Author Topic: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)  (Read 9434 times)

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #150 on: 03 Jun 22, 11:30 am »
First bit of my all rubber suspension experiment gone in- 2 Volvo transmission mounts. It’s quite nicely springy already. The jubbly celebrations means there’s no post delivery, so rather annoyingly the rest of the bits are probably being delivered on Monday :c/

Spent the latter part of the evening yesterday bouncing up and down on the rear end to see if I could break it. I couldn’t. But I still reckon it’ll need some more work to get everything balanced and happy.

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #151 on: 03 Jun 22, 10:07 pm »
Today’s progress- it’s evolving…..

I drilled out the caddy frame holes to 12mm, so the Volvo transmission mounts that previously bolted onto it via some m10 long nuts now slide over those same long nuts. Bolted into the end of those are some m10 bolts, with washers and some compression springs. Hilariously enough, these are Bigsby guitar tremolo balancing springs, from a tremolo system invented by a motorcycle engineer, who used Crocker motorcycle valve springs whilst designing his tremolo system. They’re not quite long enough but are good enough for illustrative purposes  so I’ve also ordered some land rover valve springs, which are longer and a bit stiffer..

These aren’t expected to handle all the positive excursion on their own, that will come with a combination of rubber bands and some conical rubber springs acting in the other direction, which will be adjustable.

That’s a 12mm stainless long nut sitting on the chassis rail for illustrative purposes. Basically an internally threaded, A2 stainless tube.
I think that for the negative dampers at any rate, this design is evolving some elements of ‘sliding pillar’ suspension. Except at the rear. Yay… always happy to be the wierdo…
« Last Edit: 03 Jun 22, 10:57 pm by synthpunk »

guest274

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #152 on: 04 Jun 22, 09:12 am »
There's nothing wrong with being a "weirdo" or thinking outside the box. I do it all the time.

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #153 on: 04 Jun 22, 11:24 am »
Heheheh- agreed.

Ive had a bit more of a think and done some more reading and I reckon it should be more accurately called ‘sliding axle’ geometry rather than sliding pillar.
It’s not completely unknown to have it at the rear. Some Altas used it at the rear, apparently.

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #154 on: 06 Jun 22, 08:47 pm »
Some more work on the ‘spenshun - dampers installed

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #155 on: 06 Jun 22, 08:50 pm »
And some new additions to the bodywork- the first load of faux vents screwed into place before glueing. I think they’re a bit long, so theyll all be getting numbered, taken off, shortened and shaped and put back on in the same order…

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #156 on: 08 Jun 22, 11:35 pm »
Okay more fettling, and I’m more or less there. 3 cones of 2 different specs, balancing out against the 2 Volvo mounts, and no rubber bands or bungees. By tightening and loosening the 4 bolts you can take it from what I wanted ( almost a couple inches) to zero trave (also with adjustable roll) and obviously and possibly most importantly; taking unsprung weight from fully loaded at roughly 150 kg down to maybe 30ish kg. Ive added some bump stops to the sides which also help control the roll and rebound, as does 2 of the 4 possible adjustable adjustments. The other 2 control overall travel and ride height, with shims helping out for fine adjustments.. Still needs a panhard rod. After an evenings playing around with it, I’ve got a similar response to jumping up and down in the drivers seat to what I wanted. Ie a bit like my old mini, but smaller.

So: 1 moving part, a total addition of less than 5 kilos in weight to what I started with, all the added weight being well under the axle centreline, a definitely defined roll centre, the previously mentioned sprung/unsprung weight shift, and the ability to go from spec cyclekart (no rear suspension) to full suspension just by adjusting 2 bolts. Win.

When it stops hooning it down with inclement weather I’ll roll her out of the garage and shoot a video of me jumping up and down on the drivers seat in order to demonstrably put my money where my mouth is.

Possibly the biggest unforeseen side effect is that it squeaks like dancing at a goth club when the PA cuts out….

(It’s lots of quite tightly stressed rubber parts, all squeaking away….)

Reminds me of being 21 again….

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #157 on: 08 Jun 22, 11:40 pm »
Actually once it has the panhard rod installed it will be 2 moving parts.

But anyways..   

Simplicated and lightenised….

Jimr1999

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #158 on: 09 Jun 22, 06:28 am »
Sounds like a stroke of genius Synthpunk, I await the video with bated breath!

Quote
Possibly the biggest unforeseen side effect is that it squeaks like dancing at a goth club when the PA cuts out….

A friend (Ahem) tells me that talcum powder is the way to go for rubber squeaking - or at least that's what I thought he said through the ball gag  ;D
Personally I use silicone grease.
JimR
« Last Edit: 09 Jun 22, 06:36 am by Jimr1999 »
... You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #159 on: 11 Jun 22, 10:41 pm »
Tbh the front springs ended up squeakier by the final version of the elastic rear end.once everything was tightened up past finger tight the noises left the room..

 I sacked off the Volvo transmission mounts and replaced them with 4 rubber cones handling the rebound/negative loads.. there’s a single cone in this pic that’s handling the positive loads, which eventually got replaced with 2 cones, quite close to the centre…. The dampers are held relative to the axle via some stays anchored to the axle bearings made of m8 studs and female rod eyes. Anyways. It worked really quite well, and I should have been more than happy, but by this point I’d already come up with another idea….


synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #160 on: 11 Jun 22, 10:57 pm »
Which was to sack off the positive dampers, and replace them with compression springs running over steel sleeves on carriage bolts through the caddy frame, thus going full sliding axle.. this will totally work for off road, theres loads of travel, and even though all the damping is currently all on the rebound, it’s not overtly boingy. A sort of hybrid between the two versions is gonna prolly be best.

The compression springs are 3” motorcycle ‘Bobber seat’ springs.

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #161 on: 12 Jun 22, 06:41 pm »
It’s a good thing I got lazy and didn’t get round to finishing the tailcone cos I’ve just had to cut a third of it away to accommodate the new engine/axle position. The engine now sits basically clear of the bodywork, so all my previous worries about overheating are basically null and void. Yay!

Wheelbase has increase a couple inches from 68 to 70, and ride height is about 3” when loaded.

Chris L

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #162 on: 12 Jun 22, 07:04 pm »
Lookin Bl..ody Good !   ;D

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #163 on: 14 Jun 22, 12:26 am »
Cheers! The space left over in the top of the tailcone has given me an idea, I’m going to add a little compartment for the toolkit, sandwiches, a ball of string, service revolver, medicinal brandy etc. There’s only about three sizes of spanner and maybe half a dozen Allen keys and screwdrivers that would have to be in the toolkit, and 2 of those sizes are on a combi spanner so yay…

*I’ll probably swap the service revolver for a torch and the brandy for a fire blanket tbh….
« Last Edit: 14 Jun 22, 12:32 am by synthpunk »

synthpunk

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Re: Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
« Reply #164 on: 16 Jul 22, 03:36 pm »
Blocks of pink foam slowly becoming less block shaped. I must admit I’m enjoying this more than I thought I would. I’ve made model boats using foam and epoxy and hated every minute of it. Scaling up the process isn’t so bad.