3 link or 4 link?

[jdwill13]

I was studying the pictures of the lateral dynamics watts link and notice the 3 link rear suspension. That is a work of art! I have a 91 Mustang. I want to make it the best handling machine I can. Is it worth converting to the 3 link setup or should I work with my factory type 4 link? I want to minitub it to run a 12 inch tire. With minitubs, watts link and tailpipes things are going to get a little crowded on a fox Mustang. Any ideas?

Jeremy

[GBodyGMachine]

I love 3 Links. More articulation. I think it helps the car stay planted.

Jeff

[Silver69Camaro]

We build both 3 and triangulated 4-bar suspensions. In the full range of bump and rebound, there is no noticable bind in either. 3-links do have less bind without a doubt, but from my experience, only in long travel applications.

A drag-race four-link is a different story.

[XTRMEASURES]

from what ive read id say the 3link (but i only read about it not used it)

[Mean 69]

I was studying the pictures of the lateral dynamics watts link and notice the 3 link rear suspension. That is a work of art!

Why, thanks! Much appreciated.

If you are going to get after things with the car, then I'd highly recommend addressing the factory rear quadra bind setup. While a triangulated four link setup can be made to work pretty well (take a look at Morrison's stuff, it works just fine), the factory fox setup is not a good example of how to do things. Those cars are notorious for binding up, and snapping the rear end around. I can speak from experience, I have had two of them myself, and this is a very real situation.

Don't think all 3-Links are created equal though either. There is a lot that goes into any well exectued suspension design, 3-Links are not immune to this either. For instance, the latest Mustangs use a 3-Link, but the geometry is very poor, mainly due to packaging constraints (the biggest culprit being the upper link, it's really short and has significant angle changes in bump/droop, as a result the instant center moves all over the place, not terribly desireable). I am sure some folks might argue, but putting a 3-Link into a fox body without cutting the car for good packaging results in a very compromised setup.

However, there is a really good alternative solution. Check out Maximum Motorsports' Torque Arm setup. I can tell you for fact that these systems work exceedingly well on the street, and on the race trck. Maximum is in my opinion the best supplier of fox suspension systems, they have years and years of experience with these cars, and are a terrific company to boot. You won't be sorry with one of their setups, at all.

Best of luck,
Mark

[jdwill13]

Thanks Mark

So if I used the torque arm with some new lower control arms with sperical bearings I would probably be in good shape. What about coilovers? I want to minitub the car for 12 inch tires. Whats the best setup?

Jeremy

[Mean 69]

I'd defer to Maximum, give them a call and tell them what your plans are, and I am sure they can set you up and offer some better advise specific to your car than I can (I didn't tub my fox body cars, so I'm not sure what the impact on coil-over location would be, etc). And yes, if you go with their setup, you will be in VERY good shape on your car.

If you could, please tell them I referred you too! There are a lot of Maximum equipped fox cars out there, so they have the recipes dialed in really well.

Mark

[EvolutionMotorsport]

Originally Posted by jdwill13

I was studying the pictures of the lateral dynamics watts link and notice the 3 link rear suspension. That is a work of art! I have a 91 Mustang. I want to make it the best handling machine I can. Is it worth converting to the 3 link setup or should I work with my factory type 4 link? I want to minitub it to run a 12 inch tire. With minitubs, watts link and tailpipes things are going to get a little crowded on a fox Mustang. Any ideas?

Jeremy

Jeremy,

We offer a Watts/3-Link setup for the Fox cars....In fact our Watts link won a SEMA award for its innovation back in 2002. Take a look, and let us know if you have any questions.

Watts Link:

http://www.evolutionmsport.com/evmCa...&products_id=1

TriLink:

http://www.evolutionmsport.com/evmCa...&products_id=2

Some general notes regarding the TA vs 3-Link:

THREE LINK BENEFITS OVER A TORQUE ARM

• Less Un-Sprung Weight
• Improved Ground Clearance. Generally Torque Arms have reduced ground clearance below the Differential.
• Dynamic Instant Center (IC) and Side-View-Swing-Arm(SVSA) Geometry is created by the Upper and Lower Control Arms unlike a fixed SVSA Geomerty of a Torque Arm. The Trilink geometry allows the vehicle to have increased Anti-Squat during acceleration for maximum bite while accelerating and increased Anti-Dive while braking.

If you have some time you can check out a thread on Corner-Carvers which pretty much hashes out our TriLink:

http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15727

Another CC link has a nice install, provided by one of their members:

http://corner-carvers.com/forums/sho...&highlight=evm

Hope that helps....

Thanks...Mike