Author Topic: 4 link FED anyone  (Read 16525 times)

Offline wideopen231

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4 link FED anyone
« on: May 20, 2013, 07:15:43 AM »
Wondering if anyone every tried a 4 link FED. I have worked on idea for while. Only issues are a spec to follow and haveing rearend moving under your butt.Movement not big issue as most don't move but inch or so on 4 link RED from what I have been told.
 
Putting rear suspenion behind driver is easy,but that would be altard in my opion. Plus I have seen quite a few long altards,not 225" long.
   I know this flys in face of the traditionalist. But hey new ideas are what makes dragracing fun. Plus I would have to finish the FED Im building first and get some runs in and sure the money to build one while running one will be huge issue. Just thinking!
Relecting obama is like shooting right foot because it did not hurt enough when you shot left foot

Offline rooman

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2013, 06:36:46 PM »
Ron Colson ran a blown small block FED with a four link back in the mid to late 60's. His partner in the car was Gary Wood who recently sold his Stiletto steering components business to Stu Spears at Chassis Shop/Pro Werks. The car was called Stiletto and that is where the business name came from. I will try to scan the DRUSA story and post it when I get a chance.

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Offline 23T Hemmee

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2013, 07:08:46 AM »
My first thought would be: Which way does the the rear travel when the heim joint breaks......does it go straight for the sack, or does it richochet off of something else first before it heads for the sack....... :'(  :'(  :'(
Ronny
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Offline Cajuninjector

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2013, 11:09:41 AM »
I'll stick to the hardtail.  ;D
I have though about this too but there are lots of "what ifs". How is having a housing under the back of my legs going to effect me if I'm on a rough track. I would think it would move your feet around on the pedals
Go Hard or Go Home

Offline wideopen231

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2013, 04:54:48 PM »
See there you fellas go giving in to quick.  First you can always getting around those issues. If everyone quit because of little issue where would dragracing be?
Relecting obama is like shooting right foot because it did not hurt enough when you shot left foot

Offline slingshot383

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2013, 02:16:28 PM »
The Magic Car had a subfame that the rearend and engine was a component, and the rest of the car was another.  One of Kent Fullers masterpieces.
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Offline tylercrawford

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2013, 10:24:41 AM »
The Magic Car had a subfame that the rearend and engine was a component, and the rest of the car was another.  One of Kent Fullers masterpieces.

that was my initial thought . . . magicar

Everything I've ever read on it said they had problems with it and the dragster never went as fast as it should have.  Everything about the digger is beautiful, one of the best looking FEDs ever made IMO

Offline slingshot383

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2013, 05:26:06 AM »
So much has changed since then, tires, traction compounds, I bet it just might work nowdays!
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Offline schino

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2013, 03:55:32 PM »
i got the FED bug again so i was checking out the forum here and came across this thread so i had to sign up.  i started building a 4 link FED when i was 21,  got the back half somewhat roughed in but far from finished.  i lost interest in it and its been sitting for 7 years now.  ill get some pics and post up what i was doing.  its apart now and sitting on a steel pile

Offline schino

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2013, 04:05:59 PM »
forgot i had pics already on the web.





if i were to continue with the build id change the sway bar/torsion/mono shock link.  after making those pieces i thought it would be better to build a frame off of the bottom 4 links to wrap up around the driveshaft with mono shock mounted over trans.  some of the RED's do a similar setup.  this falls in/or at least did, for sfi specs.  only thing in rules state anti rotation device which this would be heavily strapped in place and things added to limit motion. 3/4 heim ends on heavy wall CM tubing.  im curious as to what you guys think.  when i started building it i thought i saw some links on neil parks car and asked them, they told me (in some sort of wording) that it would be pointless to do.

Offline wideopen231

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2013, 06:28:16 AM »
If it was sort of it had to be Scott.Having talked to Frank I can say hes does not say it in sort of,he just tells it like he sees it.
I think the high chair style chassis would work better with 4 link rearend.Get the driver up some should give more room for rearend movement.I had thought about a shied over rear to seperate driver from the motion and add safety incase of_____ it happens you know.
Relecting obama is like shooting right foot because it did not hurt enough when you shot left foot

Offline rooman

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #11 on: July 21, 2013, 10:54:02 AM »
The way that you have that package mocked up it will just work like a ladder bar with an adjustable front pivot length. Most of the four link rear engine dragsters are the same way-- the big tube cross shaft that the arms mount to is like a huge anti roll bar and if you add the drive shaft loop package you add even more torsional strength to the package. That is why a lot of them went to the mono shock deal, there was no need for two and the second one just added weight and cost. The four link rear motor cars do work a little better on bumpy tracks and ride nicer on rough return roads but I think that a good hard tail will run just as fast with less complication and expense.

Roo
Yeah, I am from the south--any further south and I would have been a bloody penguin.

Offline masracingtd1167

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #12 on: July 21, 2013, 02:30:48 PM »
Shino I really like what you are trying to do but I think you will have a tough time trying to get something like that approved . Years ago we had a guy here in Division 1 build a suspended dragster . I was kind of a cross between an altered and a FED . The car had a ladder bar suspension . This was before 4 links . He ended up taking the shocks out and putting a solid strut in it's place . He held the national record in C/D with this car for a couple of years. 

Offline schino

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #13 on: July 21, 2013, 06:30:37 PM »
Shino I really like what you are trying to do but I think you will have a tough time trying to get something like that approved . Years ago we had a guy here in Division 1 build a suspended dragster . I was kind of a cross between an altered and a FED . The car had a ladder bar suspension . This was before 4 links . He ended up taking the shocks out and putting a solid strut in it's place . He held the national record in C/D with this car for a couple of years. 

I know what you mean about passing tech.  i forget the measurement off the top of my head i wanna say 16" on center for the two uprights was the max you were allowed thats why the links are so short. if the axle were held solid where it sits the tube positions fit the sfi book. but there is nothing in there or nhra rule book about how to hold the rear if it were not bolted solidly in place.

The way that you have that package mocked up it will just work like a ladder bar with an adjustable front pivot length. Most of the four link rear engine dragsters are the same way-- the big tube cross shaft that the arms mount to is like a huge anti roll bar and if you add the drive shaft loop package you add even more torsional strength to the package. That is why a lot of them went to the mono shock deal, there was no need for two and the second one just added weight and cost. The four link rear motor cars do work a little better on bumpy tracks and ride nicer on rough return roads but I think that a good hard tail will run just as fast with less complication and expense.

Roo

Roo, thats what i was after when i did this, had no intent of using a track bar or two shocks.  Ill just say it up front, one of my teachers in college is a big drag racing guy, maybe you east coast guys know him, English brothers racing.  This chassis was being built for my senior project when getting my manufacturing engineering degree.  I needed something "different" and reasons backing why i chose that.  saying a nicer ride on the return road was enough of a reason haha.  but correct me if im wrong but knowing the difference between a rigid and suspended RED you can hit the tires differently.  maybe say more consistent when its suspended? again correct me if im wrong but this is what i gathered.  with all that said ive really got my mind going again after talking to said teacher and him telling me about his new project, an inline 6 jaguar powered FED.  Id most likely not use this chassis and just use it for parts.

Offline masracingtd1167

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Re: 4 link FED anyone
« Reply #14 on: July 22, 2013, 05:14:05 AM »
Schino Ask your teacher if he remembers Richard Tibbits . He is from New Jersey and raced the suspended dragster I am talking about .