Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/03/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi, these Mercs were not good, just not as bad as some others :-) Swing axles have excessive camber change by conceptual necessity. Even the heavy, complicated systems where the swing axle pivot was almost right over the other side of the car are poor in this respect. Whilst lowering the pivot reduces jacking it risks expensive bottoming damage and making a stiff enough system with a low pivot is heavy and technically inelegant due to the high point loads. Anyway - on road cars for typical drivers any old system will work - lets face it in some places there are still a large number of live axles being manufactured (!). For enthusiastic drivers swing axles should be avoided IMHO. In the days before the swing axle was sensibly abandoned racing cars did not have much, if any, downforce so the additional problem of camber change with ride height was less of a catastrophe than it would be today. Frank On 30 Mar, 2007, at 18:12, Photo Phreak wrote: > > There were a great many Mercedes-Benz sedans and sports cars that > successfully used a low pivot swing axle. It is all a matter of > good engineering. > > But good engineering and accountants in high authority positions > seem to be contradictory... > > ================================================================== > Frank Dernie <Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com> wrote: The strength > and weakness of Swing Axles is simple physics. > > Strengths:- > > Cost (on a rear engined car) > > Weaknesses:- > > Everything else. Why anybody would use it on a front engined car is a > mystery. Live axles are even cheaper and, though really poor are not > as bad as swing axles. > > There are ways to disguise the shortcomings but they are a bandaid on > an amputation. > > Frank > > ============================================================ > > > > --------------------------------- > Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. > Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information