(Part 2) Installing a Detroit Speed QUADRALink Rear Suspension System

Text and Photos by Matt Emery

Article

You’ve been waiting for it–Part 2 of the step-by-step tutorial on installing a Detroit Speed QUADRALink Rear Suspension System. The folks at Detroit Speed and Engineering show us how it’s done. Check it out after the jump!

Detroit Speed’s housings come with all of the pertinent brackets already in place, so it really makes life easier than trying to install the brackets onto an existing housing.

 

 

All of the internals from the customer’s original housing (Strange carrier and other trick parts) simply slide into place.

 

 

Oddly, Detroit’s housing didn’t come with brackets drilled for its new QUADRALink roll bar. But with some very accurate measuring, a drill motor and some muscle, the housing was ready to go.

 

 

The lower link attaches to the where the front leaf spring mounted, so it’s just a matter of attaching the link and spacer to the bracket.

 

 

It’s all hands on deck as the housing is lifted into place. This thing is beefy!

 

 

Care is taken to make sure that all of the links are the same length as its mate when attaching them to the brackets. This ensures that the rearend will be as square as possible.

 

 

The shocks are attached to the lower mounts. The upper mounts will be welded in place soon.

 

 

The adjustable track bar is installed and the rearend is positioned perfectly side to side. This is critical for the next step to go smoothly.

 

 

Which is to tack weld the upper shock mounts in place. This is why the housing has to be positioned perfectly side to side, and even then once the tacks are in place and the housing is removed for final welding, measurements are taken to ensure that the upper shock mounts are square.

 

 

To determine the forward sway bar mounts, measurements are taken from the axle tube.

 

 

Detroit Speed supplies a neat little centering drill fixture. It’s used to determine the exact center so that the holes are drilled square through the frame rail.

 

 

Nut inserts are used to affix the bracket to the rail.

 

 

If you have one of these cool tools, tightening the nut inserts is easy, or you can use the tool that Detroit supplies, or you can weld the bracket in place.

 

 

A liberal amount of supplied grease is used on the polyurethane bushings prior to installation.

 

 

With that, the bar is installed in place.

 

 

Detroit Speed supplies the correct torque specs for all hardware, and they should be heeded. All of the pieces, of course, need to be tight, but over-torqued suspension hardware can cause binding.

 

 

Although installing the Detroit Speed QUADRALink rear suspension system may be a labor intensive affair, once it is in place, your car will never be the same.

 

 

 

 

 

Detroit Speed & Engineering

Dept. MCP

185 McKenzie Rd.

Moorsville, NC 28115

704.662.3272

www.detroitspeed.com

 

The 401K Club

Dept. MCP

4392 E. La Palma Ave.

Anaheim, CA 92807

714.993.4015

www.the401kclub.com

 

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