Thursday, June 16, 2022

Garden & Ladder Bars

 




My little landscape garden is beginning to produce - cherry tomatoes, a green pepper and a banana pepper. The melon patch is about 75%. I bought a potted watermelon plant, so it got a good start. I planted a hill of cantaloupes from old seed, but at least one of them sprouted and looks good, even if it was kind of a late start. I've got a couple of other tomatoes planted and they're looking a little peaked. Hopefully, they'll get a growth spurt with all this hot weather and start getting with the program.

I got my bike ride in yesterday but nothing really in the shop. I did scratch my head and spit a little out there and it seemed to be productive. I've had a couple of ideas on what I wanted to do to mount the rear end under the car, both of which included using a radius rod to sort of match the front suspension. Depending on how you slice it, a radius rod set-up needs something to prevent side to side movement - Watts linkage, panhard bar, track locator, or an additional two bars tied to the rear differential and the frame at an angle.


However, the way I'm planning on is a set of ladder bars, the bottom tube of which, will take the place of the traditional radius rod. Rather than the assembled ladder bar being installed plumb, they'll be installed with the top tube leaned over inward at about a 45 degree angle. The ends that fasten to the differential will be solid, rather than a Heim. The end that fastens to the frame will use a tie rod end like I've got on the front suspension.  The two small photos on the right side of the scan will hopefully explain it better. The scan is from the February 2009 Street Rodder magazine, by the way. 

Now that I've decided, I can start making parts even though it's still hot. I'll hang the fan up by the lathe and get going.

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