. I forgot about the std's. Of course it wouldnt help most of the people with coilovers already since most of us have teins.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
i think the irs is the best cost wise solution. It adds rear discs as well. But some sort of adapter to run different rear struts would be awesome.
Leafy wrote:strat that would work too. I forgot about the std's. Of course it wouldnt help most of the people with coilovers already since most of us have teins.
most of the options mentioned would mean not being able to use the tein's anyways. shouldn't be hard to find a buyer for them either if you're serious about upgrading.
The only option that cant use them is the n-body irs. The custom setup would be designed for them, but it may require a spring rate change and may change the middle of the damping adjustment range.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
but is also more expensive from the get go and requires modification to the tein. :p
