Suspension design idea

[white97]

Hello, been on this site for a long time. Maybe I'm in the wrong place, but I thought this would be the best place for advice. So not really building a pro touring, more of a cruiser car. I just want it to be right, hence posting here.

What I have is a 1950 fleetline that I'm building a rear air setup for. I would like to run a 3 link. Reasons, I have very limited space to run a 4 link without cutting the floors. So after Reading the suspension stickies and Ron's posts. I have a good idea. I just have one main question. Can I have a curved 3rd link bar like I have drawn up? Not opposed to gussets on it. Reasons for the curve would allow no cutting of floors and give me equal length in arms. Bags will be mounted behind the axle. Thinking 1.5 tubing thick wall. Spherical joints all around.



Apologies if this is not suitable for this forum. Just thought it's the best place for the best advice and not another forum of people who just make something because they can, before thinking about it.p perhaps this is a really dumb question, but asking anyway.

[white97]

Motor wise, it's a stock 5.3 ls. No high horsepower. No plans for it either.

[Rod]

should work ok, its just a modified torque arm,

[white97]

should work ok, its just a modified torque arm,

I should have made a Better drawing. This is a better sketch.

[F-Body International]

Look into building a torque arm suspension.

[Rod]

some mods to drawing two

[white97]

some mods to drawing two

Thanks Rob, great idea.

[David Pozzi]

Do a torque arm that is longer than in the drawing. It needs to run up to or near the rear of the transmission, or the rear will go up and down like a pogo stick.

Or you could leave the lower links, and add a horizontal forward running link on each side. They can be shorter than the lowers. Not ideal for a Pro Touring car, but OK for a street car.
Heidt makes this for a first gen camaro and a second gen Camaro version. If you can run the upper links along the outer frame rail and make them as long as there is room, it should be a pretty nice setup.

[MonzaRacer]

So my question would be how long are the lower arms? If they are going to be fairly long then for simple cruising why not simply build a swing arm suspension? You could possibly even use old leafsprings with springclamps on multiple leafs. I built one of my Monzas like this and the swing arm was only 12.5" from pivot to spring center bolt. It hooked like it was on velcro, rode good and only issue was I didnt rotate the spring perches. For regular cruising it rode great, and planted the wheels better than ladder bars. The other option is call Jegs and ask about having a set of Jegster SS Bars. They work awesome also.