Tips on putting in 3link rear

[Makgecko2017]

I'm going to attempt putting in the 3 link rear provided by Factory five. Any suggestions or things I should look for during install?

I'm hoping it is pretty straight forward like the book.

Mike

[GoDadGo]

If you haven't seen this official video from FFR, you may find it helpful.

https://youtu.be/H_n5ZJJHrjE?list=PL...VS-CVcPoK4x6lB

I put my wheels & tires on the rear end to make it easier to scoot under the car, but it was the same process.

[Makgecko2017]

Thanks GoDadGo, I saw the video .....Just checking what others have come across with their install. Looks pretty straight forward.

Mike

[silver_pilate]

Don't do like I did and wrestle it for a hour before realizing that you didn't take out the panhard bar mount. I did it on my own (well, my 6-year old helped). I took the rear end from jack stands and placed it on a furniture dolly to move underneath the car. Then I positioned back onto jack stands and placed the floor jack underneath to raise as needed. Once you get one lower control arm bolt into the frame mount, there's not a lot of risk of it getting out of control, and then it was just wiggling the jack/height a bit to get the other bolt in. Once I figured out where I screwed up initially with the mount, the rest went in like butter. Before tightening the panhard bar mount bolts to the frame, make sure you drill and secure the bolt to the 4" tube. I even lucked out and my panhard bar was adjusted just about dead-nuts on to center the rear to the frame.

I will say that you need to mount your shocks body down. They show body up in the manual and body down in the video (I think). Body up places the spring much too close to the axle brackets and panhard bar mount. Swapping orientation to have the springs on top gives you a ton of clearance.

--Nathan

[silver_pilate]

Here's a few pages from my build thread on the other forum that showed my progress:

"Here is where I left off yesterday with lower control arms mounted and upper link installed:


The Moser axle tubes were too big for the upper link arm to clamp on as directed. So I believe I mentioned before I found a local welder who was willing to fit it up for me. His welds are a thing of art:


(They had better be because he was welding up a boat load of rocket tubes for the US military when I dropped the axle off: high precision work that had to be done by hand due to the different metals involved, and he won the contract by demoing his work)

The manual says to get a helper to install the rear diff. Aint nobody got time for that!! So out came the furniture dolly, jack, and some stands (and my 6 year old):


After cussing (under my breath, if course) and getting one lower control arm bolt through the frame mount, I struggled and struggled getting the DS arm to seat. I would play with the axle height in an attempt to line it up, but the axle tube kept hitting the panhard bar mount before it was aligned. Wait.....*insert more cussing*. Yep, I had not removed the panhard bar mount. It sure went on easier after that was out of the way.

About that time I had to get my son to bed. It's the summer and he's been staying up helping me, but it was getting pretty late. After he was down, I told myself I had set a goal and wasn't going to bed until it was accomplished. So I pushed on and got the coil-overs assembled and installed and the panhard bar mounted. The DS coil is pretty close to the panhard bar mount:

[silver_pilate]

Because the clearances were so tight, I swapped orientation:

"As with most things on this car, it seems that things need to be done twice (or three, four, five times). I ended up flipping my coil-overs so that the body was down. This is different from the FFR manual but matches what many others have done to increase clearance with the axle-mounted brackets. It's also what FFR shows on their build videos on youtube. Here are the before and after pictures for clearances:

Passenger before:


Passenger after:


Drivers before:


Drivers after:


The panhard bar mount is no longer any issue either."



Hope that helps!

--nathan

[Makgecko2017]

Thanks Nathan! Just what I was looking for buddy!

[RoadRacer]

I don't know if the roadster 3-link is exactly the same as that in my 33HR, but read these, because it looks like the banana bracket is the same.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-fact...sing-link.html
http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-fact...how-i-did.html

I bought (and are very pleased with) the brace kit from LPM from that thread: http://www.vintageperformancemotorcars.com/