The Simplest Way To Install A Parallel 4 Link Suspension

welcome again folks so we are about to start working on the back end here of this here fine automobile first part we are working on uh front end we're waiting on parts for that um did some engine stuff if you haven't seen that part go back and check that out um but this video is going to be a lot more information than it is going to be working um that type of stuff so I'm going to do my best to try to explain parallel four length suspension that's what we're doing on here I'm going to try to explain it the best I can the simplest I can so that anybody can do it it's it's really isn't uh it's not difficult if you're not changing a lot of things on the vehicle um it can be done pretty simply therefore uh I'm I'm going to try to answer some questions that I that I've been asked a lot in the past and hopefully I can do my best if I if I fail to to mention something here in the video um drop a comment in the uh down below and I'll try to answer them best I can so we're going to be going with a parallel for link setup and I'll explain why excuse me I'll explain why that it's my preferred uh way to set things up it's somewhat a little simpler there's a few more uh Parts involved but overall it's it's very simple uh to to set up um and obviously this is from our uh our friends over at Infamous Fab if you have not checked them out yet you can go find it on uh on my website as well as uh on inFamous Fab I'll link them down below um but I I uh I've had these bars laying around for some time now um kind of waiting to use them on something so here we are uh but first things first we need to take a couple measurements we're going to try to use the tape measure as least as we can but we need to kind of get a baseline of what we're trying to accomplish so I'm not trying to on this here truck I'm not trying to add any lift to it I want to basically keep it the same height the same stock height it is leveled in the front so if anything I want to drop the back end just ever so slightly um these blocks here these blocks here are like they're like a 5-in block or something and I'm pretty sure or 4 and 1/2 I'm pretty sure that's like a uh the factory whenever the four-wheel drives I'm pretty sure that's Factory not 100% sure but uh basically the the main measurement that we need here is we need to figure out our axle to frame however you want to measure it we just need to get a baseline of okay here's what we need to work with so I'm just going to say we we're working with about a foot from top of the axle to um the bottom of the frame right here I'm going to try to stick with a foot that's where I want the truck to ride and we can adjust everything accordingly so with that being said I'm going to go ahead and check just to make sure that uh nothing's crazy here that basically the axle is more or less align with the truck if it's not you know if it's B in an accident or something or whatever you want to make sure that the axle is where it needs to be so that we don't have to touch it we can we can we're going to tack it in place remove all the stuff we don't need and then weld on our our link bars and that way you're really you're not even measuring at all other than setting up the bars making sure that they're all the same length and stuff like that and as we go I'm going to explain it it's very it's very simple um the only couple main things is just making sure that you're starting from a good point like I said we're going to make sure that nothing's crazy here the axle isn't shifted way far one side of the other which this one is not um and then the other big thing which if it's if it's a if it's a stock truck your pinion angle should should be more or less good enough we can we can tweak it a little bit later we have adjustment in the link bars but it should be good enough to where all we all we have to do is uh get rid of the leaf springs we're going to tack the axle before we take the front hangers off we're going to attack the axle to the frame and that way this axle can't move move while we're working on cutting our old brackets off and stuff like that and Welding on our new suspension so uh real quick I'm going to explain your pinion angle cuz I think that's probably the biggest question I get a lot of times all right I'm going to do my best to try to explain pinion angle as simply as I can um just to to give you an idea so basically the idea is whatever angle your your engine transmission is always going to be somewhat sitting on a rear wheel drive vehicle Bas or pretty much I'm going to say 99% of them are going to have somewhat of an angle Dro down in the back so at the transmission in the back usually you're going to have something like 3 to 5° of angle looking down the back this is our reference line for the ground so you can kind of tell that we're looking down in the back so whatever in our case we have a one piece drive shaft so whatever angle this is at we need to match it in the opposite direction so basically we have a this is say 3° looking down here okay and a negative and that back here we've got a 3° positive so the drive shaft can be almost at like any any angle you know obviously that's pretty excessive but for uh sake of explaining it it can be at any angle let's go over here and we can kind of depict that a little bit so here let's just say this is our rear pinion and this is our engine that drive shaft can essentially be at any at any angle as far as elevation change here but the thing that can't that can't really change is your angle at your transmission and your angle at your pinion back here so if this is 3° and this is 3° they need to be they need to offset each other because when a drive shaft rotates it's actually pushing and pulling in a sense um it speeds up and slows down depending on where it's at and its rotation so if you if you're off say you're you got one here and your actual your engine is sitting more of an angle or vice versa that drive shaft is spinning at different speeds because you don't have a matching pinion angle so that's where you get the vibration in your drive shaft and all that so