Swing Axle rear wheel tuck - food for thought?

I was trolling through some Chev Corvair stuff for my old man and came across this bit of info about eliminating the dreaded rear wheel tuck during cornering on the swing axle corvairs (same principles as s/a VWs).

They use a 'secondary spring' (as they already have a big primary spring instead of torsion bars like our vws) to counteract the tuck to a degree. Camber compensators are not new to them either, but just got me thinking if anyone has considered this approach for vws before?

Here is the link:
http://autoxer.skiblack.com/em_rear.html

Any thoughts?

Here is a pic of the 'secondary spring' used to help keep the axle from dropping when cornering - without overpowering the primary spring.

nn[ Edited on 20-7-2005 by Dasdubber ]

Couldn't a limiting strap do the same thing? and look less dodgy?

Some of the later swing axled cars had a Z-bar, sort of a anti-sway bar but different. These Z-bars had to be pre-loaded to work really effectively.

I think you may need a spring a bit more substantial than a trampoline spring!

looks like it drove thru a roller garage door and a bit of debry wound itself over the rear axle...corvair drivers should be more careful! cheers steve

The z bars were pretty horrible.

I'm sure a modicum of thought and some rod dending would make a betetr design than the factory Zs.

The spring looks pretty dodgy. I'm sure a better soultion is available.

HotRodMatt wrote:The spring looks pretty dodgy. I'm sure a better soultion is available.

Yeah. IRS.

56 astro the rear Z bar on later swing axles are actually a torsion bar. VW softened the rear torsion bars in the 1500 type bug to gain a smoother ride but with it came the bottoming out affect,ie not enough control over the softer bar..vw fitted this Z cofigeration so as to help stop bottoming and giving the std torsion bar a little helping hand when fully loaded...hope this makes sense...ever noticed higher mileage late swing axle bug are a bit droopy in the tail...the torsion bar sags early because of the smaller dia....early ovals nearly always look pos cambered due to the thicker torsion used ...ovals always ride harder than a 1500 for example..progress for you !cheers steve

Yeah the spring above is dodgy - just more the principle I guess warranted some discussion. I have heard of a limiting strap used for the front but haven't seen ones used in the rear - any pics?

The one thing I have seen done is a steel block (small) welded to the chassis where the spring plate sits - this block therefore provides a "bump stop" so to speak to limit downward travel of the spring plate.

Don't know if it works either - welding is kinda hard to undo if it is crap.

The info about the 1500 torsion bars is good - didn't realise that!

Dasdubber wrote:Yeah the spring above is dodgy - just more the principle I guess warranted some discussion. I have heard of a limiting strap used for the front but haven't seen ones used in the rear - any pics?

I have a feeling that a car that Wayne Penrose used to hill climb was a swinger with straps

Just as an aside:
Every Formula Vee running uses a "droop limiter", "camber cable" or whatever else people like to call it to control rear suspension droop.

Its an integral and critical part of tuning the rear suspension of an F-Vee and mostly comes in the form of an adjustable cable, that can be shortened with a turnbuckle and sometimes a mechanical stop on a mono-shock type of rear suspension.
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