My new Lateral Dynamics 3-link (pics inside)

[TLWiltman]

Well,
After much head-scratching, and some understandable delays, the UPS guy brought my Lateral Dynamics 3-link kit to my door (most of it, anyways. Some small items are on their way). To put it bluntly, I threw a bit of a curve ball at them. Per my request, I now have their first "official" full-floater housing. Some thoughts...

Quality/Workmanship
Matt's reputation preceded the parts I recieved and I am not disappointed. All welds are of excellent quality and appear to be very clean and consistent throughout. The brake brackets (which I supplied and Matt installed for me) are installed in the correct location (confirmed by mock-up). Thus far, everything is fitting up as intended (hub/rotor/caliper mock-up). I'm pretty darn happy


Customer service
Let's face it. The kind of build-ups we do aren't something we do on a whim. Yes, there were some delays here and there. So what? Fact is, they (Mark and Matt) have more than met my every expectation AND incorporated all the custom aspects of my kit without gripe or complaint AND kept me informed at all times regarding progress, as well as delays. Both guys are a blast to talk to and I definitely get the impression that they love what they are doing.


Let's just say, I can't wait to get this in my beast and get the party started

[ProBell]

Looks Good. Keep us posted. Randy

[TLWiltman]

Looks Good. Keep us posted. Randy

Thank you. Will do. Here's a few more pics of the brake mock-up.

[ProBell]

That looks like a good size rear caliper. What are you running up front? What are you doing for a master cylinder if you don,t mind.
I need to upgrade my breaks. Randy

[TLWiltman]

For front brakes, I'll be using a superlite 6R w/ the short track pistons. Rotors will be 12.90X1.25 (possibly 1.38 wide. I have to get a hold of the Wilwood tech guys on that one). Rear piston sizes are 1.38/1.12 (2.49 in^2). This matches up well with the superlite 6 (1.62/1.12/1.12 for a total of 4.04 in^2). This should give me a static brake distribution of ~62% front/38% rear

Master cylinders. I haven't gotten quite that far yet, but I'll be running a balance bar setup (no power brakes for this kid)

[g-roadster]

TL, If you are going to use an emergency/parking brake, how are you going to implement it? At SEMA I asked a couple of the 9" floater suppliers this question and they said they hear this all the time but don't have an answer.

[TLWiltman]

TL, If you are going to use an emergency/parking brake, how are you going to implement it? At SEMA I asked a couple of the 9" floater suppliers this question and they said they hear this all the time but don't have an answer.

I "should", with any luck, be able to use a pinion mounted E-brake (like the one from TSM). That said, my car's looking to be more like 95% track and maybe 5% street, so not really a huge deal to me (def. worth checking out, though).

[OneslowZ28]

LOL Only a car guy would have a complete rear end AND parts sitting in their living room I love it. Im happy im not the only one. I get yelled at all the time about working on parts on the kitchen table. anyone else here get that?
Everything looks awesome hopefully soon i will be getting ready to get my kit up and going.

[TLWiltman]

LOL Only a car guy would have a complete rear end AND parts sitting in their living room I love it. Im happy im not the only one. I get yelled at all the time about working on parts on the kitchen table. anyone else here get that?
Everything looks awesome hopefully soon i will be getting ready to get my kit up and going.

ROFL
Not only do I have a complete rear end & parts in the living room/dining room/kitchen counter etc...I also have a spare bedroom full of them (including an HTH kit/SCP floater rear that I won't be using on this project). Dining room table? full of my RC car, parts and tools. Yelled at? ALL THE FREAKING TIME! Do I care? NOPE! I figure the only way to get rid of some of it is to get it installed (motivation, anyone?)

[rockvillespeed]

i'd REALLY like to hear about the 3 link system's install issues and fitment.
i talked to mark at length about it as it was being released some time ago, but haven't heard from a user yet.
please keep us up to date and lots of pictures, please.
many thanks
mike

[James OLC]

The Lateral Dynamics 3-Link installation is very straight forward and can be done in about a day - albeit a full day. The 3-link kit is very complete and quality of the fabrication is second to none and that went a long way to making the installation painless. It didn't require any special tools or skills above what most of us here have access to.

The only fitment issues that I encountered on my installation were due to reproduction panels - specifically the full floor - and they simply created an inconvenience rather than a real problem. We chosed to fabricate our own covers rather than using the LD supplied pieces but that was our call.

There are some pictures posted on the OLC website at OLC - Lateral Dynamics 3-Link.

If you have any more questions or want to see more pictures, give me a shout and i'll hook you up as best I can.

[Madspeed]

Fitment is TOP Notch.
Make Sure you TAKE your time on the install .
It is not to complicated if you pay att (unlike me)
the guys over there are THE most HELPFULL bunch you will find Anywhere.

I am doing a dana 60 3Link in my camaro and am in the middle right now of fabing up the housing bracketts for the upper link mount.

[rockvillespeed]

i'd most like to hear how it drives and hooks, and rides.

[ProBell]

I run a hand built 3 link in my car. It works vary well. The bite out of the corners is great. It rides nice and smooth on the street. The car actually road so good I run the track springs on the street. The only thing is it some times get wheel hope in a drag race application. This is rare so I have not yet try ed to tune it out at this time.

[Steve1968LS2]

Fitment is TOP Notch.
Make Sure you TAKE your time on the install .
It is not to complicated if you pay att (unlike me)
the guys over there are THE most HELPFULL bunch you will find Anywhere.

I am doing a dana 60 3Link in my camaro and am in the middle right now of fabing up the housing bracketts for the upper link mount.

Where'd you get that Dana 60??? lol

Yea, install isn't that bad and fitment was good. My car had the rear frames moved in a bit and kit still work with some modification. What this showed me is that the kit is very flexable in regards to installation. Should be on the road soon and going through cones

[Madspeed]

Where'd you get that Dana 60??? lol

Some Schmoe brought it to my door =)

Hey Steve Im fabbin that thing up now and pics to come

[dcozzi]

TL, Mark says you really are a true car enthusiast and the floater turned out really nice. Congrats!
I own the black shell of a '70 at his shop.
You may be the first '70-'73 with his 3-Link on the road and probably before me, so keep us posted on how well it works.

[rockvillespeed]

updates?

[1971novaSS]

Im almost finished with my 3-link. Finished up the PHR today.

Only thing left is Front fabrication for the upper link. The housing bracked i have finished.

I didn't buy a kit. Everything made out of chunks of metal, tube... ect.

I will be posting pics soon!

[TLWiltman]

updates?

Sorry, but no updates yet. Life has taken a couple of interesting turns along the way (Breaking up with my live-in g/f of 4 years and a death in the family). I will be back to work on this shortly.