Triangulated four bar rear suspension

[Bucketman]

Nice looking welds there

Thanks, but I can't take the credit for them, only the selection of the welder. I'm getting better, under his instruction, but I didn't want to take any chances on my front end falling off. I can stick two pieces of steel together with good penetration, but it has to be ground down smooth for painting.

 

[Bucketman]

Turns out simple is better. After all my noodling and figuring this is where I ended up. Pan hard bar isn't on yet but I have it.

 

[Bucketman]

 

[Bucketman]

Ready to cut a hole in the floor for the transmission

 

[Bucketman]

This was where I got the idea.

 

[dwsatt21]

I am thinking about doing the same set up as seen in the last couple of posts but I have a few questions.
How would this four bar set up work with a medium arch leaf spring instead of coil overs? How would the ride be? How would it handle?
When you use a rear leaf spring, is a panhard bar necessary or does the leaf keep it centered?

Thanks,
Doug

 

[meangreen]

This particular setup (above) has unequal length bars which means that it will bind slightly when the chassis leans to one side in a corner. The saving grace is that T-buckets don't lean a lot because the car is relatively light. Another characteristic of short unequal length bars (short on top) is that the rear end housing rotates slightly downward at the front as the suspension deflects which will cause binding of the shackles on a transverse leaf spring. If you plan to use a transverse leaf spring, I would recommend that you make the parallel bars equal length to eliminate binding.

No, you would not need a Panhard bar if the leaf spring is pre-loaded sufficiently.

As for handling and ride quality - any suspension bind is the enemy of good handling; ride quality can be adjusted by adding or deleting leaves in the spring pack.