Super Blue

[C10_ustacould]

I'll take the hit... just don't give her my address! Glad to see you're driving it. One of two things is going to happen with mine, either I am going to sell it and try and find a Blazer or I'm going to blow it apart and get the Porterbuilt parts installed. We'll have to see what happens, heading to Cruising the Coast in Biloxi, MS the end of this week. 4 days and 3 nights with 6,000 to 7,000 other hot rods!

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by Bucks68

I'll take the hit... just don't give her my address! Glad to see you're driving it. One of two things is going to happen with mine, either I am going to sell it and try and find a Blazer or I'm going to blow it apart and get the Porterbuilt parts installed. We'll have to see what happens, heading to Cruising the Coast in Biloxi, MS the end of this week. 4 days and 3 nights with 6,000 to 7,000 other hot rods!

Sounds like fun, I hope you have a blast! I sure would hate to see you sell it, but, life goes on. I REALLY want a 67 Nova some day. Kinda hard to afford a bunch of different cars at the same time, so I guess you sell one to move on to the next. It's a journey!

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by Portmod7

It's a journey!

No doubt!

[Redhouse]

I was curious as to how the modified watts link actually works. I know how the regular watts link works, but I can't wrap my head around your version. Are there some kind of spider/planetary gears between the rockers or something?

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by Redhouse

I was curious as to how the modified watts link actually works. I know how the regular watts link works, but I can't wrap my head around your version. Are there some kind of spider/planetary gears between the rockers or something?

This picture isn't very good, but it's the best one I could find, and my illustration work is TERRIBLE. Hopefully it gives you an idea though.

The bolt you see in the center holds a plain old sealed roller bearing(blue circle) in one arm of the Watts. If you notice, there's a thin piece of plate welded on both the front and back of the arm that the bolt goes through, the bearing is sandwiched between those plates.

The other arm of the Watts has a "C" shaped notch(red line) cut in it and fits between the two thin pieces of plate on the other arm, with the open end of the "C" extended straight out a ways to give the bearing a channel to roll in. That channel is a few thousandths wider than the OD of the bearing to allow it to roll freely in the channel.

It's really actually very simple. I couldn't figure out how it worked either until I had it in my hands and could take it apart. So far I like it, haven't had any problems. I purchased it here:

http://www.tsmmfg.com/wattslinkage.html

[Redhouse]

OK, I think I get it...... each "bellcrank" has its own pivot point on the frame. The bearing is fixed via its center race to one "bellcrank", the other "bellcrank" has a slotted cavity that the bearings outer race rolls in...... Am I right? Also, have you ever seen or heard of a "shaw link" setup?

[Redhouse]

http://www.mustang50magazine.com/how.../photo_15.html

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by Redhouse

OK, I think I get it...... each "bellcrank" has its own pivot point on the frame. The bearing is fixed via its center race to one "bellcrank", the other "bellcrank" has a slotted cavity that the bearings outer race rolls in...... Am I right? Also, have you ever seen or heard of a "shaw link" setup?

That would be correct.

Originally Posted by Redhouse

http://www.mustang50magazine.com/how.../photo_15.html

I couldn't view the pictures on that link for some reason, but I did a google search and was able to find a few. I've never seen that system before. I can't seem to find any information on that "ConTex", they must not be in business any more?

Seems like it would accomplish the same thing. The only problem I have with it is that it seems to take up a lot of space, there's a lot going on there! And a fair amount of mounting work involved. If you were building it from scratch, getting all the motion ratios of those bell cranks would be tough I would think.

[Redhouse]

Contex was bought out by a company called IPS. they went out of business in '02. A guy named Cory Shaw invented the shaw link setup. Its not just an axle locator, its a complete system designed to make the most of a solid axle setup in a road race situation.

