Finally got my rear hung......

Since I am still unemployed and I have finished most of the honey-do’s around the house, I decided to do a bit of work on my pickup…….

I had to remount the 4 bars splayed out to fit the shocks between them and the frame so that I did not have to have an ugly bracket for the shocks….

And I finally decided on a Watts link instead of a Panhard rod to locate the rear…

I think it cam out rather well…….

I built all of the suspension components but the bushings and the rod ends.

A little more work on the rear kick to make it look better, and I can move on to the transmission mount……..

 

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wow to me that looks amazing
thanks for the update
Garth

 

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Looks good. Does that connector on top of the housing pivot with the up and down movement of the rear? It seems like that would really save room vertically.

 

Post deleted by dirty dug

 

There are rod end on both ends of the watts links, and the center bracket swivels. It keeps the rearend centered through out the total up and down travel.

A Panhard rod moves the rearend side to side a little bit as the rod moves up and down past center.....

 

Post deleted by dirty dug

 

Most of the ones I have seen are mounted to the rear of the rearend. By putting it on the top I think it looks cleaner.

I get full movement of the rearend up and down, as far as the shocks will allow.

 

Here is a closeup of center pivot.....

 

Post deleted by dirty dug

 

Sorry, I didn't read the part about the center piece pivoting. Interesting approach.

 

Nice quality work !

 

Hey man....real nice fab work. Especially on the watts link.

Amazing what u can do when you have the nous and the time eh!! I was unemployed for some time with very little money but the creative juices were flowin' and I fabbed everything for very little $$$ !!!

Rat

 

I would think a person would want that center pivot to be a bushed or bearing connection. Things will wear out too quickly if it's not. If you got something hidden in there excuse me.

 

There is a bronze bushing inside the center pivot

 

[ QUOTE ]
Most of the ones I have seen are mounted to the rear of the rearend.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nice clean solution.I'm guessing the center pivot rides on a bronze bushing.
Jack Roush used a similar set up on the rear of their Trans Am cars,only mounted on the bottom of the center section.Mounting on the bottom would give a lower rear roll center,desireable for racing but not an issue on the street.

 

They doubted my bellcrank too.........

 

interesting approach. all the watts link setups i've ever seen had the links mounted "high & low" rather than "front & back". after giving this much thought i can't see any reason that vertical oriented mounting would work any better or worse than horizontal, as long as you have the rod ends oriented like you do.

the one thing i believe will happen with your setup is that there will be a hell of a twisting force exerted on the vertical stud in the top of the housing, due to the "turn downs" on the two ends of the center link. that puts the axis of the force somewhere other than in line with the center bushing.

don't know if i explained myself very well on this last point.

(added by edit): i understand that you need the direction of the pivot on both ends of your links to be in the same direction, but maybe you should remake that short center link with a couple of bends in it so that a line drawn through the center of those two holes ALSO pases through the very center of the center vertical hole. just a thought.

btw; very nice work.

 

Nice job! (You are gonna do some additional boxing on the frame in that area, right? )
We had a big discussion on the HAMB last year about this type of mounting...it was suggested that it wouldn't work!
I think it will work just fine.
If I were doing it I'd try to brace the center pivot bolt by adding a top plate that folds down on either side and welds to the housing, thus mounting the pivot in double shear.

Since the HAMB discussion, I've discovered that a suspension company called Thompson Motorsports uses a similar, but bottom mounted, design on their early Mustang coilover retrofit suspensions. (It's a piece of work too!) On the TM kit, the center pivot is formed from two separated plates with a bush down the middle and sandwiched studs sticking out at both ends for the Heims to slip over. That would increase the rigidity of the pivot but would also raise the height of your setup slightly.

Thinking about it...I wonder would it be an idea to add an extra thickness of plate to your pivot, welded down both sides (but NOT across) just to limit the potential for stress cracking at the pivot center hole?
Just a thought...

Man! Shes gonna be low!!!

Bill

Hmmmm....Atch and I are thinking alike on the need for some reinforcement in that area...

 

Atch, That's an interesting thought. I really don't want to get much higher than I am already......

Even tho the 4 bar bars are 36 inches long, I built them out of oversized DOM tubing, so I don't expect more twisting than can't be absorbed in the rod ends on the Watts links.

Hacker Bill. Yes, the complete frame will be boxed, and I plan on boxing the tops and bottoms of the brackets for the Watts Links, leaving just enough room to get the rod end in and give it full range of motion.

I like your thoughts about strengthing the center pivot....

I have strengthened the rearend hosing inside where the center pivot bolts attaches as well......

 

that looks great!
I have a design for a watts link for my '53 suburban,
(it needs it)

from the pictures,
visualizing it move up and down seems correct.

can you take pics of it at a hi and lo?

reinforcing the top bolt with a top bent-strap/bolt-on
might be a good idea if you are a hard driver,
but those rearends are kinda thick anyway.

thanks

what does it go under again?

tp aka zibo

 

It's in my 56 Chev P/U. Running a Cadillac 500 and turbo 400.....

I have added some of the suggestions from the board, and I will post updated pics as soon as my camera battery recharges.....

 

no wonder everything's so heavy duty
how much is gas over there?
travis

 

If you gotta worry about the price of gas, don't build a hotrod....

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Full up travel.....