Mono Leafing the Rear

Thank you. practical,funtional,clean and simple, oh did i mention works awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only problem with the third link is the only space to mount it would be the bottom of the diff, as it used to be a stationwagon the seat area is in the way of an upper mount. I will try to get some pics to make it easier to see.

Callum

This was my donor car, as you can see not a lot of room to work with without major cutting.

Callum

Put the 3rd link wherever you can.........

This is your sollution. You've been saying it all along.

Cutting is simply not an option if I want to keep it legal here, surely a decent mono leaf setup can be made to work? It seems that most of the horror stories of broken leaves are vehicles that have been dragged everywhere or run a massive reverse curve in them. Who here has successfully or unsuccessfully run mono leafs? Or even some example of where and why they have broken?

Callum

a mono leaf system will work...they actually work good for what they are. however, some guys mono leaf their trucks as a temporary set up until it gets linked. most leaf systems will fail due to the constant up and down motion of the leaf spring. think of it this way....your taking a leaf spring, flipping it upside down making it arch upward instead of downward. now doing that your truck will get low...but when you air it up your air bag and your leaf spring are working against each other which puts a lot of stress on the leafspring where the drop block is. if you take a peice of metal and bend it back and fourth eventually its going to break, its just a matter of when. now if you can find someone to make a thicker leaf or de-arch the ones you have the system will work to the best of its ability but the bending the spring de-arched or not will eventually break. a close friend of mine had this done on his s-10...never drug through his leafs or his hangers at all but just because of the constant up and down, it broke right behind the axle after the drop block. luckily it broke there because the other half acted as a two link which kept he rearend there but after he found that, he four linked it. because you cannot cut your truck up to make this work the best way possible, it looks like the mono leaf setup is your only choice. but like we said before a mono leaf system wont hold up to a whole lot of horse power, it will make your axle twist. just dont floor it all the time and take it easy, it should be alright.

Thanks for the detailed info, I guess it comes down to if I want to do it properly or not. Since I can't cut the car up to make it work properly I think the bagging idea is out as I don't like doing things half arsed. Will just have to wait for the next project and plan for the bags from the start.

Cheers

Callum

not a problem. i got a question though....why cant you cut into the truck? i mean i understand that its illegal where you are but its illegal everywhere. even here in the states we can get tickets and unsafe vehicle tags and what not but we still cut into them and do whatever. most cops are cool about it and wont mess with you unless you give them a good reason or whatever. i guess what im asking is is what would happen if you cut your ute all up and drove around with it bagged up? could you just lift the bed floor up to make it apear stock at first glance?

I could legally mod it to four link, but the amount of work and re-doing the work we have already done makes it just too far out of the budget on top of the cost of airbagging. New Zealand has pretty good modification laws where you can basically get anything safe legal. Unfortunately to make the room to fit the 4 link you need to cut a lot out of the floor. If it was a full chassis vehicle I wouldn't hesitate, but its not and that really adds to the amount of work required. My other project (RWD Starlet race car) we did cut rear floor pan, trans tunnel, firewall etc out but it was planned from the start. Trying do do it with the rest of the shell mostly complete just isn't worth it. As I said, I don't like to job half way.

Callum