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Hello,
So im designing the rear suspension on the locost and i have been dealing with the issue of the rear drivetrain, specifically the combination. I will be running a ford 8.8 rear end. I have the axles, the pumpkin, the uprights and hub. The uprights are terrible for my suspension geometry so i have been trying to find a cost effective way to utilize my setup. I have come up with the idea of cutting out the wheel bearing housing right out. When taking the dust shield off from the uprights, i had an extremely hard time removing the 3 bolts that hold it together. I was thinking of using those 3 bolt holes and drilling a 4th one to hold the wheel bearing and hub assembly to my custom upright. I was thinking of drilling a 4 inch hole through a 5mm thick piece of steel which will be the face of the upright and have the wheel bearing housing slide through it from the back and then have the hub pressed in from the front side. I have a few pics that show some dimensions. All the input will help me so throw out your ideas please and thank you.

What size bolts are those? They don't look very large from the pictures.

Is that upright aluminum?

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-Andrew
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the bolts are 3/8 and 1 inch long. yes those are aluminum uprights? any ideas if this will work?

If that is a tapered roller bearing. It's design to take the high thrust loads in only one direction! Dave W

No, this is probably not good - but I'm a little uncertain what you are doing. I think at the point your talking about you would replace the aluminum bearing holder part with a stout piece of steel tubing which you machine the inside to precisely hold the bearing and have circlip etc. to do this stuff properly. You would weld this tube into the rest of what you are building for an upright. Flat plate will not do a good job of making an upright.

You might get some ideas from off road types who build these things. Search for Micro-stubs etc. Also the Haynes roadster uses fabricated steel uprights and would give you an idea of what's involved. Those uprights also accomplish the things I think you are looking for like lowering the lower control arm mount points. You would have to adapt etc. and this should be done carefully, it is not trivial.

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You could consider using hub unit bearings that will bolt up to your custom uprights like Team 321 does. You will have to make custom half shafts.

This might sound a bit crazy, but why not just design a rear suspension that's NOT terrible with the uprights you have?

If I'm understanding you correctly, what you are describing is basically turning the center section of the existing upright into an aluminum 'bolt-on hub' that bolts into your upright from the back side of fabricated steel uprights. It *might* work fine, but I certainly wouldn't stake my reputation on it. If you're dead set on making uprights that fit your geometry, rather than the (recommended) other way around, I would probably turn the OD of the aluminum center section to fit snugly inside of a tubular bore in the upright, which then supports the aluminum hub carrier radially. That way all the bolted face is really just holding it laterally, which would allow you to probably use lighter gauge steel for construction of the uprights.

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-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie