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Bracing up rear axle

2K views 28 replies 9 participants last post by  mike saunders 
#1 ·
i am bracing up my rear axle in my 96 ng900 much like kevin yankton did on his. ive took my car to a fuew scca autocross events, 2 track days in pueblo co on there road coarse, and many moutian drives scaring the shit out of whoever the pasanger hapens to be.

this has taken a tole on my original axle and i am wearing out rear tires in about a month, i just bought another axle from east of sweeden a local saab parts supplier. i orderd new polly urithain bushings for it from elk parts and started making bracing for it. ile post pics as it comes together.

here is a pic of the rear axle that i am bracing
 

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#4 ·
Very interesting. My tire wear has been less than desirable as of late (168k miles of Boston/Maine roads) and this is a neat project to keep in the back of my mind for when things get really bad.
 
#5 ·
The problem your going to have is when you try and weld that bracing to the axle beam. The heat is going to distort the axle because you don't have a jig.

Abbott motorsports already has a race prepped rear axle for the ng900/og9-3 but I know of nobody who has bought it and had it shipped state side.
 
#7 ·
+1...

The stiffer torsion beam is just an inexpensive OEM way of altering spring rate, which you should just do directly by going to stiffer springs.

But as Nick says, the fronts are key for handling, and the trick is going to be balancing the fronts while stiffening the rears and not making them have crazy wheel hop....which would totally kill traction on rough corners....
 
#9 ·
Keep the Eibachs. The B&Gs are only stiff for part of the length of travel because of the funky construction. I hate em.

A couple of the British guys (ragtopcav maybe?) are using spring inserts within the rear coils -- the kind of helper springs used for towing loads.

I'd assume that if Nick is talking about race-ready dampers, then stiffer rears would also be part of the equation. The suspension engineers at Koni can probably whip up a combo in half a beer.
 
#11 ·
How about going to something like air bag inserts?
That was a cheap way to gain traction in a RWD car that did not have posi.
You could preload the right rear tire by filling the bag up.

I'd assume this would effectively make the spring act stiffer there by creating less weight transfer?
 
#12 · (Edited)
i have already tried to shim it out and it is so bad that it is unsafe to use that amount of shims. i will take a pic tomarow of it from the back when i say it is bad i mean really bad. i know about the heat issue i think i will be ok just doing small stitch welds and leting them cool before finishing them, it would be nice to have a jig but making one would just take to much time for only one axle if i were to make a bunch of them i would, but it wouldnt be worth the time to me. ile post some more pics tomarow i didnt have time to work on it today.
 
#15 ·
I think you'll be OK welding on it if you do what you said, stitch and cool. We weld this way at work even robotically to keep the heat down and minimize warpage.

It is very cool you are taking the initative to do this, the results may or may not be what you expected, but I don't think you can make it any worse, and the fact you are doing it in conjunction with a repair makes super sense!!

There are tons of people around here that say they are setting their cars up for the track and what not and don't actually track there car so good on you for finding a fault, and trying to remedy it!

Tboy
 
#22 ·
here is how the piece of tubing are going to be. this is not the actual piece of tubig im going to be using its just a piece i has laying around i think it is part of the headers i was making, im going to use 1 1/8th OD .060 wall DOM in place of this piece this is just to show you how it will look.
 

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#23 ·
here is a pic with bolt piecces of tubing, it will not interfear with the shock mounting it will be angled slightly downward so that the lower shock bolt it still acsesable and i have to make shure that also clears my GS 25.5mm rear sway bar when i fit the pieces of tubing.
 

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#27 ·
I am very interested in this!

The turn-in feel in this platform is terrible so is the camber. From what overpriced Abbott Racing says about Saab's getting the rear right is key. I believe them!

Doing something like this is needed state-side. Maybe it will help those auto-xers and weekend racers on the board get better times... Or help joe's like myself that go to a track event or 2 a year and want to enjoy it.

I look forward to more!
 
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