Watts

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Willowbilly3

A *real* tin magnet
Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Messages
7,847
Location
Black Hills South Dakota
Plaintoast's build got me curious about a Watts. I haven't ever used one and was having trouble wrapping my brain around it the thing not binding up. So, I did some reading up and found this link with an illustration. It seems there are some basic rules that are pretty simple. First and most important dictates that when the car is on the ground, the center link should be perpendicular and the side links be parallel with the ground. Anyway, here is a cool illustration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt's_linkage
 
I first became familiar with them in the newer crown Victoria cop cars. I think it was 1998 when they started using them. It's a pretty simple design and keeps the rear centered up.
 
I've had these little animations for a long time. They help visualize what is going on.
 

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  • Head Banger.gif
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The most frustrating thing about the watts link, for me, is that I invented the thing all in my head about 16 years ago. Then I found out later, that I wasn't the first person to come up with it. :rolleyes:

Way back when I was gung-ho about building offroad things, I just couldn't let myself be okay with the arc that a panhard bar throws your axle through. It's just screwy.

Anyway, since I read this post, I finally decided to build one, or 5 or 6. So, for everyone's viewing pleasure:








Of course, the second one with horizontal links is the one you want. But since I went to the trouble of cutting up my drinking straws, and drug out my Summit catalog for a straightedge, I had to do some spearmint-ation. CAD is overrated.
Trying some different geometry:



...and a longer center link:

 
good one !! nice to see some graphics too .. not sure about the headbanger tho....:D

a few years back I pulled a panhard from a 34 Nash coupe for a friend and welded in a watts ,, questioned later he told me the coupe handled much better - noticeably so..

given the slight lateral movement of the panhard bar through suspension travel, Vs the lack of virtually no lateral of the watts link, cornering would be much more fun at speed..

a few years back I bought a book " how to make your car handle " by Fred Puhn.

I loaned it to my (X) father in law, who raced midgets at the local speedway.. prior to that he was consistently running outside the top 3 places. after reading through the book and making some suspension tweaks, he was consistently 1-2 occasional 3rds. the club then banned him thinking he had exceeded max engine specs. thoroughly scrutinised his car , demanding he pull the engine down , -- until he came clean. that book then went round the other club members,, and old Colin was back to consistently running out of the top 3 again ..... although the local club cleaned up nationally for a couple of seasons... and yep I got the book back....

covers from your every day grandmas car to full on racing ...
I recommend it ..

crate
 
good one !! nice to see some graphics too .. not sure about the headbanger tho....:D

a few years back I pulled a panhard from a 34 Nash coupe for a friend and welded in a watts ,, questioned later he told me the coupe handled much better - noticeably so..

given the slight lateral movement of the panhard bar through suspension travel, Vs the lack of virtually no lateral of the watts link, cornering would be much more fun at speed..

a few years back I bought a book " how to make your car handle " by Fred Puhn.

I loaned it to my (X) father in law, who raced midgets at the local speedway.. prior to that he was consistently running outside the top 3 places. after reading through the book and making some suspension tweaks, he was consistently 1-2 occasional 3rds. the club then banned him thinking he had exceeded max engine specs. thoroughly scrutinised his car , demanding he pull the engine down , -- until he came clean. that book then went round the other club members,, and old Colin was back to consistently running out of the top 3 again ..... although the local club cleaned up nationally for a couple of seasons... and yep I got the book back....

covers from your every day grandmas car to full on racing ...
I recommend it ..

crate
Suspension is paramount. When I was playing with roundy-round cars, I showed a kid with a 66 Plymouth how to tweak his front suspension. Took most of a 10 minute break between heats. He immediately moved to the front row of the pack. Talk about a happy kid. :D
 

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