what we want to do is we want to basically get our pinion and our transmission to be parallel with each other do that makes sense um if you have a two-piece drive shaft sometimes um I would say a lot of times the two-piece drive shaft is uh like in the brake it'll come straight out from the from the transmission most times um and then that would obviously you would keep 3° here 3° here and then when it drops down to your pinion we're kind of we're not depicting it correctly but when it drops down to your pinion that's where you want to make sure that your this here whatever the where your carrier bearing would sit you want that measurement to the pinion to be offset each other basically so whatever this is we need to match it with this it just needs to be parallel with each other they can be offset just need to be parallel with each other and I'll try to explain a little better as we go first thing we're going to do now is uh try to get rid of some of this stuff also don't do like I did I'm pretty sure this tank is like almost slat full and we do need to get it out of the way for what we're doing uh so that's going to be somewhat of a challenge but I might be able to get away with it for now leaving it like that but eventually we're going to take it out so we can clean this whole back end up and uh and get it painted and stuff like that first step is going to be to uh I've I've already got obviously the axle sitting on um stands down there I'm going to remove the shocks so that we're not fighting against them whenever we go to take the springs off um but you'll see as we go I'm going to set it up on the uh on the tripod and try to document it as I go try to explain it as simple as I can um it's really not difficult it's just you got to kind of think about it as you go so so far all I've done is I've gotten rid of the shocks so we're not fighting against those and I have put a jack stand on the back the truck and lift the back end up so that I can get the bolts out of the leaf springs without them springing and uh we're going to go ahead and verify so we're we're actually extended Beyond where we need to be so yeah we're about we're about 14 right now so we're 2 in above um where the truck was sitting to get these out but we're going to go ahead and just kind of check and see if you can tell we've got a we've got a natural looking up with this this here pinion so right now so we got 4.7 and then up here I'm going to use this here um little counter weight or counter Shaft or whatever this is I'm going to put against that because that's going to pretty much depict our angle and we've got 4 point 4.9 so we're really we're really close as to where we need to be as far as our opinion so I'm I'm happy with that we're just double checking if uh if I was to drop this back down because there's no load on the back end when when I drop this Frame down we're going to be changing our pinion angle by bringing this here forward so what we want to do is once we get this free we're going to leave it as it sits right here we're going to go ahead and figure out we're going to get some some brackets tacked in here to hold the axle so that we can take the leaf springs off without the axle rotating on us or moving front to back left to right or anything we don't want the axle to move we want it to stay right where it's at and then we're going to work on getting rid of the Lea Springs and anything else that's in our way right now so I got the axle tacked in place um there's really no Rhyme or Reason why I did it the way I did it other than just I'm trying to get it somewhere where it's out of my way so the first the first bit that I'm working on here um just trying to get the the leaf springs off so I can clean this area up right here because our our four-link bracket will go basically it's going to go on the outside of the frame so I need all this cleaned up so therefore um this this is going to be out of the way same thing over there um once the the four link is on then I can either I can take them off but I probably um probably get the panh hard bar situated beforehand possibly we'll see as we go um but I'm about to cut these um U bolts off so I can get the Lea Springs out of here and then we can start cleaning the axle [Music] up all right so everything is uh off the frame as far as it's in the way I'm pretty sure um I may have to modify I might have to trim up these uh members here just a little bit we'll see um but next order of business is we need to get rid of these perches cuz they're going to be in our way and over here same thing um I don't really know what this is I can't remember what that is but that's got to go and then we're going to um cut some stiffener plates to go here I'll explain that when we go um and then we got to cut the perch off this side but basically um we're we've got a clean slate now if you will and we just need to get our our brackets our four length bars on so that way um this axle doesn't move from here and then we can get rid of our our supports and our braces so uh there's no Rhyme or Reason I don't know if I said this already there's no Rhyme or Reason why I did what I did but it's just uh just trying to keep the axle from moving and um here I'm probably going to you need you need to keep the um on this second gen you're going to need to keep something in here because this is how the part of the frame is secured in here um your build may be different you know this is just what I'm working on um I have done before is I just grind them down and I'll just build up a weld bead on it so more or less create a rivet I may do that or I may knock them out and make uh and just put some 1/ in bolts in it cuz that's what they are/ in so I'm going work on getting the axle cleaned up and all we're going to do is get ready purchase grind it up got to hold this out of the way we got to um if your I'm going to be eventually taking this apart so I may just go ahead now and take it apart um so that way we can get the axle out and get it cleaned up once everything's all said and done with that so let's uh get the axle cleaned up and then we can move on to the next step okay so axle