Torsion bars
A torsion bar behaves EXACTLY like any other spring. Did you read what Dave Morgan wrote? You should, as he explains it better than I do. But I still have it correct. He uses drawings that make it clear.
I should find the book, copy the pages, scan them and post them up.
Of course, I don't know how to do all that stuff.
Yes, the torsion bar behaves like any other spring. But once they're installed into a suspension system, the two suspension systems may not act the same. A torsion bar suspension system does not load the bars in the same way that a coil spring suspension loads the coils. That's why there are different pros/cons to each system.
And yes, you are right about what components work best.
But your understanding of "stored energy" fails basic high school physics. You have no idea what you're talking about with regard to stored energy.
My bad. I'm using stored energy when I should have said POTENTIAL energy.
That was a cursory view of that chapter.
Do you still have the book? If so, are you able to copy that chapter and post in in this thread? In an hour or so I'm going to read the entire chapter again.
It would be nice if you could post it.
Nope, that's not the right word either.
We get it, you know what parts to put into the suspension to run down the track, that's great. Stop trying to explain
why it works, you don't understand it well enough to explain it.
I believe that the book you are referencing is one of the textbooks I had I my Hi-Po drivelines class in college. And you are right, it has a lot of valuable information. I just feel like you are misunderstanding the stored energy part. Light rate springs release their energy through a longer travel, but don't store MORE energy. The weight removed from the front of the car is based only on the power that the car is able to apply to the ground, which would be the same no matter what spring is in it. As soon as either spring is fully extended, the unsprung mass begins working against weight transfer. The lighter rate spring just allows more weight transfer before that happens
Exactly so! :thumbsup:
And that is the type of answer my poser was posed to illicit.
The 440 bars will come off the preload almost right away and it will take many strong men to lift the the front end 6 inches, because the bars are unsprung and NOT helping.
Whereas the 6-cylinder bars have lots and lots of preload, so will help to lift the front end for longer perhaps requiring fewer buddies to get the front end up.
My 1.03 bars have very little preload on them. In fact the one side was difficult to install period with perhaps just 1 turn, (it was a long time ago), required to set the low height.
Again, the word "preload" is being completely misused.
The concept of preload for a coil spring or coilover spring suspension is very different from what happens with a torsion bar suspension. It's not because of the springs acting differently, it's how the suspension loads the springs.
