Ok here's the deal. I got excited and bought a triangulated four link kit on ebay. I bought it from an individual that didn't use it, but believe it's from FBI rides. It's a triangulated kit made with 1inch DOM. 1 inch DOM is what Competition Engineering uses on their bas kit so it should be good. The problem I see though is that it comes with 5/8 heims. The car it's going into is a '47 dodge with 383 big block. This is a fairly heavy car with a fairly stout engine. I will also be bagging it. The problems I see are using hiems on all ends and the 5/8 bolt size. I'm thinking that the heims will alow the rod to twist. so I was thinking about putting bushings on the frame side and heims on the axle side. My thought process here is the bushing would reduce the rod twist whish would reduce wear on the heims and the heims on the axle end would keep things from binding since I will havequicte a bit of travel with the air bags. Also are 5/8 heims strong enough? should I upgrade 3/4 heims? I would like to keep as much of what I have to cut cost down, but I also don't want to have an unsafe or unreliable car.
ummmm i twisted up 5/8" heims..... ya might wanna check out suicide doors for bullet proof setups....4K holeshots and she's still holding tight...
I have used both 5/8 and 3/4 with success. Now with the 5/8 it was always in the back of my head every time I really got into the gas. So maybe I took it a little easier on those than the 3/4 heims I had in my other truck. I never had any problems with the 5/8 heims, but there was always this little voice in the back of my head reminding me they were under there...
5/8's are bit too light duty for a combination of heavy car/truck and regular use. The last thing you'll want is to finish it just to tear it apart again when it breaks. I've learned many times over that it is worth going as heavy duty as possible.
It's not such a matter of size. It's a matter of quality. Look at using a high end moly rod end and you will never hurt it in street use. The measure of quality is the tensile strength of the rod end. You can look at the specs on a manufacturer's web site, like QA1, and see a huge range in available strength. There is little to tear up if it is properly installed, anyway. I am using 5/8 with plans for 450 hp in a light car, but will use slicks at the track. I don't expect any problems. I had my mentor sign off on my set-up. Here's a link to the car he runs with a partner. He's the guy staging the driver. Best chassis builder I know. That should cover the qualifications part. As to the wear issues, I bought the QA1 moly ends with kevlar lining. It rides on the kevlar when slack and pushes it aside to put metal to metal under a load. I covered the outside with Seals-It neoprene washers that keep dirt and such out and apply a very slight side load to keep them straight up, assuming you index both ends together.
I feel like a dutchbag. I talked you into the suicidedoors stuff and then I find a "good deal" on ebay and try to cheap out. I really need to get better about reading the full description before buying. I was all distracted by the chrome bars. Was the weak link on yours the heims or the bars?
What Scottybaccus said. Pro Stock cars use 1/2" bolts in their 4-links and don't seem to have too much trouble. If you set the suspension up so that IT WON'T BIND you shouldn't have much to worry about with 5/8" heims as long as their worth half a shit. Now, having said that... I wouldn't run heim joints without any bushing if I were you. I have had problems with them in the past. There is no give what so ever in the system if you don't use any bushing. This will usually beat the shit out of your frame, i.e. rip or crack brackets.
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