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4 link starts in the morning

M

Mustang Mike

Member
Dave, I looked at the literature and they don't mention anything. I even looked in their catalogs and nothing is advertised about the spring specifications. I will take some more detailed pics tomorrow and measure the adjustment. I do know there are three different height positions for the springs on the perches supplied with the kit. I hope all goes well. By the way, did I mention the significant other backed into the rear of my baby? Good thing I'm easy going or I'd be in jail right now.
 
IIRC on my Gbar setup they use 175 lb springs as a starting point. They step up to 200-220 for race applications. Good luck on the install Mike and I am sorry to hear about the fender bender. Hopefully there isn't much damage. Time to find a way to have your wife work the damage off. :naughty
 
Got going around noon today. I laid everything out to take inventory. It appears that everything is there. I can tell you one think for sure. I heard the installation instructions sucked ass and I can attest to that. I got about half way done today. Tomorrow I will cut off the boxed in perches I just installed this last summer :doh. That's going to be a bear because they were burned in there with a stick welder. I cut the tabs off the rubber baby bumpers and gained about 2 inches in the wheel well. I stuck a 295 up there and still have plenty of room. That homo holding the tire is my chubby little buddy. Here are some pics.
[img]http://i322.photobucket.com/al...valleyfirearms/4linkinstall029.jpg[/img]/url]
 
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So what are your impressions so far about the quality of the kit? Does it look well made? Are the welds good? It is looking pretty good from the pictures you posted.
 
The kit does seem very well made. The welds are good and deep. I wish the directions were better. The bracket that bolted to the driver's side frame rail had to be taken out so the bolt holding the bar that goes from one side to the other could be bolted in. You can see in the last pic that there was no way the bolt could have gone through if the bracket were in place. I also pulled all the bolts back out and put washers that were supplied. I'm not complaining much since it went together pretty easily. I was going to weld it in after everything was in place. I'm having second thoughts on that though. It seems pretty darn tight and well fitting. I had to pound the brackets onto the frame rails with a big hammer. I like that knowing that everything was tight fitting. I'll post the rest of the pics tomorrow night when I'm done.
 
I am just about finished. We called it quits a little early. I have the 4 link in and need to put the emergency brake cables back in and finish the frame rail connectors. My buddy Jeremy welded the brackets to the rear end. I wish I had done it since the welds don't look all that great. Overall I am happy with the install. There were numerous left over nuts and bolts :-\. I guess the bolt packet may be for other model years as well. All I know is all the holes were filled. Here are more pics. I took some rear end pics with the car resting on the ground but they are too dark. There are three holes for height adjustment. We started out with the shock in the bottom hole. I had about 1 1/2" clearance from the lip to the tire. We moved the shock to the second hole and there was about 3". In the last pic you can see how much more room I have for bigger tires. Right now the 245s on the rear are 9 1/2".
[img]http://i322.photobucket.com/al...lleyfirearms/4linkinstall018-1.jpg[/img]/url]
 
Resurrecting this one as the pics will help to explain my question. I am looking to gain more room for larger tires out back on my 65. I want to mini-tub it by sectioning the wheel wells and pulling the inner back flush to the rear frame rail. I can gain some good space this way but almost all of it for naught with the leaf spring suspension sitting in the way. I'm thinking 4 link but all the basic set-ups available place the links and shock/coils mounts back out in the same area. The exception being the Martz unit but I'm not real happy with the way they mount the shock/coils...seems flimsy. So...

I like the Heidt's unit but it puts the links etc. right back in the leaf spring location. I'm wondering, what if I switched the forward link brackets from side to side and mounted them INSIDE the rail instead of outside? This would entail making some modifications as well to the housing brackets as the shock angle would have to be changed...I think. Any issue with having the link bracket and shock bracket separate in relation to alignment on the housing tube? As delivered they are in the same plane. I am thinking the links would be positioned inside the shock to maintain a better angle on the shock.
 
Angling the links inboard (at the front) tends to increase loose roll steer.


I'd be very careful when making any design changes to any given kit. A LOT more engineering has gone into the design than it looks.


With this said, have you ever thought about just making your own 4Link rear suspension? It's not rocket science, it just takes a little bit of reading/understanding.

The shocks will run you ~$4-500. The links can be had for under $300. The rest is just design and welding in some brackets/bracing/mounting locations.


http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/4link.shtml

http://www.muddtanks.com/4LinkSuspArticle.htm
 
Wasn't going to angle the links, just shift them over to the other side of the rail. They would still be square as I would move the bracket placement on the rear as well.

As far as making my own, I kinda view this idea as doing such with the exception of having the brackets and parts somewhat pre-fabbed. I really like the Heidt's design short of link location. I think the panhard could be improved a bit as well. With the pricing you give it's only a couple hundred more to buy and tweak.

What I don't know (not an engineer!) is if the changes I am considering cause new issue(s). The only thing I think raises concern is if i have to move the lower shock mount inwards. That would cause it to become more vertical. I see them mounted this way on drag cars all the time. Street and track cars are always at angles. I presume this is about body roll and possibly aids in locating the rear end under load? I can't see how moving the links in ~4" a side would make any difference in them performing correctly.
 
There are some good pictures of a Mini tub in this thread over on another site.

http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64516

144.jpg


153-2.jpg
 
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Yep. That's the exact thing I intend to do. To get any benefit, however, you gotta lose the leafs. I'll check out the link in a bit and see what they're doing about suspension. Maybe it'll hold my answer. Thanks!
 
Approximately how large of a tire are you trying to install? By relocating the inner fender flush with the existing frame rail, I'd think a 295/40 would fit with room to spare and possibly even a 315/40. That's a LOT of tire.
 
The stock spring location is on the wheel side of the frame rail. Unless you lose the spring you don't gain any usable space by mini-tubbing.
 
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