ChevyRS-305

Im wondering if anyone has made a triangular four link without backhalfing the frame and keeping the body and frame basically stock? Im wanting to do this to save space and weight and possibly money for aftermarket torque arms and panhard bars. My idea is if I can eliminate the torque arm, I can run true dual exhaust on each side of my driveshaft and tuck up safely under the car so it does not drag; since my car sits so low.

Norm Peterson

For the amount of work involved, I'd consider doing a 3-link like the current Mustang, leaving the PHB that you already have in place. Either way, you'd need to add some structure to carry the UCA loads, as they're way too big for sheetmetal to withstand.

A single upper link could run directly above the driveshaft, though you might have to do a little floorpan and rear seat modification.

I have a 1979 Malibu with the triangulated 4-link you mention, and it's not like there's an awful lot of room to run big pipes. Or space under the rear seats for mufflers instead of the big transverse OE can. I also have a 2008 Mustang, and its normal and hard driving handling are worlds better than the Malibu's, even though the two cars are remarkably similar in terms of weight and basic dimensions, and the fact that my Malibu has had its suspension stiffened and tweaked more extensively. Food for thought, as they say.


Norm

ChevyRS-305

Well see my exhaust come out the side right before the rear wheels and im tryinr to eliminate the PHB and on top of that I have a 16 point cage in my car with subframe connectors so chassis strength is no issue lol. And I know the issue of the sheetmetal not being strong enough so maybe if a bring some bars off the back of my belt bar to the floor and put a steel plate down that it will stiffin the floor enough to mount a bracket on the backside under the car.

ChevyRS-305

Or I may just stretch the design a little bit and weld a bracket to the inside of both frame rails for the uUCA's

AlkyIROC

The diff in a third gen is very high in the body compared to regular cars. Although it may be possible to build a short arm triangulated 4-link system, the room you have to work with won't make the suspension very effective. Most 4-link system such as what I run have bars around 24" long. Some SuperStock cars run a short upper arm system to retain much of the original floor but these cars are also designed for straight line acceleration only.

To eliminate the torque arm, you need something to keep the diff from rotating but also need something that gives a relatively good IC lifting point. Short arms won't do that. Lift bars work on the street but suck for drag racing because technically, they're very short ladder bars.

Another option is to install regular ladders bars however as I already mentioned, the diff sits high in the body. Unless you have some special ladder bars that will wrap around under the floor, you'll still have to do some sort of floor modification to get them to fit. It's not as drastic as a back half to do a 4-link but the area under the back seat needs to be changed. With normal ladder bars the front mount also sit right behind the front seats and roughly inside the car.

G-body cars use a triangulated 4-link, mustangs have used 4 and 3 link systems but you can't really compare them to a third gen. The body style is completely different and to try to redesign the rear suspension means major fabrication.