I should know this since I fantasize about suspension systems all the time, but it turns out that I don't. The De Dion tube on the P6 cars has a sliding joint, but is it SPLINED to prevent rotation, or can the two halves rotate slightly with respect to each other? (I would guess the former is correct). Can anyone help me with this?
Functioning of De Dion tube - How does it work?
- Thread starter Tolks
- Start date
partviking
Member
No as far as I know it does not. The idea behind it was to keep the rear road wheels SQUARE to each other and reduce roll. The fixed length drive shafts do this but the tube has to be sliding to take up slight changes in track. It is not splined though and you can have one side quite high and twisted relative to the other when jacking. As i remember it was an improvement on all other systems which used a splined sliding drive shaft but they used to bind under excessive load.
Wow a debate that was present in the 60s
Well the tube is not splined it can rotate and go in and out
it is oil damped and the main problem with them was a bad groaning coursed by the bushes and the tube finish
we used to separate the tube polish the bearing surfaces with wet and dry till the surface was dull and that cured the problem.
and then the job of refilling the oil takes about 1 hr to refill an empty tube as there is no vent and only a very small filler and hypoid 90 oil
Well the tube is not splined it can rotate and go in and out
it is oil damped and the main problem with them was a bad groaning coursed by the bushes and the tube finish
we used to separate the tube polish the bearing surfaces with wet and dry till the surface was dull and that cured the problem.
and then the job of refilling the oil takes about 1 hr to refill an empty tube as there is no vent and only a very small filler and hypoid 90 oil