Front "suspension" location - front to back

[vetteman1355]

as long as a jig is used to keep the relative position of all the suspension/wishbone location brackets correct, does it matter if the whole front suspension is back a little (therefore shortening the wheel base a little)
We are talking about a 1/2 an inch.
Reason is this makes all my brackets line up better on the uprights and allows a little more wiggle room for the steering rack behind the front upright.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Bowen and John.

[MikeB]

From recollection the top front bracket is already as as far back as it can go (currently it doesn't sit in the middle of the chassis rail, half of it overhangs), if you move it any further back you wouldn't have anything to weld it to. Are you sure you jig is correct? Can you double check with the actual wishbones in place?

[voucht]

Hi,
after reading Mike's post, I checked my pictures (from 2011!) and I agree with him. That is how my top front brackets were placed with the jig and tacked. I don't think placing them 1/2 inch back there will be OK.

IMG_8157_1 by Voucht71, on Flickr

IMG_8151_1 by Voucht71, on Flickr

[vetteman1355]

Thanks for the reply guys.
I guess I need to be a little clearer.
I agree that moving the bracket back so it hangs over the edge of the upright too much is not good.

I am beefing up the uprights to allow full coverage of the back of the bracket for better strength.
Having the whole front suspension back 1/2 inch allows me to do this properly
I can't see any issue with this myself was just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on a potential pitfall of this. Maybe I am not explaining it quite right?
In short anyone see any issues moving the front suspension back 1/2 inch (ignoring the brackets and uprights issue?)

[baz-r]

shortening the wheelbase will affect ackerman angle this is why the roadster kept the identical wheelbase to the sierra because it used sierra uprights giving you a steering angle simmular to a setup in a sierra.

1/2" is not much in the grand scale of things but if you where to use a diffrent upright you would need to work out what would be ideal for them.

i did think if anyone realy looked into ackerman angle with the mazda based chassis?

[CTWV50]

A bit of info on Ackerman.

http://teflonmike.craywiki.co.uk/0_L...Steering01.htm