lost Corvette stingray suspension deficiency thread

[Tmoose]

I tried searching for Corvette, suspension and jacking and came up empty.
I'm looking for a thread in the last year or so that mentioned deficiencies in the 1963 to ?? Corvette rear suspension. I think it was bad roll center height or something similar.

Anyone remember?

thanks

Dan T

 

[NormPeterson]

IIRC from an ancient R&T suspension supplement, the geo roll center was rather high in the earliest IRS Corvettes (~7"?) but was lowered for the 1968 MY (~4.7"?).

Separate from that is the issue of using the half shafts as upper lateral links. U-joint and differential wear would affect the accuracy of wheel location.


Do you remember whether the thread title was specific to the Corvette's suspension or a more general topic that morphed to include it? Right off, I can't find where I contributed anything to it even if it was RF'ed and removed.


Norm

 

[BrianPetersen]

The other issue, if I remember right, is that by having the wheel mounted to the trailing arm, the lateral links pull the wheel into toe-out on both bump travel and rebound, which can make the car skittish.

 

[Tmoose]

John Greenwood had some success with his C4 Corvettes road racing. In this article he says the front suspension's camber curves are pretty good, but suggests lowering the lower links' pivots about a half inch is a good thing to do. page 10 and 11.

http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/vip.pdf

 

[evelrod]

It's been many years since I raced a Vette...still have friends that are adicted to them...You will have better luck on the Corvetteforum.com than here, I'll bet.

Rod

 

[Yves40]

You should read 'chassis engineering" of Herb Adams(ISBN 1-55788-055-7). There is a lot of info on the Corvette C3 suspension on the reasons for its problems.

One of the main issues with the C3's rear is indeed the axles that are used as an upper suspension link. The inner axles in the diff wear against the shaft and then they get more play, causing problems.
Also due to the design, the rear wheels get toe in on compression of the suspension. Or in a roll situation one gets toe out and the other toe in....so not good.

There is a solution however, but it involves a 6 link with spherical bearings. The plans are for free on one of the vette forums (

http://www.vettemod.com)

Succes