Quote:
Originally Posted by Masteryota
My kart racing buddy thinks I'm insane for running 5 bearings on the axle, and for a second, I thought I was too, but like you guys, I don't want to have to buy another axle. Ever.
Also, I am at the point of mocking up some type of bushing for the swingarm, and I see you running heims. Do you think those will take the lateral forces generated while turning and articulating? I found a bin of different type bushings at my local ACE hardware, and was going to make something up.
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I always get a little tickled when a kart guy puts his two cents in. A pavement cart is a whole different world. Ask him to put some knobbies on his kart and try to keep up.
I got an opinion once that heims in the swing arm would shear. That was a concern with me as well. So, as it is.. I am fortunate enough to work for a international company that designs fabricates and manufactures boom/lift trucks. These are the hydraulic bucket trucks all the utility and tree companies use. we have a top notch engineering staff and tons of vender support.
I showed the engineering team my rear swing arm. As a favor and for their own curiosity they ran a stress analyses using simulating programing wrote to perform stress tests on truck components. In a nutshell, lateral type of forces are transfered to a push pull effect. IE: a side force on the rear right pulls out on the right side heim and pushes in on the left side heim and vice- versa. A push/pull motion rather than a twist or bend. As long as the heims are fixed in place there not enough lateral force to cause shear. Not that it can't happen but the force required to shear one of those heims would cause any sort of fixture failure... like sliding sideways into a tree at 50mph! No matter how that swing arm is attached, it's going to get torn off. Most likely frame mounts or swing arm failure before the heims go. These engineers are responsible for multi-millions in equipment and liability. I listen to what they say