Rear Suspension
This is another area that has benefited from a bit of research. Initially I put medium durometer urethane bushings in the trailing arms. While these bushings are firmer than the stock set-up, they still require the use of lateral stabilizing struts to keep the arm from shifting within the deflection range of the urethane bushing and thus changing the toe-in during cornering. This just isn't a good design and the more I thought about it, the more I felt the need to improve this. The arm has to twist around the pivot point as it travels up and down. The ideal way to allow this to happen while not allowing any lateral play is to use a spherical joint. I ended up using spherical joints from Speedway motors designed for mid-size GM trailing arms. Like so many GM parts, they pressed right into the stock Corvair arms and I tacked them with my welder just to be safe. The tacks can be ground off if I need to replace them. I also drilled and tapped a grease fitting to lubricate them. Since doing mine, several others are offering these on the various Corvair message boards. The solution is elegant in its simplicity and is completely functional.
Any set-up will require fabrication to mate the half shaft to the GM U-joint on the wheel side with the Porsche CV flange on the transaxle. My local driveshaft company was able to source a u-joint flange for a Nissan that had the same 6 bolt CV flange pattern as the Porsche. Now I have a nice set of half shafts.
This is another area that has benefited from a bit of research. Initially I put medium durometer urethane bushings in the trailing arms. While these bushings are firmer than the stock set-up, they still require the use of lateral stabilizing struts to keep the arm from shifting within the deflection range of the urethane bushing and thus changing the toe-in during cornering. This just isn't a good design and the more I thought about it, the more I felt the need to improve this. The arm has to twist around the pivot point as it travels up and down. The ideal way to allow this to happen while not allowing any lateral play is to use a spherical joint. I ended up using spherical joints from Speedway motors designed for mid-size GM trailing arms. Like so many GM parts, they pressed right into the stock Corvair arms and I tacked them with my welder just to be safe. The tacks can be ground off if I need to replace them. I also drilled and tapped a grease fitting to lubricate them. Since doing mine, several others are offering these on the various Corvair message boards. The solution is elegant in its simplicity and is completely functional.
Any set-up will require fabrication to mate the half shaft to the GM U-joint on the wheel side with the Porsche CV flange on the transaxle. My local driveshaft company was able to source a u-joint flange for a Nissan that had the same 6 bolt CV flange pattern as the Porsche. Now I have a nice set of half shafts.