is cleaned up I had a pretty good uh rough spot underneath where that perch was right here underneath the uh the center the centering pin there so it was pretty Rusty Ste is pretty deep so I just grinded it down filled up with the well and grinded it back down on both sides here we're cleaned up um I need to confirm that the brackets and everything that I have are going to work with uh with the placement so I'm going to go ahead and put my four link bars together and then I can confirm where this bracket is going to go and then we will cut some stiffener plates to go there so I'm going to go ahead and start assembling the link bars I should have uh thought about this ahead of time and went ahead and painted them because putting these putting assembling them and then taking them back apart is kind of a little pain to uh uh to do so I wish I just would have painted them first but we got to keep rolling here so we ain't got time for that we're going to put go and put them together and I'm going to show you how to set these up to where you really don't have to measure except for one time and or you really don't have to measure if you uh if you so choose so I'm going to get these put together and then I'll show you how they're going to go on the truck and uh be in line with each other [Music] so once you have them all together um this one here is a little messed up because I didn't I wasn't able to uh well I didn't get the bush the inner bushing out or the inner sleeve before I put the rest of them on but you put take all the uh sleeves out before you put the bushings on makes it a lot easier Lube them up up that way you get them apart easier and help them go to get go together um better so once you got all that together um what we're going to do is we're going to take start with take two bolts and we're going to get one set where we where we want it so it doesn't really matter we're going to try to aim for um a little less than middle of the uh the um length we have here so what you going to want to do is take this take this out measure it you know at least get half of the thread and get agement that way you have room to adjust in and out um but we're going to get one set and then we're going to match every other one to this one and then they will they will essentially all be the same without having to use a tape measure so that's what I'm going to do okay so once you have them all set I am going to take a measurement to make sure well I guess uh not to make sure but to match to make sure I can match up whenever I go to put it back together so we're on the outside of this one so we're going to go to the inside here and we're at 44 44 and 8th so when I go to take them all apart I'm going to go write that number down so when I go put them back toart on Center they're 44 and 1/8 and that'll get us pretty close to where we um started at okay so now that we have everything um laid out ready to go together um we're going to lay out we're going to go ahead and put the uh brackets the the front and the back I always put the uh the adjusting in the rear because it's usually angled down if I were to have it at the front over time water um what have you could creep into the threads and you know more or less mess them up more than they than they need to be so I always put these at the bottom or on the axle so I going to start with um there's a bracket's going to go this way and they're going to be opposites so one's going that way one's going that way and same thing down here we'll get them together and then we'll show you what to do next [Music] got them together and this is about where it's going to go just to give you an idea how it's going to look on here um I'm going to go work now on getting some uh some gussets here or some stiffener plates cut out so the reason I'm I'm I'm going to cut some quarter inch plate and the reason we do that is because um on E inch plate basically uh E8 in plate doesn't have enough there's there's too much deflection in it so you know when you take a piece of piece of melt or something you bend it back and forth enough and then it breaks that's basically what happens when you don't um stiffen up this here 8 in because there's just as the suspension flexes and travels eventually the weld here it's just going to try to it's going to try to break it free so we're going to bump it up we're going to stiffen the whole area with some quarter inch and then we're going to weld the bracket right to that and that'll be good there um this side's pretty good I won't I don't think I'm going to have to modify that at all um I'm probably possibly going to have to modify the uh this here uh parking brake cable bracket um which it's it's not a big deal it's just got to be it's got to be somewhat in the same area doesn't have to be in this exact position it's just got to have the right amount of tension on it here and there so um we can definitely move that if we need to but I'm going to go ahead and get some plates cut so we can fasten that to here and then get these uh link bars fastened in place so I've got some plates cut here to uh stiffen up the frame um the only reason I did what I did here is to try to mitigate some some Rust there um I live in Florida so we don't obviously get uh salt in the roads or anything like that so um you know typically rust isn't that big of an issue but I'm still going to try to help uh mitigate some of that obviously I'm going to you know grind it off we going to weld and stuff like that but going to get these welded on here and then uh we can go ahead and fit up our link bars is all right so we have effectively I guess you could say got both sides fitted up tacked up um there's so much caked on oil I'm assuming it's from the uh fuel tank it has to be um fuel tank return lines something of that nature but uh uh I was getting some good fire over here while I was trying to weld this I'm going to wait till I pull the tank off so I can uh finish welding that out but we've got these brackets tacked on these tacked onto the axle so basically now I am ready to uh I'm going to go ahead and drop the uh or cut the braces off cut them off and then