Brooklands Bentley

Managed to get a few hours this arvo to finish off the front beam and suspension, I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

The leaf springs needed the leaves tying together. I think that normally they are drilled and pinned but as the springs I made are only 1" wide I decided not to drill them for fear of weakening them too much. Instead I ran a bead of weld along the outside to hold the leaves together. I then bent some flat bar around the spring to both cover the weld and hold the spring together. I think they've come out pretty good, I'm very happy with them. To finish them off I welded up the eyes on the end to give them some extra strength.

The beam and kingpin mountings that I had made previously just needed to be welded together. To do this I had to set everything out so that the kingpins had some castor angle and a little bit of camber. The caster angle is what helps the steering return to the centre and a little bit of camber helps with grip.

After laying everything out on the welding bench and setting the angles I tacked everything together before welding it up. I added some spring perches to the bottom of the beam to allow the springs to sit correctly. The width of the chassis puts the springs directly on the edge of the lower bends on the front beam, which would have made them impossible to bolt on properly. So to fix this I welded some small lengths of angle iron so that they sit parallel to the ground. This give the springs a nice flat area to mount to.

All I have to do now is make some keeper plates for the U bolts, turn down some bushes, weld the spring hanger brackets to the chassis and then I can get the beam mounted up. There's still the steering arms to sort out, but I will not be able to make those up until the rear axle is in place and the steering column has been made.

When the front beam is mounted I will be able to see how the axle sits relative to the chassis, which will then tell me where I need to mount the rear axle. Would be good to finally get it on four wheels and rolling.

There's a bunch more photos in the gallery if you are interested in how I made the beam and leaf spring.

 https://cyclekarts.com.au/build-pages/1-micks-cyclekart-build/albums/23-suspension-and-steering