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Re: can I cancel the tourqe arm and fabricate this?(ford 8.8)
If you think the sheetmetal is strong enough to hold the torque of the diff, you can do anything you want. If it was that simple to do, there would be a lot of cars with that setup already.
There's still a lot of suspension geometry involved in a factory style triangulated 4-link.
Re: can I cancel the tourqe arm and fabricate this?(ford 8.8)
it can be done..I have a 84 sport coupe with a 8.8 under it...Its easier when swapping over the ford rear end along with adding upper control arms...all i did was measure the pinion angle on my 7.5 rear end before i removed it...I then transfered the lower control arms mounts to the 8.8 and mounted it under the car with the lower conrrol arms and then set the pinion angle to the stock location and used mustang adjustable upper control arms up top mounted to a 2inch chrome moly tubing cross member...not nealry as bad as you would think,,and it squats and hooks 100% better than the 3 link ever will....the 3 link naturally binds the passenger side suspension up,,it sort of pre-loads it all of the time..have you ever noticed that a worn out 3rd gen usually leans to the passenger side? Its becouse the springs worn out on that side from the abuse..The 4 link sets the suspension evenly and allows for more adjustability.....hope this helps,,Thanks jack
Re: can I cancel the tourqe arm and fabricate this?(ford 8.8)
eventually i wanted to do a ford 8.8 as well. throw in a good posi or locker and some 31 splines and that thing will be stronger than a built 12bolt ... supposidly... the prob was obviously the tq arm and the 4 link. i would love to see how someone would fab up the 4 link setup. bad thing also is that the axle tubes are really thin and u better know how to weld good or u'll melt through the tube and then ur screwed. i will be putting in a 6 point mild steel cage and prob be ablt to fab something up to that for the upper control arms....
too bad i got a used JEGS tubular shorty tq arm ready to go in... :/ augh! lol
anyone know about the length of the 8.8 vs the 10bolt or 9bolt 7.5"??? also wat was the pinon angle? -1, 0, or 1 degree?
__________________ In the process:
521cuin Big block ford
Ford C-6 trans
Ford 8.8 w/3.55gears, custom shorty Tq arm
Re: can I cancel the tourqe arm and fabricate this?(ford 8.8)
If you go this route, you have to ditch the torque arm and panhard rod, since the upper control arms also locate the axle left/right. The panhard rod actually moves the axle to one side slightly as it travels, so it could cause it to bind. I would probably also try to reinforce the sheetmetal area that the uppers mount to, maybe with a crossbrace that ties into the framerails.
Re: can I cancel the tourqe arm and fabricate this?(ford 8.8)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ward
If you go this route, you have to ditch the torque arm and panhard rod, since the upper control arms also locate the axle left/right. The panhard rod actually moves the axle to one side slightly as it travels, so it could cause it to bind. I would probably also try to reinforce the sheetmetal area that the uppers mount to, maybe with a crossbrace that ties into the framerails.
Unless you use adjustable control arms or at least control arms equipped with rod ends on all 4 control arms. With the rod ends on all 4 control arms, there is very little actually locating the rear end and will move from side to side easily. A locator bar is needed at that point.
Re: can I cancel the tourqe arm and fabricate this?(ford 8.8)
i wonder what kind of bracing would be required for the upper control arms.... just a straigh bar of mild steel tubing welded to the sheet metal and side frames?
no one knows the overall length of the ford 8.8 rear and the stock 3rd gen?