Axle limit straps

["George Schweikle" <schweikg@domain.elided>]

Scott,

Regarding removing rear axle limit straps: it wasn't my suggestion. I remember
the discussion, and believe a recommendation to lengthen the straps was
attributed to Alan Ward. I have shortened the limit straps on my car, but
don't believe there is any danger of wheel lifting from the car leaning during
cornering. See a picture of my car in the AROC website "Members cars" photo
gallery. Note the slight lean compared to the distortion of the right front
tire from cornering force. This is with Shankle springs (360 lb. front, 207
lb. rear), a 1.25 in. front sway bar and .75 in. rear bar. I just changed to
800# front and 300# rear springs, so the lean will be reduced further.

I shortened the limit straps to eliminate rear sway bar link binding, since I
moved the pickup hole locations to shorten the moment arm and make the bar
action stiffer, and the links to the axle were binding when I jacked up the
car. Also, without limit straps, the shock absorbers might over extend or the
flexible brake line might become the limit.

Are you installing hard (polyurethane) bushings in your trailing arms?. Jack
Beck (Orion Engineering) cautioned me to only install these in one and of the
trailing arm. If these are installed in both ends, the body mounting points
are subject to excessive force when the body and axle are at different angles
during cornering.

Regards,

George Schweikle
Lexington, KY


(snip) Having done all this, the rear axle should be hanging in the limit
straps.

Wasn't George one of the proponents of removing the limit straps from the rear
suspension for autocrossing?  There was some discussion a while back with the
end result being that several very successful autocrossers (and I know George
is in that camp) removed the limit straps to keep them from lifting the inside
rear wheel on hard corners.

If so, I'll be looking over both methods but Dana's sounds promising, as both
my Alfas still have the straps in place.  I will be going one step farther,
however, as I'll almost certainly be replacing the trailing arm bushings as
well.  Probably not for a
couple of weeks, but soon...

- --Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
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