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Wristed 3-link feasability

M

Milford Cubicle II

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Out there.
I'll keep this short and sweet. I want to run a 3-link (with panhard) front but I'd like to have rubber bushings somewhere between me and the road for noise/vibration reasons as this is my daily driver. I know you can just use bushings at the frame end but it will bind and limit articulation, which to me kinda defeats the purpose of building a 3-link in the first place. So is there any reason you couldn't wrist the 3 links and use bushings at the frame end to get the best of both worlds?

I don't know the durability of wrists which is a factor I'd definitely like to include. I'd also like to include cost, the level of roughness/noise of joints vs bushings in the first place, and the difference in articulation between the two as well. I'd like to hear some personal knowledge/experience to help my decide what to do. Thank ya!
 
"Wristed" means something completely different than what your thinking.I'm assuming your talking about using the threads to take up some of the radial movement.If so thats a really bad idea.
 
SWIVEL LINK ENDS!! Lol, after searching and searching I finally found what I'm talking about. They work just like a wrist.

So the question is, would this allow me to have rubber bushings on the frame side if I used them in a 3-link? And are they durable? Or is the roughness/vibration of links not bad enough to go to these lengths? OR, is the bind of using bushings instead of links on the frame side not bad enough to warrant adding the swivels? I'd love to have the best of both worlds, wouldn't we all?? :cheers:
 
Crap, I forgot to post the pic. This:

X2_CAD.jpg


The lower link on the frame side.
 
Another pic of just the link.

sucp_0602_12_z+dse_camaro_ss+dse_swivel_link_technology.jpg


This one is made by a company called Detroit Speed Incorporated, which is for some reason abbreviated DSE :dunno:

But anyways, this seems much simpler than heims or johnny joints. And usually simpler means more durable. The more I think about it the more I like it, I'm even wondering now if you would even need to joint either end of the links on a 3 link and still be bind-free if these were used. What do you all think?
 
Just use Currie joints. They ride great. With good springs, shocks, and CA angle I doubt you'll feel any road vibration anyway.

Given that, I especially wouldn't do rubber on a single 3rd link. It's just to much pressure and rubber wouldn't last.

Currie joints, FTW.
 
Gaius said:
Just use Currie joints. They ride great. With good springs, shocks, and CA angle I doubt you'll feel any road vibration anyway.

Given that, I especially wouldn't do rubber on a single 3rd link. It's just to much pressure and rubber wouldn't last.

Currie joints, FTW.
Click to expand...

Aren't Currie joints just johnny joints? If so, what makes them ride any better than any other hard joint?

I'm definitely doing this build the right way, my CA angles will be better than stock at stock height and I'm gunna keep track of my pinion angle as well as use good springs and shocks.

Boost_Retard said:
My JKS arms swivel like your talking about, maybe you can buy pre fabbed? if not you could build em
Click to expand...

Are they the same design as the ones I posted? Do they have rubber bushings too?
 
Milford Cubicle II said:
Aren't Currie joints just johnny joints? If so, what makes them ride any better than any other hard joint?
Click to expand...

Yes, they are Johnny Joints. They have urethane cups with a fairly soft durometer in comparison, not "hard" plastic/delrin cups like RE and Ballistic use. Very good road manners.

Even so, I doubt you would feel any difference between rubber, joints, or heims with good shocks and control arm angle.
 
The problem is finding them in custom lengths. Any ideas?

If I knew what they looked like on the inside I could fool around with the idea of building them. I wonder if they have needle bearings or if it's just a bushing.
 
MG2000XJ said:
JKS arms, like mentioned before, are similar to your idea. They use a brass bushing, not needle bearings. I think the design received a lot of flack on JeepForum but Im not exactly sure what that was all about.

http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/m...MS&Store_Code=JKS01&Category_Code=Coil_Spring

I like the idea of not having flex joints to take care of and rubber on both ends.
Click to expand...

Is this:

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/another-control-arm-question-1173658/

the thread you're talking about?

There's some moron there saying that johnny joints are cheaper, ride better, and last longer than rubber bushings. That makes no sense to me at all but maybe I'm missing something :dunno:

All the other threads I read had only great things to say about the JKS arms except for their price.

So it sounds like the idea is feasible in a 3-link design, but now it's a matter of how they're made and the feasibility of fabricating them myself to custom lengths.

I'm positive that JKS would be more than happy to build me some for a price that I will never pay for control arms, so I'd like to avoid that :D
 
IMO rubber sucks. You're going to get a shit-ton of axle movement/wrap using rubber bushings in a 3-link.

When I was still driving mine on the road, I had absolutely no complaints about ride quality with johnny's and heims all around.
 
I have no complaints about the ride of my Rock Krawler 3 link with hard joints. Rode great with RE coils and shocks, ride's a bit harsher now, but I'm running stiff Deaver coils and really stiff Bilstein shocks up front.
 
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