[Sam Strano]

I'm now happy to announce we can take pre-orders on a Watts Link for all 82-02 F-bodies with stock diamter axle tubes. There is a version for bigger axle tubes (suck as 12-bolts, etc.) in the works.

They should be ready to ship in approximately 2-3 weeks. The unit is made by Fays2 who has been doing these for Mustangs for more than a few years. I not only trust the unit and have had all my questions answered, but will be putting one on my car as soon as possible. Jim and I have had a few discussions about the design and I'm happy to say he addressed my main concerns regarding approximate roll-center height. I wanted to make sure we could start @ stock height and adjust down as the owner sees fit. That has been done and implimented in this unit.

Details, specs and a photo on a 4th gen can be seen here:
http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetails.php...7&ModelID=7

(IMG:http://www.stranoparts.com/data/images/p30617181655.jpg)


Price is $650 Plus shipping. Shipping costs will normally not exceed $30 in most cases.

Fays2 own website has the pricing set lower, but after a discussion with Jim Fay, he informed me the prices are incorrect and will be changed.

[sgarnett]

Judging from the photo, I think the body side may be OK with the UE PHB lowering setup. At most, you may have to grind just a little off the end of the Watts link brace (below/outboard of the lower bolt hole of the stock bracket). It looks like there's room to do that without affecting the strength at all. However, there's a gap between the plate bridging the sides of the UE bracket extension and the sheet metal bridging the sides of the stock bracket, so you might not need to grind at all. Either way, it looks like no big deal and it should be fully reversible/swappable [at that end].

The axle bracket extension itself should not be a problem. However, the bracing tube might interfere with the Watts bracket that bolts to that side.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with job that the welder (not me) did, and decided that making it adjustable as Jon A did sounded like a good idea. I sawed the tube back off flush with the axle tube and bracket using a Sawzall bimetallic blade to slice through the weld, then cleaned it up with an angle grinder and Dremel. I paid more attention to getting the bracket smooth and flat than to getting the axle tube perfect (also didn't want to thin the axle tube any). So, there's probably still enough residual evidence on the axle tube that I'll be able to tell if it would have interfered, or may even need to dress it a bit with a file. I'll let you know.

I did add a brace tube on the outboard side (welded inboard of the bearing), but never got around to rebracing it enough on the inboard side to allow lowering the PHB [the rest of the way]. It isn't that big a deal to cut off the existing brace tube, and should you ever decide to reinstall the PHB for some reason, you could go ahead and make it adjustable, and weld the brace at a different angle that would allow the UE PHB and Watts setups to be fully interchangeable in the future.

This post has been edited by sgarnett: Jul 22 2008, 05:33 PM