Been looking at the 2 link rear setup on Fonze's Merc. Looks kind of interesting. Anybody have anymore how to pix or sites? Anyone have any suggestions or opinions on this type of setup?
This is how that process was explained to me once. It sounded a little too simple to be true, but here it is. 1-cut the front eye off your spring. Weld a piece of square or rectangular tubing the same width of your old spring to the eye. 2-on the other end of the tubing add a pin and a hole just like your old spring. Clamp this tube in place where the old spring used to be, between your axle/lowering blocks and spring plate/shock mount. 3-add plate to tubing for lower bag mount. Check out the other Fonze, Fonzedesign's site: fonzedesign merc project
Yeah....that'll work as long as you retain the rubber biscuits at the forward end of those tubular links.
You would have to replace the rubber bushings. As for the 2x3 rec tubing would .125 wall be thick enough? Or should it .250 wall?
This is not practical. It has been discussed many times here. I think there is a tech discussion about it. You will tear either the link or the rear end apart sooner or later.I have followed a car on the freeway and witnessed one come apart.Extreamly dangerous. I have seen chunks of the rear axle ripped out.I have seen bolts sheared off. DON'T try this. Good luck!
i don't doubt what you folks are saying, but what is the difference in this basic architecture,and the design of the "truck arm "suspension as used on the 67 chevy pickup,and (a much beefier design) the rear suspension design of most nascar vehicles. inquiring minds want to know.
Those designs bring the forward ends of the arms fairly close together. They are also much longer and therefore more flexable.Say the front of your arms are 4 ft apart and the rear wheels are 6 ft apart .If you go thru an incline or bump so that one wheel moves up 6 in more than the other, then one end of the bar will have to move up 4in. respect to the other bar. Can you imagine the force required to bend those bars so the ends are 4 in. differentin heigth.Thats how they get ripped off.
This has been talked about and there are lot of folks here that like to say it does not work but there are alot of trucks and some cars that have been done that way without any problems. (I would like to hear what Fonzie says about it now that he has put some miles under it). With airbags and a set of shocks with a panhard bar there is no reason it will not work as the front bushing allows it to twist (plus with individual air the car is not going to lean much anyways (it may not work with standard coil overs).. It should be plenty strong also.. my 2 cents
You guys should ask MOFOMOD he has that setup on his 59 fairlane, I know it's been done like two years ago.
If one wheel goes over a bump, at speed, that side will want to lift pretty damn quickly, but seeing as the two arms are locked soild to the axle, and can't flex, it will either lift the whole of the rear of the car, or distort the axle or arm. Just like a motorcycle swingarm: you can't lift one side without the other raising too. That car axle is the same, just pivots the other way round.
As far as Chevy pic-up rear end trailing arms, they are really two pieces of channal riveted together in about10 spots and probably flex alot when the suspension goes through its movements.
balderdash! if you do the short parallel arms, mounted to the old leaf spring mount, where it attaches to the axle, use u-bolts like the leaf spring did, and be sure to use rubber bushing in the front of the control arms, as long as you are not trying to do circus tricks nothing will break. now if you weld the control arms right to the axle housing, you are simply not practicing proper suspension design. i have a theory, many people CAUSE more problems, because they are told they NEED to run individual controls on each corner of the suspension for airbags, but they end up getting carried away with silly movements, not sound suspension design. my curent project is not road ready yet, but it is incorporating a fairly basic f+b air setup, using long trailing arms similar to the chevy truck arms, and huge anti-sway bars both front and back, should stay flat that way. if you never have the "inclination" to park your car at a 45° angle, you have a much less chance of breaking things. nothing wrong with performing tricks with your car, but that is how stuff breaks, i know i've been thru such phases.
I am running one control to the rear.. The only problem that comes from running one controller for both the right and left is yu can get lean as the air can travel from side to side.. I have run a single set up on more then one ride and have friends that have done it the same way.. I notice the lean more on my current set up (4 link) vs when I had it on a leaf spring set up... It did improve when I put the sway bar on... You do get better control with a controlled for each cormer.
A group of us had driven down to Corpus. I was following a model A with a couple and their three kids.The A started to weave and tookoff into the median. My friend was able to stop it from going into oncoming traffic. It swerved accross two lanes and ended up almost to the service road. The only reason it wasn't an accidernt was that he was using the model A rear spring. When the left rear arm seperated the spring kept the axle from coming around. I've seen plenty of this in the 43 years I have owned early iron.I don't want anybody killed if I can spread the word. Best engineering is required when you drive these things.You will never find an engineer that will sign off on this design.
Let me ask a related question. I've got an Olds with the pickup style triangulated arms. Since it was torque tube the arms bloted to the rear, which I can weld, but there is about 1/2" of rubber between the two. Is this enough of a problem I need to add a torque arm? big block, 4000 stall and M/T 29x 12.50
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