I am thinking about making my own rear suspension. Doing a bit of research I found that the Johnny joint from Currie would be the best option for adjustability and flex. Rebuild-ability, quietness and reliability.

I know that these are desgined for off road use, but there are a lot of things that transfer between off and on road when it comes to heavy duty applications.

I don't plan to drag race this beast when I am done with it, but I wanted to poll you guys and see if anyone has built their own rear suspensions and see what you guys thought about these things!

Here is a link to what I am talking about:

http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/johnnyjoints.aspx

Depends on what/how you plan on doing it. Not only do they flex up/down but also left/right and rotate.
The site I used was www.hotrodsandhemis.com (or something like that) where I got the plans to make my CalTrac copies. There were other plans also.
I like to scan through suspension books for ideas. :yes: (G-bar looks like a good project)

Seems hardly worth the trouble when there are many quality 3 and 4 link rear suspensions you can buy that have been engineered to work in your car. I have a G Bar in mine and it only cost around 1600 through Frank at Prodigy Customs.

Yeah, I hear what you are saying, but the overall cost would be in the hundreds, plus it'd be freakin cool to be able to say that you built the rear yourself...

CalTracs $365 ?

My "copies" FREE :D (made at work, so I got paid to make them)

Yeah, I hear what you are saying, but the overall cost would be in the hundreds, plus it'd be freakin cool to be able to say that you built the rear yourself...

Hundreds huh.....A good set of coil overs will cost at least that.

Hundreds huh.....A good set of coil overs will cost at least that.

yes. You are correct, but it will cost hundreds less than buying a kit that was already made. I am confident that I could do the entire thing for less that $1k including coilovers.

Seems hardly worth the trouble when there are many quality 3 and 4 link rear suspensions you can buy that have been engineered to work in your car.

x2:beers:

If I was to do this, I'd use "johnny joints" bracketed in front of the rearend tubes STOUTLY for a DIRECT push that were attached to the ends of 1/4 leaf springs that had their thick ends mounted SOLID to the back's of stout S/F/C's and then add a panhard bar, (plus a roll bar if needed??.

I'd have to figure out the needed angle of the 1/4 leaf springs for Ackerman IF it is needed??

I figure I would have something like a darn near straight armed HTH truck-arm rear suspension in the end that should work darn good for it's overall cost vs any other type.

But, as always, this is jmho.

Please tear me apart all you suspension guys so we all can learn from this.

pdq67

Hmm..Well, I checked out the 4 links that are around and I think that i like the TCI one better than the Hiedt's... What other ones do you guys recommend?

Yeah, so I did a little more research and realied that I could get a four link off eBay (new) including coilovers for a pretty decent price...

So I'm an idiot, but I'll probably still end up doing it on my Jeep later!!!!!

Cheap isn't the best option here. G Bar is a good option instead of the previous mentions.

So I have been looking into this more and more... It seems that my "noob-ness" has gotten the better of me... There are plenty of options out there built by people who know WAY more than I think I know...

It seems that the ones that I may choose between is either the Prodigy Bar or the Quadra-link by DSE.

Any thoughts?

Bingo...either is a good choice. I have the G Bar in my car and it rides nice.

I don't believe how guy's will try to think outside of the box and when something WAY different get's told to them and they let it go right over the top of their heads!!"

I'm talking about a 1/4 elliptical spring rear set-up that work's darn near like a parallel truck-arm suspension here!!


"If I was to do this, I'd use "johnny joints" bracketed in front of the rearend tubes STOUTLY for a DIRECT push that were attached to the ends of 1/4 leaf springs that had their thick ends mounted SOLID to the back's of stout S/F/C's and then add a panhard bar, (plus a roll bar if needed??.

I'd have to figure out the needed angle of the 1/4 leaf springs for Ackerman IF it is needed??

I figure I would have something like a darn near straight armed HTH truck-arm rear suspension in the end that should work darn good for it's overall cost vs any other type.

But, as always, this is jmho.

Please tear me apart all you suspension guys so we all can learn from this."

Geez.......................

pdq67