WORKING SUSPENSION

[67PontiacGTO]

I have been looking around and seen people's models that have working suspension. Can any one please tell me ow its done?

[mopar1]

Ok, first off..be prepared to do alot of mods on the axle and the frame, plus alot of scratch building. Second, come to the work bench with ALOT of patience. be prepared to build the same thing more than once as it does take some testing.
You basically have three options. trailing arms with coils, leaf springs, or A-arms with coils. A-arms would be very very difficultand Ive never done one, so ill focus on the other two options.
the key is to emulate a real system, so start off by doing a little research and learning how a real suspension system works. The closer you get it to the real thing, the better chance it has of working.
Trailing arms and coils.... get some sheets of plastic for making new brakets, and some aluminum tubing in a couple sizes. clean all the brackets off the axle and the frame so you can make new brackets. make sure the brackets are big enough to allow the trailing arms to move. once your brackets are made, just set the axle in place and measure from bracket to bracket to see how long the arm needs to be. set it all together and check it as you might have to remake the arms a couple times to make it fit. next, just throw some coils in there and ta-da.. now it is hard to find springs soft enough so you will probably have to add weight to the truck. be careful not to add too much weight, or the axles wont hold. my mthod for this is to get the frame and suspension mocked up and tape the interior bucket onto it. pile all the interior into the bucket and throw the body on to see how it acts. to add weight, i use a 2 part epoxy to fill up components and sometimes some lead weight inside of them if needed. I also add weight to the tires. this works well because it will increase the flex alot, but it wont affect the ride hieght. I use hollow tires and lead fishing weight. basically just put it inside the tire before putting the tire on the rim. this adds alot of weight and helps pull the tire down to the ground while flexing.
Leaf springs... you can use plastic or metal... biggest thing is to have moving shackle so it can compress properly. this is easier than coils because you can adjust the stiffness by adding or subtracting leafs in the leaf pack.
Now, the important things to remember ar#1.. the wheel will move front to rear while it moves up and down, so keep that in mind when youre setting wheel placement...#2.. if the axle moves, then the driveshaft and the shocks must be allowed to move also.. make them out of aluminum tubing. heres the link to my photo bucket.. there are three trucks there with working suspension for you to look at( leaf spring, coils, and coilovers)
s142.photobucket.com/albums/r93/mopar1_mech/
if you have any more questions, ask away..
PS... buy a box of straight pins.. they are great for mounting shocks and drivelines.
good luck and be sure to post pics of your work here for us to see.. there is alot of good modelers here, and a decent handful that do mostly trucks and can throw some excellent advice your way
Mopar1