The only reason I know about this is because I bought an IPS suspension setup from my neighbor for my 96 cobra and I couldn't find any info on the system. It converts the front from struts to a short-long arm setup, the rear, instead of the shaw link though, it has an SLA IRS setup with a thunderbird aluminum pumpkin. the system tanked because ford offered factory IRS the very next year on the 99 up cobra.

I would LOVE to fit this system to my 68 SWB. I know it would be a lot of fab work but I already own the system and it would take care of lowering, suspending, and providing a narrower stout posi rear end all in one swoop. Plus, there are very few of the trucks out there with IRS.

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by Redhouse

Contex was bought out by a company called IPS. they went out of business in '02. A guy named Cory Shaw invented the shaw link setup. Its not just an axle locator, its a complete system designed to make the most of a solid axle setup in a road race situation.

The only reason I know about this is because I bought an IPS suspension setup from my neighbor for my 96 cobra and I couldn't find any info on the system. It converts the front from struts to a short-long arm setup, the rear, instead of the shaw link though, it has an SLA IRS setup with a thunderbird aluminum pumpkin. the system tanked because ford offered factory IRS the very next year on the 99 up cobra.

I would LOVE to fit this system to my 68 SWB. I know it would be a lot of fab work but I already own the system and it would take care of lowering, suspending, and providing a narrower stout posi rear end all in one swoop. Plus, there are very few of the trucks out there with IRS.

It would be a lot of fun for sure! If you've got the tools and garage to get it done, already having the parts is the hardest obstacle in my opinion. It would probably be pretty awesome under a C-10.

[C10_ustacould]

Where have you been?

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by C10_ustacould

Where have you been?

Well... It only took me 7 months to give you an update... Lol. Sorry about that...

Lots of things happened in the past 3 years. Well, one major thing, but it's been a ride. At the beginning of 2014 I took a job in Sandusky, OH as a Race Engineer with ThorSport Racing on the 88 Menards Toyota Tundra. We won the Driver's Championship that year, I think it was their 3rd in a row. Then the next year I got the opportunity to move to Mooresville, NC to work as the shock specialist for Penske Racing on the 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang. We won the Owner's Championship in 2015 and struggled a little in 2016. At the end of 2016(two weeks ago actually), I decided that I'd had enough, I quit Penske and moved back to New Mexico to work in the Oil & Gas Industry that I grew up around.

Not much change to Super Blue really. I took it with me all those places, and tinkered on it the whole time. I did discover that most of my tuning issues were caused by an inadequate fuel filter that was letting my injectors plug up. I had a 40-micron on there, and have since switched to a 6-micron and got my injectors cleaned. It made a huge difference, the truck runs pretty good now that I can actually tune it. Still a few hiccups, but I can daily drive it with no problems.

Another thing I discovered, my EFI system has two channels to run the injectors. Originally I had one channel run two injectors on one side of the intake, and the other channel ran the ones on the other side. With it being a dual plane intake, it seemed to be giving me some trouble. Once I switched the wiring so that one channel controlled an injector on both sides of the intake at one time, it cleaned things up quite a bit.

During my struggles with the EFI, I switched to a Ford EDIS-8 crank trigger ignition system because I thought I was having timing issues. It didn't really help anything that I could tell, but I got it done, and I love the rock-solid timing I gained.

I modified the AM radio with an AUX port and replaced the speaker so I have tunes now.

Hopefully now that I am back "home", and have a shop to work in, and will hopefully have a lot more time on my hands, I will be able to do some more work on Super Blue. Still plenty of little projects to do!

[Camaroguy]

I just found this thread and had to tell you I see your truck cruising around town every once in a while and I am a pretty big fan. Great job, man!

[NewType72]

Wow man! Incredible work with joining those two championship caliber teams. My buddy and I follow racing religiously so that's awesome to see a fellow truck guy bein up there with the rocket scientists of NASCAR. No discredit to you at all on that, you've definitely shown your worth on all the nuances of your build for us. Glad you've still got the truck and the drive to keep her advancing. Looking forward to more of the build for sure!