Good morning, Claude, and Merry Christmas to you.
Look closer at photo # 1530. It looks like the axle pivot has been welded to a clamp of some sort. Am I wrong? You'd know better than I but looking at the pics it looks to me like the torsion suspension has been modded. Whatcha think?
I don't see it Bob. See attached pictures.
Wheel looks like Harley or off a Terraplane. Not sure how it would hold up with rigid suspension? Thoughts?
Originally written by claude #3563 on 12/25/2007 10:34 AM
Story,
You have an early california sidecar torsion suspension there. It may be seized and not work any longer. If you look close there are small FLAT spring leaves inside the pivot area. These when working together twist and create a torsion bar. Early VW bugs used th esame principle.
Problem is that these leaves can break over time. If it is bad enough the whole swingarm can come off the sidecar.
SOME HAVE WELDED THE SWINGARM SOLID so this could be true in your case.
What we do it modify the pivot area to receve a special spindle that allows the pivot to be via timken tapered roller bearings. The original swingarm is TIG welded to a newly machined pivot hub. Then we run a splined end torsion bar across the sidecar frame inside a torsion tube with bushings in each end. The sidecar end of th etorsion bar has a torsion 'arm' on it that is linked to the stock sidecar swingarm. The bike end of th ebar has an adjustable 'stop' on it to allow a simple manual tilt adjustment of th esidecar rig. This system works very well. I will try and get soem pictures soon as we have a couple of them to do in the shop now.
Note that the ones that folks had welded solid will do okay if the welding was good and if the mounts to the bike and the bike itself is capable of taking the additional loads imposed upon it. It also puts more stress on the wheel and th eaxle.
Ride for passenger will nto be the best if the body remains unsprung.
So the suspension may be fine, or may need to be unsiezed and have the spring leaves replaced? Either way I guess I should inspect it to be certain and take it from there. After seeing so many cars with a motorcycle shock I thought mine had to be rigid... assumptions, they never work out.
I'm not sure about the modification. It sounds wonderful but my experience has been that wonderful is often expensive and this whole project bike and car are on a tight budget. If I can get by for now I will and add a new suspension if needed sometime this summer. Unless of course this would destroy my cycles frame?
As far as the mounts go the car came with some basic universal u mounts. They seemed a bit rickety so I added two bolts similarly to these I saw on the dauntless site to hold the block to the u and prevent lateral movement.
However, given the frame of my xs850, the rear lower mount wanted to be right infront of where my passenger peg is located. So I grabbed a 1 inch piece of stainless and milled out a new bracket, reinforced the mounting points and ran a ball joint where it wanted to be.
The lower front bracket is attached to a threaded rod with clamps that grab the frame on both the right and left side. It seems fairly stout. However to be sure I threaded some stock stainless rod to replace all the stock that came with the sidecar. It all had a bit of oxidation and who knows what age and stress have done to it. That and my stepdad's lathes are fun to play with.
So those are my lower mounts and my uppers are two u brackets. I'm not sure if they are supposed to mount directly to the frame or if I should mount some rubber in between the frame and the bracket/shims. To protect the frame a bit I thought the rubber was in order but I'll defer to the wisdom of the forum.
I'm also not sure how to tighten the upper mounts. The eyes need to be straight up and down but how should I keep the threads tight in the bracket? Should I tighten it, use a nut to hold it tight and then loosen the eye until it's in the right position? I noticed that the dauntless mounts only had the eye as hardware.
The 9 spoke Harley wheels have at least one 5 bolt pattern for mounting a disc rotor. My Terraplanes have had 7 spokes.
I'm not sure what wheel this old CSC Companion has. It looks sturdy enough.
Lonnie
Originally written by claude #3563 on 12/25/2007 1:58 PM
I don't see it Bob. See attached pictures.
Wheel looks like Harley or off a Terraplane. Not sure how it would hold up with rigid suspension? Thoughts?
Ok, now that you explaned it I see how it works. Cool. If it is going to be rigid i think I'd be checking the swap meets for one of them big ol' Harley disc wheels. JMHO.
>>>So those are my lower mounts and my uppers are two u brackets. I'm not sure if they are supposed to mount directly to the frame or if I should mount some rubber in between the frame and the bracket/shims. To protect the frame a bit I thought the rubber was in order but I'll defer to the wisdom of the forum.
I'm also not sure how to tighten the upper mounts. The eyes need to be straight up and down but how should I keep the threads tight in the bracket? Should I tighten it, use a nut to hold it tight and then loosen the eye until it's in the right position? I noticed that the dauntless mounts only had the eye as hardware.<<<
Can you post some pics of the mounts you have. The early strap clamps were not cross drilled and many , including myself, will not use them. Also some had very small bolts (3/8" ?)for the struts.
Not trying to cound negative but....
Also, the comments you had about the passenger footpeg. Are you planning to run it with somone on the pillion?
Originally written by claude #3563 on 12/25/2007 3:00 PM
Can you post some pics of the mounts you have. The early strap clamps were not cross drilled and many , including myself, will not use them. Also some had very small bolts (3/8" ?)for the struts.
Not trying to cound negative but....
Also, the comments you had about the passenger footpeg. Are you planning to run it with somone on the pillion?
Sure. Here's a picture I have after finishing the first tap
I don't have a picture of the bolts through them currently but I can get it. I do know that they are 3/4 inch 16 threaded grade 8 bolts. Mainly because I took 3/4 inch 16 thread grade 8 bolts from the hardware store and cut them to size : )
As far as the passenger footpeg bracket. I wasn't very clear. I'm not talking about the footpeg itself but the bracket that connects the footpeg to the bike. The stocker was aluminum being held on by 3 3/8'' bolts. I took that off, traced it with a computer stylus and had my CNC router make me a new one out of stainless steel. I essentially copied this one
http://www.sidecar.com/megabbs/photos/show-album.asp?albumid=34¤tpos=8
And while I don't plan to ride with a pillion, I'll leave that option open
