RADIUS ARMS OR LINKS?
I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and I’m building my first 4WD. I’m disabled (no wheelchair) and all I have to work with is my ’84 E-150 and a Dana 44 TTB out of a ’92 F-150. I’ve widened the engine crossmember for clearance and made the center brackets. I’ve been pulling my hair out over the caster gain caused by a mocked-up (from scrap) radius arm. Two-thirds through the suspension stroke and it’s at 10 degrees!?!? I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. So, I’m going to use a parallel four-link instead. I was a machinist, so fabrication is not a problem.
What I need your help with is should I use DOM tubing? Also, the stock radius arms use a 1-inch shaft in the rear, so I was thinking about using two ¾-inch rod ends front and rear. Would ¾-inch be sufficient? And what diameter and wall thickness should be used? I have a 302 engine. I really need to get this beast going so I can haul building materials to my site in the Appalachian Mountains and live
