Installing my PMF 4 link suspension

[PGreenSVT]

Well, I have been having lot's of fun over the weekend working on the installation of my 4 link from Trevor at PMF. I still haven't quite finished with it. I haven't gotten to the front frame mounts for the ladder bars because I have to figure out where to relocate my bypass filter. And I had to do some massaging with the passenger frame mount for the lower 4 link because it wants to share space with my Vegistroke V3 manifold. Plus I ran into problems with the u-bolts for the rear blocks. I had bought a set from the classifieds here and they just weren't working out so I had to find a proper set of u-bolts on the shelf and ready to go locally. I found a set but the guy had just closed for the day. He agreed to wait around for a half an hour for me and pulled my bacon out of the fire. This is a prototype kit so there are little things that needed some attention but it is great stuff and I'm really pleased with it all. So here a some pics from over the weekend. There will be more added this week as I finish up with the install.

This was the first challenge. The tabs on the bottom plate of the spring pack were too wide to fit in the block saddle.



So out came the cut off wheel and we just made them disappear like so.



We got the block in place and they slipped on nicely with the tabs removed. But I found that the top plate didn't want to fit over the nut that held the spring pack together. Opting to cut the nut off of the bolt rather than drill out the holes in the top plate (gives me more adjustability options) I got out my handy cut off wheel again and cut off part of the nut.



Then I took a drift pin and hammer and knocked the nut off off the stud.



Now everything fit fine. The spring pack bolt now acts as a center pin and the upper plate holds it all together.



Yes of course I torqued them down.



Here I am wrestling with the top plate or passing a kidney stone. He!! it could have been both lol.



So with the traction blocks in I went ahead and slapped on the DR shocks.





And the blocks are in.

[PGreenSVT]

So I guess it was time to go on to the 4 link. Yeah I know that's what you've been waiting to see. I went ahead and pulled all the stuff off the front end. Sway bar end links, track bar, shocks, coil springs and radius arms. That all went fairly smoothly. I had more trouble with the shocks than the track bar. I was expecting the upper track bar mount torqued at 450 ft/lbs to be the one that gave me trouble. A 3/4 28mm socket, breaker bar and 4 ft of pipe took care of it in nothing flat. The top bolts on both shocks were pretty rusty and the first one gave me a fit getting it off. The second shock I wised up and cut the top of the stud off right at the nut and it came off pretty easily. So on with putting the 4 link in.

This is the upper 4 link bars. I hung the frame mount first along with the forward mount of the lower 4 link frame mount. Then installed the upper 4 link bar to the axle. I did both uppers this way.







With the top 4 link bars in I just rotated the frame mount for the lower bars up to the frame and bolted it in. This is done using some preexisting holes and drilling a few others. I have them bolted in with 4 bolts up through the box into the bottom of the frame and three more bolts through the side of the box into the side frame rail. Those suckers are in there and aren't going anywhere. Then it was just bolt the bottom links in.













After the 4 link was in I went ahead and installed the coil springs. We did all this work in my buddies garage and he has a lift which is real nice when working on our Mustangs but it is only a 7000 lb lift so obviously I wasn't going to try putting my whole truck in the air with it. What we did was pick up one end and put the axle housing on jackstands and unbolt everything, then raise that end of the truck with the lift. Not quite as convenient as having the whole truck in the air but worked well enough. Anyway, the springs went on and the shocks. I don't have pics with the shocks on yet but they'll be coming.





And that's it for today's post. I'll post up some more pics tomorrow.

[taylorking]

Its gonna ride like a caddy!

[dereku]

Thats my next purchase from trevor except I have to talk him into 1.75" blocks. I dont wanna lift.

[bfd222]

This is the thread I have been waiting for. Cant wait to see the finished product!

[Evil Eye]

Looking pretty good passing a kidney stone! Great pics!

[CT Performance, Inc.]

Is it the angle of the picture or did the arms push the axle forward 1 inch or so..looking at the coil.

[PGreenSVT]

Well not much of an update on this today. I am waiting on a couple of things from Trevor which I should get tomorrow. I spent some time looking hard at the front frame mounts for the traction bars and I don't see any apparent easy solutions to freeing up the frame rail for the mount's.

My dilemma is that the passenger side mount falls right where I have my big a$$ Gulf Coast bypass filter installed. There is no easy spot to move this monster short of moving it to the back of the frame rail which I really don't want to do. It is already farther away from the engine than I'd like it to be. The only other place I can see where it would make sense to mount it is on the driver side, inside the frame rail between the T-case and the fuel tank (glad I have a CCLB). That leads to a whole new set of problems. The first being that is where I mounted my Airdog II setup, so I will have to move it to the outside of the frame rail and possibly make a new line from the pump to the fuel tank. That's not too bad but then there is the bypass filter. That will need a pretty heavy duty bracket fabbed to support it. It is a BIG sucker that you would normally find on an 18 wheeler. To Mount it the way I would want it I will have to cut the mounts off of the filter and weld a different attachment setup back on, and then have it re-powder coated. I hadn't figured on all that but that's the way these things go some times.

If that isn't enough the brakes gave out on my Mustang last night and it's grinding the right front rotor, so I have to factor in time to get that squared away. And that's my alternate transportation while the truck is tied up.

I'm having fun NOW.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention there is a torx bit broken off in the bolt holding the caliper to to the bracket with a broken off easyout in that.

[PGreenSVT]

Originally Posted by CT Performance, Inc.

Is it the angle of the picture or did the arms push the axle forward 1 inch or so..looking at the coil.

I think that's the angle Cary. The wheels and tires are centered in the wheel well.

[DeuceFifty]

This is cool!

what size jack stands were you using?