REALLY stupid 3-link question

[teamfour]

Are both upper a-ams removed when using a 3-link?

[pan61]

Yes, And you mean upper control arms. A arms are on the front.

[teamfour]

Yes, I mean the upper control arms. I could find nothing in the instructions that specifically tell you to remove the driver side control arm.

[5.8Cobra]

Hey Lee, its actually step #21 in FFR's instructions. You should leave it in until your 3 link upper arm is in place. Then you can take it off. It helps you get a baseline for your pinion angle setting. Hope this helps!

Mike

[Misu]

Lee:
If you are converting from a 4-Link to the 3-Link and Coil-overs, you will need to remove part of the Passenger side Upper control arm to attach the mount for the 3-Link. You do not have to remove the driver's side upper control arm mount.
Have pics if you would like to see what I did to add 3-Link. Send me a PM and I will forward them to you.

Allan [img]graemlins/black.gif[/img]

[Sinatra Fan]

I can't speak out of experience as I have never done a conversion before, but it sounds like you are trying to install while leaving the axle on the car. Unless you are one of the lucky ones and get an upper bracket that fits the axle perfect without modification, I would drop the axle and work on it out of the car. But that is just my .02 That bracket by far was one of the most difficult portions of my build. I ended up relocating the vent to the other axle tube. Good luck.

[teamfour]

Dan, I thought about that. It would also give me more room to cut off the upper control arm bracket. But...after two years I finally got the brakes bled properly, and the e-brake cables are a PITA. So I will take my chances and remove the rear end only if necessary.

BTW, It looks like I may not have to remove the upper control arm bracket. Didn't some folks leave it, like Dave Borden?

[John F]

I just finished installing it and would not want to attempt it with the axle in the car! You need to grind/cut most of the passenger side upper mount off. The new bracket has a nice side brace that mounts to the upright so all that portion of the upper link bracket has to go. Pull the axle, it will make life a lot easier!

[Hank J]

When the 3-link was introduced, some left the passenger mount in place. The 3-link has a small part of the corner missing and it could be mounted right against the passenger bracket. It required the adjustable panhard to be non-parallel with the chassis but apparently with no negative effect.

Since mine is an upgrade before the car was finished, I removed everything, added reinforcement to the 3 x 2 and made sure that the adjustable arm is parallel to the body.

Hank J.

[5.8Cobra]

I did mine with the rear in the car. I used a die grinder to cut off the old upper control arm bracket. I would not have been able to position the upper link squarely in the chassis without completely removing the old bracket.

Hank, what did you do to reinforce the 2X3 box tubing? I was thinking welding a couple of pieces of heavy angle iron onto the upper mount and adding 4 more bolts so it connects to a larger portion of the 2X3. I used the threaded block inside the tubing method instead of bolting all the way through to the trunk. I will just add two more blocks inside next to the first one. Let me know what you did. Thanks!

Mike

[Hank J]

Mike,

Part of my stretched-out build has been major modifications to the trunk area to increase space and to address the stress issues on the 3rd link mounting to the 3 x 2.

I plan on using a Dyna-Bat type battery so I have a 4"D x 8"W x 9"H box welded behind the driver to the 3 x 2 underside. The bottom corner is welded to the angled \\ member.

The span beneath the member, not occupied by the by the battery box and the 3-link bracket, is filled in with 2" x 3" "U" member that is full-welded to the bottom of the 2" x 3" tubing. It's fairly substantial but I done an FEA on it yet. I do have an access door to the battery.

I've gone to heavier front/rear springs for other than handling improvement for AutoX (if I get there). I have lowered the trunk deck by 3" so it is flat. I wanted to control the 3rd link travel. Once I establish the worse-case travel of the link panyard beneath the lowered rear deck I will have either a flat deck, complete with underdeck covered storage or, if necessary, a removable tophat to allow the travel of the top of the banana bracket/panhard above the top of the trunk deck.

I know, pictures say a thousand words. Hopefully I will be working on it this weekend and will take my digital camera to document it. Posting is another story but I would be able to send you some picks via email. Depending on how far you have gone in your build, it may be too much of a hassle for you.

Later,

Hank J.