get our back end back down to where about where we need it to be so that we can go ahead and fit up our pan hard bar so um up into this point the only thing you know I've measured I've used a tape measure this is I don't know why this is turning in to you know try to do this without a tape measure but uh that's just the way it goes so anyhow I just all I've done was I measured from the backside here on each side to get to get this about right I didn't really spend too much time um I didn't get an overall at the front I just kind of made it look right on both sides and uh so it it should work out fine you got a little bit of leeway in the bushings and stuff like that but um yeah so let's get these cut off get this Dro back down uh our pinion Angle now since everything since we were paralleled that the pinion angle no matter what this axle does that that pinion angle should stay um should stay where it's at in relation to the engine so that's the benefits of a parallel setup yes uh there are many other ways to do this um triangulated is the other common uh setup you can do but the problem with with triangulated sometimes because you have to the lengths of your bars and and your pinion angle can change more drastically if you don't have it set up quite right you've got to do a uh a truss on the axle most of the time um so it's just not as uh it's not as easy if you will um you eliminate having to run a track bar pan hard bar and all that but um to me this is the this is the stronger way either way it's really doesn't really uh matter a whole lot um there's more travel out of a triangulated setup there's other ways you can do it as well but I just prefer this way because um in my opinion it's it's stronger so therefore both your manipulations are right here on each side whereas triangulated you would have a lot of uh rotation in the center that uh I don't know the terminology I'm looking for but basically you TR you would almost be trying to wrap the a the uh axles in the housing here so you definitely want to be welding those and a trust would help out with some some stuff like that as well so again I prefer to do it this way to me it's the simplest um as you can see we just basically got rid of the old stuff and put it on here without without taking the axle out without cleaning um you know having to take it out and clean it up drive shaft is still in it um my opinion it's the uh easier method [Applause] so getting ready to fit up the uh panart bar here uh once again all this stuff is from Infamous Fab there'll be a link in the description uh you can either obviously buy through them or uh through my website but uh this is a universal kit it comes with brackets already but these are the same brackets I used on the uh if you remember the blue truck um project really that I uh I did but never videoed that's the same same brackets basically that came on that truck um so I'm reusing again but we're going to go ahead and Tack this one on here like so we've got the axle dropped back down to a uh our height off the ground or not height off the ground but height between the uh frame and the axle so I'm going to go and Tack this here and then I can tack the other bracket on the other side and then we can cut our uh our bar to length I one other thing that I didn't mention here I don't know if I mentioned here or not I honestly couldn't remember but I always put a little uh when I'm tacking stuff together I always put a little uh put one washer in there and then put my thing um in this case this is a he joint so put the washer put the he in there squeeze all together and then when you take it apart it's not a super tight press fit um and therefore you can you can more or less pull it pull it together to get it tight but yet it's not um you don't have to pry it apart to get it together so I do that on everything I put one washer um the fronts up there are are what they are but these back here I always put one washer you know inside or outside doesn't really matter um just match them on the uh opposite side I guess so going to let this cool I did put a couple plug welds in there as well as weld all the way around I'm going to put some antise on that whenever I put it back together and then we should be done with this part of uh this here this SE build got everything cleaned up now for this evening um I want to keep the suspension side separate because uh from here from here at this point you can do several things with the suspension you could go um very extravagant and do like a can of lever setup uh coil springs airbags coil overs you name it you could do a bunch of random or a bunch of um suspension things to this but what I my goal was I I I hope that I was clear enough because my mind thinks way faster than I can speak and sometimes I have a hard time explaining things I know what I'm what I'm trying to say but I have a hard time getting words out so but yeah I want to keep everything separate we got everything cleaned up here um next part we will address uh how we're going to mount the bags that's what we're using on this is uh bags at some point I'm not sure when uh the timeline because I'm waiting on parts to the front end but I'm going to be taking the tank out we're going to be building a goose neck um hitch here in the middle so that way it's going to do two things it's going to one it's going to support um a goose neck obviously but also it'll add stability here in the center section um for our airs Springs our airbags so with that being said um I'm going to go ahead and wrap this video up here like I said hope I could uh hope I could help not always the case but appreciate yall watching and we'll see yall real soon on the next video thanks guys almost forgot the uh one of the important things here sometimes it doesn't like to stick on this cabinet I hope it uh can be a second oh that'll be all

Channel: J_Moffitt

Views: 37,911

Keywords: jmoffitt, panic fab, panic fabrications, dodge, cummins, 4 link, nfamusfab, nfamusmetal, nfamus fab 4 link, parallel 4 link, 4 link suspension

Id: 5Yd9dmgfBKw

Length: 30min 25sec (1825 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2023