Independent Rear Suspension

[Kenny_McCormic]

You can also use this design for the rear, just use rear toe adjustment rods, which is just a piece of tubing with heim joints on either end. Like This: (but not bent)

Double a arms are not any more difficult to make than single a arms or trailing arms. Trailing arms are heavier because they have to be made stronger to fight the torsion forces when cornering hard whereas the natural triangle shape in the a arms makes this of little concern

That's the bottom of a Camry. The toe adjustment rods do need heim joints, the rest can run bushings without binding problems(that's how they comes from the factory).

 

[redsox985]

Why does it look like your arms are welded to the frame? But yes, using the jack shaft as the pivot point is ideal because it eliminates the chain tension issue. Mounting the chain as near to the wheel will help to reduce the clearance issue. You could also use a tiny sprocket on the jack shaft ends to use a smaller rear sprocket. Or, from the torque converter, set up the gearing so that you could run a small sprocket on the rear. Maybe do all of the reduction between the TC and the jack shaft. Say 10 teeth on the TC and 50ish on the jack shaft. Then a 1:1 ratio between each wheel and the jack shaft ends, allowing for a 10ish tooth sprocket on the wheels eliminating the clearance issue.

 

[wingnut]

The arms are not attached to the frame yet. I just propped them up for the photo.

As for clearance; The clearance issues I spoke of were for the single a-arm U-Joint setup. With chain driven trailing arms, the sprockets move with the wheel. I'm also going with deep offset rims so that the rear sprocket is very close to the wheel. The only way for the rear sprockets to bottom out is if the wheel goes into a very deep and narrow rut. Smaller drive sprockets would help here but I'm also limited by the chain having to clear the swing-arm tubes (my arms are kind of tall in the rear).

My setup will be 2 to 1 from the clutch to the jack shaft then 3 to 1 from the jack shaft to the rear.

 

[redsox985]

I'm sure some have seen this story. The hundred+ old cars in a barn. Snopes says its a bust. Either way, I found a good photo. Parallel a-arms with hydraulic brakes inside up front with some interesting open wheeled rear suspension.