Ron Sutton Offset 3-Link install

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by Cosmo mentis

DP treated Ron like Ari treated...





...and Ron,

It's good to see you are under the care now of an accredited physician, who's not at all shady.

mans so cool the shade follows him..

[Ron Sutton]

Hi Rick,

Originally Posted by Rick D

Wow!! That looks like a very nice setup, question is this a street car or more of a race car? Will this rear setup work on the street?? Can't wait to see and here more!

That's a great question. I'll provide the pros & cons ... then I think the question has to answered by each individual based on their criteria. A LOT of racing stuff is finding its way onto ProTouring & G-Machine cars driven on the street. This is no different, as I have a few other clients already running this set-up in their street/autocross cars.

1. Can it be driven on the street? Sure. You won't notice how it drives any different ... except when you roll on the throttle hard. It has instant grip & far more grip through out acceleration. I'll explain why later.

2. It won't affect ride quality at all.

3. But you can't run a back seat. The top link would be where the rear passenger sits on the right side of the car. So you need a raised floor or bulkhead fabricated from sheet metal & covered (or not).

4. Is it a race car piece? Yes. It is designed to provide optimum grip when the car has more power than the tires are designed for. The top link is a torque absorber. It cushions the shock to the rear tires at initial throttle application.

5. I tailor the spring rate & number of poly bushings to each application. Ron Myer's car will have slicks, so I spec'd it with fewer poly bushings & of a harder rate. For clients that run TW200 street tires ... we utilize more bushings & of softer spring rate. I have a client with a twin turbo LS that can be full throttle by corner exit on TW200 tires. Later ... if Ron Myer takes this car off the track & makes it a street car ... we'll change the poly bushings for the tires he chooses.

[Ron Sutton]

Hi Bryan,

Originally Posted by carbuff

I can't wait to watch this, as I'm interested in Ron's setup as well. I have a question about the housing below, specifically the brakes. That looks a lot like the setup Speedtech (I think it was them) was putting together a couple of years ago which used the C6 bearing as an alternative to a full-floating brake setup. Can you give any more specifics?

Ron Myer already had the housing. I do not think they are available anymore. When I provide housings, we use Speedway Engineering Floaters.

[fleetus macmullitz]

Ron,

Very cool build obviously, but I woulda went with a Lotus.






lol

[LM7_67]

That's an awesome suspension!

[Ron in SoCal]

Originally Posted by Cosmo mentis

Ron,

Very cool build obviously, but I woulda went with a Lotus.






lol

That's for guys like

Glad to see you're back in your old form. Only took two whole days

Originally Posted by LM7_67

That's an awesome suspension!

Thanks Tom!

[James OLC]

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

The goal of this thread is to document Ron Sutton's 3 link design.

I'm just getting started, but basically it's this -

Looks like a variation of a Coleman dual action / pro link or allstar three link - very cool. I've been looking at the possibility of utilizing shock bushings with the LD 3-link but the reality is it would take some alone time with the OLC so it will have to wait a while.

Can't go wrong with support from Ron - I have to get in touch with him in the new year and see if we can't put something together with my car for the short term...

Great to see progress being made!

[Blake Foster]

Originally Posted by Ron Sutton

Hi Bryan,



Ron Myer already had the housing. I do not think they are available anymore. When I provide housings, we use Speedway Engineering Floaters.

Yes if there is interest in the housing they can be produced still. They are complicated to get all the parts together but we can still do it. if your interested call Speedtech Performance.

[Ron Sutton]

Hi James,

Originally Posted by James OLC

Looks like a variation of a Coleman dual action / pro link or allstar three link - very cool.
The Coleman dual action 3rd link (Top link) is actually a decoupled 3-link, where one link is an accel link & the other is the decel link. I like Coleman & work with them often, but I'm not a fan of how they did their dual action decoupled 3-link. They designed it backwards & upside down from what I think of as a standard or optimum design decoupled 3-link.

They did so with good reasons ...
1. To be different in the marketplace
2. So it fit common oval track chassis mounts with no modifications.

Unfortunately I don't have good photos of my two models of decoupled 3-links. Payton King will be installing the decoupled 3-link he got from me here in the coming year & that will show the orientation of the accel & decel links.

I've been looking at the possibility of utilizing shock bushings with the LD 3-link but the reality is it would take some alone time with the OLC so it will have to wait a while.
I think you would like it. The bushings help high powered car's with TW200 tires for sure. The torque absorber I have on a different client's car uses TW200 tires, a twin turbo LS & the torque absorber I tailored for him has softer bushings & more of them. I have his engineered to compress all the bushings 1-1/8" under hard acceleration ... to really soften the shock & plant the rear tires. Now he is full throttle by corner exit. There is more to it than this ... specifically how long we make the the top link lever to define the "lift & load" percentage.

Can't go wrong with support from Ron - I have to get in touch with him in the new year and see if we can't put something together with my car for the short term...
I'd love to work with you on your hot rod. Contact me when you're ready.

Great to see progress being made!

We'll post up some progress pics next week.

[rustomatic]

That biscuit bar looks familiar, but much nicer than mine. I recently swapped my biscuit bar out for a straight shaft/tube, because one of the multitude of joints always seemed to work its way loose after a bit of street driving/track thrashing, creating a horrifically irritating screech/vibe. Granted, I'm no skilled builder, and my tubing sizes have probably just not been containing enough thread engagement or something.

I'd like to re-enlist the biscuit bar eventually, because it very clearly worked overtime at all kinds of frequencies of axle movement--is there a secret to keeping all the threaded joints happy (with or without Locktite)?

I can see Ron's setup working its way onto a lot of future hotrods, because it's basic, strong, and has clearly included "awesome sauce" in the recipe...