Thread: Looking for help setting up rear suspension

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Looking for a good write up or past forum for help setting up rear suspension on 32 ford frame. Running four bar link with panhard bar on 8.8 rearend. Getting ready to setup front I beam and once that is set I can measure and center differential for the four bar links. Just like to do research before I tackle it. I get the basic idea for measuring just want to make sure I don't miss anything. If you know of a good write up please point me in that direction.
Thanks
Brian

I think you have a 4-bar rear suspension in mind, rather than a 4-link rear suspension. A 4-bar is something conjured up by the aftermarket because very few people on the planet have the knowledge to set up a 4-link. A 4-bar is simply four equal-length parallel bars that theoretically meet at infinity. A 4-link is different length bars that are phased so that their imaginary extensions will meet somewhere on the squat/anti-squat line under the car. A 4-bar suspension will squat the car violently on application of power. A 4-link can be made to raise the car, keep it level or make it squat on application of power, depending on whether the bar's imaginary extensions meet at, below, or above the squat/anti-squat line.

HOW TO ESTABLISH A SQUAT/ANTI-SQUAT LINE.....
Viewing the car from the side, draw a vertical line through the center of the front tire/wheel, from above the tire to the ground. Guesstimating that the center of gravity of the car will be roughly the height of the cam in the motor, draw a horizontal line at the point where the cam would be, from in front of the front tire to just behind the front tire. You will have a "T" that you have drawn there. Draw a vertical line all the way through the center of the rear tire to the ground. Now, draw a straight line from the "T" to a point where the center of the rear tire meets the ground. This line that angles down front to rear is the squat/anti-squat line. Now, when you lay the rear links into the car, if you want the car to neither raise nor squat on acceleration, lay them in so that lines extending out from them will intersect the squat/anti-squat line. If you want the car to rise in the rear on acceleration, lay the links in so that extensions of them will be above the squat/anti-squat line. If you want the car to squat on acceleration, lay the links in so that their extensions will meet at some point below the squat/anti-squat line.

PANHARD BAR.....The world would have been a far better place if someone in attendance at his birth would have pinched the head off Rene Panhard. But alas, he was allowed to live and to come up with the worst possible device to prevent rear axle movement side to side in relation to the frame of an automobile. Best way to lay in a Panhard Bar is to......1. Have the mounting points as wide as possible and........2. To have both left to right mounting points on the car the same distance from the ground. You can make bends, whoopees, even complete circles with the bar as long as you follow these two simple laws and make the bar from material strong enough to resist bending. The width of the bar should be just a little less than the width between the rear tires.

Not long enough and not parallel with the ground at the mounting points.....
http://www.sonoransteel.com/images/P...ar_fjc_002.jpg

Far too short and mounting points not parallel with the ground......This abortion will jerk the body back and forth violently as the suspension works up and down....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...m/P1200011.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL19/.../341176039.jpg
This fellow started out with a good idea, to mount one end of the bar to the inside of the frame rail, but he failed to build a tower to weld onto the top of the differential housing to put the other end of the bar the same distance from the ground. I'm sure that someone told him later that he didn't need a panhard bar with a cross spring, if he used shackles on one side only. (called a dead perch).

Bar is too short, mounting points are not same to the ground and that spacer will likely bend even before the bar contacts the pig and bends.....
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...an/panhard.jpg

This example is as close to perfect as I can find, although the mounting points are still not exactly the same distance from the ground.....
http://www.speednik.com/wp-content/b...5_00-23-14.jpg

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try heading to speedway motors site, find your similar product and most of their stuff has downloadable insrtructions. Speedway Model T, A, 1932-34 Four-Bar Rear Suspension Kit, Stainless Steel - Free Shipping @ Speedway Motors. i actually use a out of date book by Timothy Remus, How to setup hot rod chassis, but good luck finding it. best of luck matt