I am at the rear end part of my project '48 ford coupe custom,I am planning air bags for the rear... definately,however i am trying to decide on which route to take...3 or 4 link set up.Please give me your feedback,pro or con.Oh,and how about some tips on what material to use...example,do the arms need to be made of round tubing?whats wrong with using square tubes?etc.I am going back outside now to clean up the frame an do some measurments,i'll check back later,hope you guys give enough info.I would like to get the rear done by next week!
I think he's talking about a triangulated 4-link, where the front mount for the upper bars are towards the center of the vehicle. The bottom bars are parallel, the top bars form a triangle. This stops the rear end from moving side-to-side, and eliminates the need for a panhard bar. GM used this in some cars in the 70s, 80s, 90s.
I guess I should have used the word triangulated instead of splayed. Over the years there have been variations to the theme on the triangulated/slayed 4 link rear suspensions on production cars. The prevalent system was used by GM on the mid size and full size cars utilizing lower arms parallel to the center line of the car with the upper arm attaching near the center of the rear end housing and the front attaching further apart at the frame. There were some cars (I can not recall which) that the upper arms attached near the outer ends of the axle housing and near the center of the chassis. There were also some fords that the upper arms were parallel to the center line of the chassis and the lower arms mounted at an angle to the center line of the chassis, though that system wasn't used for very many years. Get the Carrol Smith book "Engineer to Win" and the Steve Smith Autosports book "Paved Track Stock Car Technology". What you learn from those books can easily be transferred to a hot rod for the street.
I forgot about that.....the top "triangle" is reversed on some of those cars. I think chevelles were setup this way, with the top bars connecting towards the center of the rear end? Suspension design is a cool subject, I need to decide what to do on my coupe, thanks for the info Wesley.
Whar rear end are you using? We have an s-10 rear end in the 40 merc chassis I am working on and I have enough room for the bags, triangulated upper bars, and the exhaust to run through. Not sure how different your chassis is, but it should be at least close...
stay away from streetridepro/AIM/Chassis Tech or whatever they are calling themselves these days. There are better products out there. They are cheap for a reason.
Nope. That is what the 3rd link is for. There needs to be verticle seperation between the bottom two and the top. Most people mount the loweres below the axle by a couple of inches and the 3rd link up on top of the diff. In the side view it looks like a 4 link.
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