How would this suspension work (or wouldn’t it?)…

[OldNYJim]

I’m no mechanical genius, but I can figure out SOME stuff, but this one has me stumped…

MPC oval car front suspension.  From this view, the upper portion makes sense…upper wishbone, coilover shock - simple:

From this angle though, I can’t figure it out…

Is this meant to be a kind of beam axle running the width of the frame, that pivots on those two kinked linkages that run from the beam to the front of the frame?  (Presumably the two outer linkages would form a single sway bar on a real example?)

That’s the best I can figure out - or is this just prototypically inaccurate and I’m trying to justify something that makes no sense here? I can’t see a way that the two sides would work independently of each other (and maybe they shouldn’t anyway)...I did a bunch of research on these 70s oval cars and didn’t come up with much good reference material to match up with what I’m trying to figure out here…

[stitchdup]

would it be some sort of torsion bar suspension

[NOBLNG]

I’m no mechanical genius either, and am not familiar with this type of suspension…if it represents a real one ? Obviously the upper A arms should have a pivoting connection at the frame. It could work if the beam on the bottom was a three piece deal that had a short hinged section on each end.? The rod going to the front would serve to keep it located forward/aft since it doesn’t have a dual mounting setup like the upper A arm. Just my speculation??? I don’t have a stylus for my iPad so this is the best I could do with my fat fingers.?

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by NOBLNG

[NOBLNG]

Similar to this but with the spring extended through to the lower arm.

Edited April 2, 2023 by NOBLNG

[presnell]

Ain't no engineer either but it's a take off of the 60's and 70's ford it's like the design the old Banjo cup cars used.  The 2 rods are strut rods to control front to rear movement of the lower A frames and the other is a anti roll(sway) bar.

[Bainford]

Greg pretty much has it right. It’s very poorly represented, but the lower end of the spring is perched on a lower control arm. The pivots are slightly inboard from where Greg indicated. The pivot bolts would pass through the cross-member just ahead of the radiator. I suspect the bumps molded into the top surface of the cross-member are to accommodate the pivot bolts. 

[NOBLNG]

43 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Greg pretty much has it right. It’s very poorly represented, but the lower end of the spring is perched on a lower control arm. The pivots are slightly inboard from where Greg indicated. The pivot bolts would pass through the cross-member just ahead of the radiator. I suspect the bumps molded into the top surface of the cross-member are to accommodate the pivot bolts. 

You’re right I believe. There, I fixed it.?

[Ace-Garageguy]

47 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Greg pretty much has it right. It’s very poorly represented, but the lower end of the spring is perched on a lower control arm. The pivots are slightly inboard from where Greg indicated. The pivot bolts would pass through the cross-member just ahead of the radiator. I suspect the bumps molded into the top surface of the cross-member are to accommodate the pivot bolts. 

Yup. 100% correct. Presnell's right too.

Unfortunately, the trailing links are kinda visually garbled with the anti-roll bar, and this is the kind of jumbled mess you get when the tooling designers don't know what the parts they're trying to represent actually do.

 

[OldNYJim]

You guys are so awesome - I knew someone would know the answer to this one.  That’s a MASSIVE help - thanks to all (and especially @NOBLNG and @Bainford for giving me some great images to work off of in improving this blobular kit part)

Appreciate it fellas - this is the project that you all helped me with, in case you’re curious…

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by CabDriver