Bohdan Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Hello everyone, My name is Bohdan and I have a '74 260z that i just finished converting to a Ford 8.8 solid rear end. Drove the car for a few days and snapped one of the rear coilover shocks. i was making a right turn into a gas station very slow as my spring just shot out into the street. I have no idea why it would snap but maybe some of you with more experience in the solid axle side could help or at least guide me in the right direction. I am running the Competition engineering 4 link kit along with a panhard bar and their adjustable coilover kit. I will post some pictures as well so you can see my setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 (edited) From my straight axle days, the old timers used to have a saying: 4 shall be the number of links and the number of links shall be 4. They would say to stay away from 5 links because it had the possibility to introduce a lot of bind and things could start binding and breaking. Now this advice was geared toward a handling setup. If you're mainly going straight line and not really turning much it wouldn't matter as much. Also you're links look pretty short. When they are short it doesn't take much movement in roll (when one side goes up and the other side goes down) to try to turn the axle under the car. Did you have a lot of roll steer with this setup? What amount of anti squat did this setup give you? For anything besides drag racing its usually better to go with a 3 link with panhard (4 links), a triangulated 4 link or satchell link (4 links). There used to be some good calculators online that you could plug all your measurements into and it would give you all your numbers so you could have an idea of how it would act before you built it.Typically you want the links to be as long as possible to keep roll steer and binding to a minimum. For handling you want around 0 antisquat, for drag you want above 0 antisquat. Edited December 9, 2014 by socorob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bohdan Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 (edited) From my straight axle days, the old timers used to have a saying: 4 shall be the number of links and the number of links shall be 4. They would say to stay away from 5 links because it had the possibility to introduce a lot of bind and things could start binding and breaking. Now this advice was geared toward a handling setup. If you're mainly going straight line and not really turning much it wouldn't matter as much. Also you're links look pretty short. When they are short it doesn't take much movement in roll (when one side goes up and the other side goes down) to try to turn the axle under the car. Did you have a lot of roll steer with this setup? What amount of anti squat did this setup give you? For anything besides drag racing its usually better to go with a 3 link with panhard (4 links), a triangulated 4 link or satchell link (4 links). There used to be some good calculators online that you could plug all your measurements into and it would give you all your numbers so you could have an idea of how it would act before you built it.Typically you want the links to be as long as possible to keep roll steer and binding to a minimum. For handling you want around 0 antisquat, for drag you want above 0 antisquat. What do you mean by roll steer or anti squat? Do you think maybe the issue is because i have the shocks straight up and not in an angle? Edited December 9, 2014 by Bohdan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 (edited) Roll steer and anti squat are terms that relate to suspension movement and design. Google them for a much better description than I can give. First of all, awesome job: I hope to do a similar conversion in the future and yours looks great. But, either you had a cracked shock to start with, or you have some sort of binding problem. It may be that you need to redesign your plan for limiting lateral movement of the rear end. Try this: replace the shock and install the suspension without the springs. Put the car securely on jackstands. Then, using a couple jacks, put the suspension thru all kinds of imagineavle contortions to find your binding condition, then reconfigure. Edited December 11, 2014 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bohdan Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 Thanks!! and that is exactly what i plan on doing when i get the replacement shock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 (edited) Does your shocks have misalignment heims or spherical bearings in them, or bushings? It may be an optical illusion, but in the photo it looks like the upper and lower shock mounts aren't parallel. Appears the shock would be in a bind unless you're using high misalignment bearings. If its off the way it appears, the panhard will be pulling your axle to the left during droop or bump, which looks like it will increase the bind. you may be able to fix it with bearings in the shocks. As Rebekah said, remove the shocks and springs completely and cycle it though every angle you can think of. The shocks shouldn't be adding anything to locating the axle side to side. That should all be done with the links.Pay attention to if the panhard is trying to pull your axle too much to the left. If that's happening, maybe you can lengthen the panhard or ditch it and go with a watts link, or triangulated 4 link if you're able to package it under there. Edited December 11, 2014 by socorob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 http://performancetrends.com/SuspAnzr.htm http://www.patooyee.com/calculators/calculators.htm Some of these may help you out. Have all your meaurements ready for performance trends because you get a short free trial, or at least you used to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bohdan Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 (edited) Does your shocks have misalignment heims or spherical bearings in them, or bushings? It may be an optical illusion, but in the photo it looks like the upper and lower shock mounts aren't parallel. Appears the shock would be in a bind unless you're using high misalignment bearings. If its off the way it appears, the panhard will be pulling your axle to the left during droop or bump, which looks like it will increase the bind. you may be able to fix it with bearings in the shocks. As Rebekah said, remove the shocks and springs completely and cycle it though every angle you can think of. The shocks shouldn't be adding anything to locating the axle side to side. That should all be done with the links.Pay attention to if the panhard is trying to pull your axle too much to the left. If that's happening, maybe you can lengthen the panhard or ditch it and go with a watts link, or triangulated 4 link if you're able to package it under there. The shock mounts are a bit angled. The top mounting points are about 1" more leaning towards the center than the bottom mounting points. I am using Competition Engineering C2765 Coilovers. they do have swivel links on the top, that is why its not making sense to me. I am gong to cycle the suspension through to see if it binds anywhere after Christmas. I just hope I can solve this issue without buying anymore things. This setup already burnt a hole in my wallet... Also thanks Socorob! Pretty cool info! Edited December 12, 2014 by Bohdan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 (edited) Approximately how much have you spent? Once you have this figured out, you are going to have an awesome machine! There have been very few solid conversions that have provided such great photos. Where are you from, and are you going to ZCON2015 in Memphis this summer? Send me a PM or something to tell me more about the car! Edited December 12, 2014 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 You're welcome. Straight axles are great for rock climbing and drag racing. I assume you're going for the latter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bohdan Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 PM sent! Spent roughly about $3,000 in total on the rear end for those who are wondering how much it will cost. Rough price breakdown: Mustang 8.8 Diff ------------------------------------- $175 Ford 9" ends-------------------------------------------$80 Shortening/Welding------------------------------------$150 Custom Moser 31 spline axles--------------------------------$500 Gears-------------------------------------------------------$180 Rear cover-------------------------------------------------$80 Cobra Drive shaft flange---------------------------------$35 Ford Racing 31 spline LSD-----------------------------$250 Competition Engineering 4 link kit---------------------$400 Competition Engineering Pan-hard bar---------------$100 Competition Engineering Coil-over kit ----------------$400 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bohdan Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 You're welcome. Straight axles are great for rock climbing and drag racing. I assume you're going for the latter. What do you mean by latter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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