Upper A-arm drawn in SW

[Kalun D]

Original upper A-arm drawn in Solidworks

[Eric]

Is this something you will be making, or just for art's sake?

Question - why the sleeve over the ball joint carrier, which I assume would be welded in place.

Also I see you have added reinforcing weldments to the join of the arms to the ball joint carrier, but none at the inboard pivot joins. Did you do this because you checked te loads or did a FMEA study?

cheers-
eric

[Kalun D]

Originally Posted by Eric D

Is this something you will be making, or just for art's sake?

Question - why the sleeve over the ball joint carrier, which I assume would be welded in place.

Also I see you have added reinforcing weldments to the join of the arms to the ball joint carrier, but none at the inboard pivot joins. Did you do this because you checked te loads or did a FMEA study?

cheers-
eric

art only

It's a near copy of an original arm, that's the way they built them

SW won't draw these welds, I may go back and build them from scratch, but it would be difficult.

I think the reason there's no lugs on the inner joints is because of the contact angle, it's much longer meaning more welded area than the outer location where it comes straight in.

[Phil]

Kalun
That is a nice rendition of the upper arm. I recently made a pair for a customer and the only difference I can see is the gusset on the upper ball joint sleeve is actually formed over the tube and onto the tubing for the arms. Otherwise thats a really nice drawing. Do you have dimensional data for that arm or just a general shape?
Cheers
Phil

[Kalun D]

Originally Posted by Phil

Kalun
That is a nice rendition of the upper arm. I recently made a pair for a customer and the only difference I can see is the gusset on the upper ball joint sleeve is actually formed over the tube and onto the tubing for the arms. Otherwise thats a really nice drawing. Do you have dimensional data for that arm or just a general shape?
Cheers
Phil

Not sure what you're talking about on the gusset, maybe the photo is unclear. I thought I had it just like you're describing. The welds are not represented in this model.

[Phil]

Kaliun:
Definitely looks correct now, the line across the gusset made it look like separate pieces. Definitely a nice piece of work. It is surprising how lightweight the completed arms are. I did the copies in 4130, and originally the customer had a problem with not getting enough caster so the pieces were fabricated to his spec with the ball joint sleeve moved rearward approx .420. I still have the fixtures for original and altered upper ball joint locations.
Cheers
Phil

[Kalun D]

Originally Posted by Phil

Kaliun:
Definitely looks correct now, the line across the gusset made it look like separate pieces.

I'll have to remember that. The view is set to "edges on" which shows the transition lines. I get so used to it when drawing as a visual cue but it may detract from real representation.

[Jay Cushman]

Heres my original set for comparison.