CAV Rear Suspension

Hi Guys,

The CAV (pre 100 production) standard suspension incorporates bushings that work extremely well in street cruising situations however not for high power or track use.

CAV Canada developed new lower control arms that replaces the inboard and forward bushings with large Monoballs and the rear bushing with an adustable rod end for toe adjustment.The factory setup required shims to adjust toe.

While the new arms look more like the GT40 parts, we choose to go with a slightly heavier DOM steel tube and avoid bent tubes in the design. The toe adjuster rod end also has a trick feature that prevents side loading of the joint without having to ad spacers between the upright and the rod end.

Now the car can be dialed in quickly, acurately and put the tire in the center of the wheel arch without binding the bushings and using huge shims on the upright. Cool eh?

Each manufacturer does their own thing, perhaps you see something here that may be usefull on your car. For CAVs the Revised Lower Control Arms are available for both wide track (Gulf) and standard cars now through CAV Canada.

Cheers

From above,

We've made this a bolt in part that retains the factory upper and lower trailing arms, upper lateral link and clears the parking brake caliper brackets and chassis.

The lower shock mount has been relocated inward making it less inclined which is better for maintaining spring rates through suspension travel.

The design of the revised arm also provides rearward inclinaton of the upright which increases rear anti-squat geometry.

Hi guys,

Rather than tie up more space here with a CAV specific modification, I've posted more pics in the CAV section, here's the link http://www.gt40s.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/63468/an/0/page/0#63468

Cheers

Ian,
In your first pic I noticed the rod that goes to the rear and works with the support of the rear hatch is attached at the rod end. Isn't that tab a bit of a weak link there. I see most attached to the cross member above the transaxel. I am getting ready to replace mine in that it is just a 1" steel strap which can bend rather easily. My strap did when I lifted the rear of the car by hand(frame and spider only) to reposition on my homemade stand. The load forces can't be much if that is all the force it took to deform it. I was thinking of making it with the same thickness 1" square stock as the small frame pieces and bolting it to the cross member. Yours seems to put a load, although not a large one on that tab/rod end or the bolt. What I am getting to is that at speed the forces on the rear hatch will be put on that tab/bolt/rodend junction. If I can bend my strap piece with about 100# of lift force, then some of that force will be translated to the fiberglass, which can't be good. If attached to the cross member, a tube for the bolt will have to be cut into the square stock for the bolt that will hold it. What are your thoughts on this?? I love the modifications you are doing. they look so useful and practical.

Bill

Hi Bill,

I'd have to see your rear body support to comment on it's deflection with only the lifting force on the body. If it's made of flat stock (strap) rather than tube there's most of your problem. These arms operate in tension/compression so you can see how the tubing will outperform flat stock.

About the tab coming off the upper lateral link inboard end, the tab is quite thick and the attachment point is as close as possible to the retaining nut. This means it takes a lot of force to bend the tab. CAVs' have used this method on the upper end of the rear body mount all along with no failures or bent parts to my knowledge.

We did rotate the tab 90 degrees inward to make more room for the cv joints and drive shafts on the ZF application.

If you'll send some pics of your current setup I'd be glad to offer some guidance. Thanks for the compliment too, There's no end to the upgrades that can be done to suit personal needs and performance.

Cheers

This pic will help see the rest of the story. The newer version of the CAV mount is on the right and you can see the Getrag transaxle mounts are integral to the design. This is a tough mother of a bracket.

On the left is our modification of an older style mount. This is for a ZF application so the Getrag mounts are gone and the size of the upper tubes reduced since we're no longer holding up half the drivetrain plus roughly a third of the rear body section. The tabs in question are shown rotated to horizontal, done to increase space below the tubes for driveshafts.

Everyones car is different and there's lots of choices to make in accomodating a revision to an existing product.

As you know, or will soon find out, when you change one part it has a chain reaction that affects other parts/systems you may not have wanted to get involved with in the first place...

Cheers