Re: Wonderful World of Wedges by Willy

[n9ads@domain.elided (Howard R Pletcher)]

Fat part forward/fat part rearward depends upon whether your springs are
on top or the axle or below.  Look a grocery cart as a extreme example of
caster--the contact point of the wheel is way behind the pivot point. 
This is what you are trying to achieve with your wedges.  You want the
pivot line thru the center of the ball joints extended to the road to be
ahead of the actual tire contact point, which means the top joint should
be behind the lower one.  Having the top joint ahead of the lower results
in negative caster, which is an unstable condition--the forces on the
wheel are tying to turn it all the time rather than going straight ahead.

 If the springs are below the axle as on a stock Scout, putting the fat
part forward rotates the top of the axle to the rear and increases the
caster.  If the springs are on top, putting the fat part to the rear
rotates the axle the right way.

Howard Pletcher
Howteron Products Scout Parts

On Mon, 24 Aug 1998 21:20:29 -0400 Tom and Amanda Lang
<rustnrot@domain.elided> writes:
>"Willy Cunningham" <willy_cunningham@domain.elided> writes:
>
>>Subject: Wedgee
>>
>>Tom wondered as he wandered,
>>
>>>P.S. the "fat" part of the wedge would be towards the rear of the
truck, so
>>>the top ball joint would be ahead of the bottom ball joint when going
down
>>>the road, correct?
>>
>>nope, fat part of the wedge should go toward the front. I did this
little 
>>operation (which yielded a huge improvement) about a month ago and the
>>wisdom of this digest (after some debate) dictated "fat forward".
>>I used 3deg. shims. Make sure your spring locator bolt is long enough
to 
>>go thru the shim and into what ever it goes into. 
>
>Ahhhh yes, *fat forward* does now make sense.  I was tilting the truck
and
>not the axle (or something like that).  Putting the *fat forward* does
>indeed tilt the upper ball joint ahead of the lower ball joint, right?
>
>

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