Triangulated Four Bar

sgo70 · Jul 18, 2008

Like the title says I got a triangulated four bar kit from Suicide doors:

http://suicidedoors.com/HeavyDutyUni...4-LinkKit.php#

And a Ford 9" rear axle. I was trying to figure out how to mount the upper control arms with an offset pumpkin, this proved to be a little harder than I had thought. The angles are gonna be pretty complicated to mount the tabs on top of the axle and I dont want to cut the arms to length until I figure them out. I thought of welding a 1/4" plate to the top to give me a flat even surface to work from. Wondering if you guys have any other ideas.

My lower control arms should be about 21.5" and the uppers will end up about 14" eye to eye. I think I figured out that the bottom control arms should be horizontal and the tops angled up about 4 degrees from what I can remember, does this sound right. It's a streetcar not a racer.

Sean

Bonehead · Jul 18, 2008

Usually the tops are level and the bottoms angle, but I think it will still work okay.

There are all kinds of cool truss systems out there to connect a 4 link to a ford 9. Most go up and over the pumpkin.

sgo70 · Jul 18, 2008

That's what I needed to hear, I wasn't looking forward to all the grinding and fitting. I started out building a truss after looking through the internet at examples, got a nice square surface now. I'll have to post pictures later, gotta go.

Thanks,
Sean

sgo70 · Jul 20, 2008

Well thanks to you guys for helping me with my suspension, I worked my butt off today to get it done. Bonehead, that was a good idea to look at the 4x4 sites, gave me some ideas to work with. I used the calculators from this site to figure out my angles and lengths for my control arms:

http://home.earthlink.net/~whshope/

I'm hoping for zero squat but we'll see if it works. I plan on buying tires about an inch and a half larger so I accounted for this. I thought that figuring out the angles of the brackets around the pumpkin are outside my ability and patience so I stole an idea from the 4x4's to build a truss around it to give me a square surface. I still have a bit of grinding to do and I'm not sure if I should put caps on the lower front of the control arm brackets yet. I probably will. Didn't seem to bind when I jacked it up, the uppers are 12" and the lowers are 22", let me know what you guys think.
That fourth picture of the axle bracket looks sloppy cause the weld comes around a joint, I plan to grind it smooth.

Sean

Bonehead · Jul 20, 2008

It looks like the axle is located great. I don't see where it will bind up , and the travel looks good too. I am not sure about the articulation, but you shouldn't need much anyway.