I know it's been a couple weeks since the last update, so here is the latest!
This little piece has been taking up a lot of my time. The first version I made didn't work out right, so I had to remake it. Call it R&D, I suppose. It wasn't so much a failure, as it was a learning experience, but here is the result of the 2nd try, and it's a good one.
My new rear frame cross member. I wanted to rework the truck's rear suspension links, and stiffen the whole chassis up, so rather then make more parts to bolt onto the original (smaller) rear member, I redesigned it, and made a completely new one. I should note that I was planning on machining the gusset straight, along the bottom edge, but after doing the angle cuts up the sides, I took it out of the vise to reposition it and thought 'hey, that looks like of cool, maybe I'll leave it looking like a upside down 'W' or a Batman symbol.'
What do you guys think? Kind of custom looking, if not 100% prototypical.
It ties the rear Osswald suspension trunnions into the upper frame connectors and chassis, as well as providing a better place for the axle's upper 4 links to mount to. You'll see more photos of that, in a bit, but first.....
One thing that I didn't exactly like about the Osswald suspension was the way the upper 4 links crossed over each other. It might as well have been a 3 link suspension, so I changed it to a true 4 link, and made a center mount for each axle.
Here is a photo of the new rear cross member, tied into the Osswald trunnions, along with the new axles and their proper 4 link geometery.
From the top....
From the rear....
And as long as I was in the mood of changing things over in the rear, I picked up a set of new driveshafts for the Kenworth.
These Ultra Scale shafts are beautiful! The shaft which runs between the tandems is border line short, although it is not really in any danger of coming apart. I may have to buy a little longer one, and cut it to length to fit perfectly, but for now, it will be okay!
Thanks for looking. Enjoy the weekend.