I have had a couple of people look at it in real life not just pics, one guy who restores old cars for a living and the other builds and races circle track cars. they both agree it is solid and isnt going anywhere. as for it being a side mount instead of center to the frame its been done over and over by many manufactures the shackels are for a early ninetys ranger (yes they have a bracket that goes to the outside of the bolt ) i feel it is very strong the way it is but will consider a bracket. however one thing to keep in mind is the fact that before i did this the frame rails were completely rusted away and could be crumbled with my hand and i drove this car prior to doing this and it drove quite well!
Rear shackles don't flex, they rotate, and they still support the weight of the car as a two force member in compression. And this shackle design will only allow as much side to side motion as another other shackle. The axle is also bolted to the spring and the spring is bolted to the frame in the front and the shackle in the rear on both sides. Even if the rear shackle breaks, the worst that will happen is that side will sag. During a failure, the axle will transfer from a simply supported member to a torsion member. This will still support the car, even on the broken side, though the spring rate will drastically change.
By welding the bolt on both sides of the fram rail it is changed from a cantilever to a simply supported member in bending. Welding may or may not result in a stress riser, depending on the type of steel. Since this is a mild carbon steel, the Heat Affected Zone has a very small material strength debit. While the bolt is in bending the short distance of the force couple makes the bending stress much smaller than the shear stress. Being in single shear is the biggest issue for me, rather than putting it in double shear, but not a deal breaker. I would have also boxed the support, but I seriously doubt that this design will fail.
The fact that there is ANY doubt that it would fail under normal circumstances is enough to red flag it for me. He states this car will be a daily driver, there are a million different scenarios, nearly impossible to say that it wouldn't be a catastrophic failure. What if it fails on the highway in a heavy rain, or on icy roads, and the car spins into another lane, or oncoming traffic? What if it's your family in the vehicle in that lane? I just no need to take unnecessary risks with critical areas of the car such as the suspension, especially with something that could be so easily fixed. A few pieces of heavy gauge sheet metal and a couple of hours, problem solved.
You think so?? Where I use to work, we had a shop trailer that someone mounted the leaf springs like that...it drug the van into the ditch with it, when the axle came off, every bolt broke....
It's a potential safety concern. :16suspect Though I've previously worked at a fabrication shop for a year and a half, and I currently do manufacturing engineering type fabrication work in the large factory I work in, I'm far from an expert. But I know good and well when I see something like this that's probably not going to hold up over the long term. Why not just do it right the first time.
Why not just support the other side of the bolt? Its a super easy fix since its already apart and will do nothing but add strength to everything? You doubt it will fail? Isnt that what NASA said when they launched the challenger?
Ok let me just say I am not, nor do i claim to be an Engineer. But some one who is gives it approvle. I am however a Automotive Mechanic with 25 years experiance in realworld situations which still makes me no expert. But at the shop i work at we have had numerous Ford trucks( which have the leaf spring and shakel mounted to the side of the frame )come in where the shakel has failed due to rusting in two. when they fail they are paper thin and didn't get that way over night, there for they have been weak for awhile yet they withstood the bumps and chuckholes up to the point of failure and when the did fail it was not a catastrophic event. When the customers came in (drove in) their complaint was because it was sagging to one side or making a popping noise. even though the set up is a littel differant the end result is the same it proves that it will not be a catastrophic event if it were to fail. Tell me how it would be any differant then a ball joint or tierod coming apart which are parts that are approved for automotive use in the front suspension and in most cases dont come with greese zerts to keep them lubed these days which make tmem fail alot more often! Apperantly some of you think i am completely ignorant and dont care about the lives of others , yet i rebuilt the rear end of this car to make it safe for the road considering it was completely rusted away, therfore i feel i have only made it better! I am not so stupid that i wouldn't keep an eye on it to see if there was any problems as time goes by!
With as few maverick owners as there are we need to keep each other alive... Concern for a fellow humans safety should never be looked down on as if they are just trying to one-up someone... Doesn't take an expert to see that it would be way to easy to make it much safer with extra support than to leave it how it is and pray it doesn't kill someone JMHO
I know nothing about this but how come that mount only has two bolts in it and looks like it was moved forward about a foot? Was just curious after looking at this for about five minutes. Every ones input is valuable and should not be read as criticism.
