Adjustable drop links; any good?

Hi all,

Have a fairly well spec'd track puma, so alot of the basic mods have been done, but just seen advertised on eBay adjustable drop links, would I benefit at all from them or has anyone used them?

Harry

If you have lowered your Puma, the drop links are probably putting too much pressure of the ARB. When stationary the drop links should not be putting pressure on the ARB. When you lower your car, you generally will require shorter drop links. You can google adjustable drop links to find out about the effect they have, as I'm not 100% clue'd up on them.

As it would happen I have just received a pair of adjustable drop links from eBay as I have an extremely low Puma, too low! I won't be able to fit them until the end of the month, so I can't say if they are any good, but they were the ones for £32. :x

If you want the optimum geo and handling then adjustable droplinks are a good thing as they remove any pre-loading on the ARB. I've been racing with standard links for the last few years but have finally got around to fitting some quite good quality links i found on ebay which are also rose jointed. I haven't driven the car yet however.

Steer clear of the cheapo adjustable drop links.

I too have a car with lowered suspension.
I`ve tried two sets of `bargain` droplinks and neither fit.
The knuckle on the shock end is too deep (about 10mm) and it fouls the chassis on my car (GAZ coilies) when you turn the wheel.
Plus they are twice the weight of the originals. These are the second (better) set compared to OE ones.
[image]5541[/image]

I have bitten the bullet and gone for plan B
Which it just as cheap.
I`ve bought a pair of decent quality droplinks and handed them to a metal fabricators to cut 50mm out of them and properly weld them back together.

I`ll be picking them up tomorrow, I`ll post up a pic.

Ahhh i see!
Thats were i see them was ebay; the cheapo ones :lol:

Thanks for the opinions, will defo be interested in the follow up Milkie and trublusto!

I also bought adjustable drop links from
eBay. They weren't that cheap though, £70 or £80 delivered.



And fitted:



But yet to try them out on the road yet also!

Those look like a much better unit than the cheapos,
and they obviously fit perfectly.

you gets what you pays for once again..

I think they allow up to about 30mm shorter than standard. After that you'd need a shorter turnbuckle. That one is aluminium.

Those ends could be used with my center (turnbuckle)
If I have no fun with the refund, I may just ressurect the idea.

The droplinks are adjusted if you get your car properly corner weighted.
I have fully adjustable suspension and I wouldn`t mind getting it set up properly when my build is complete..

trublustu said:

[post]346747[/post] Those look like a much better unit than the cheapos,
and they obviously fit perfectly.

you gets what you pays for once again..

Click to expand...

The droplinks are OK, but the rose joints are not. They developed knocking (I used them in everyday), got replacement ones (the rose joints, that is), when they started knocking again I took them off and returned to the OEM Ford ones. They lasted about a year or so, or 30 tkms+

That is the problem with rose joints, they are a consumable really.

However, I have found some Kevlar versions (eventually to end up on some lower arms) so hoping they'll be better. I also don't drive my car enough for it to be a problem :lol:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231878936871

are these the cheap drop links?

Yep I think so.

I got these Alex:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RnD-Adjus...954506?hash=item3f50961c0a:g:DH8AAOSw7NNT7OkV

Seem to be good so far.

moondustka said:

[post]349306[/post] Yep I think so.

I got these Alex:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RnD-Adjus...954506?hash=item3f50961c0a:g:DH8AAOSw7NNT7OkV

Seem to be good so far.

Click to expand...

Would these be a good replacement for the original drop links on a standard unmodified car? They are at least £20 cheaper than the ford ones that's all. How have they performed Moonduska?

They're fine, but I found I had to space them out as they were rubbing on the chassis when the car was on the ground (miles away and in totally different position when the car is up in the air).

For an unmolested car I would stick with standard!

moondustka said:

They're fine, but I found I had to space them out as they were rubbing on the chassis when the car was on the ground (miles away and in totally different position when the car is up in the air).

For an unmolested car I would stick with standard!

Click to expand...

Yeah I have ordered the standard ones in the end. Were cheaper on Amazon but they only had one, boo! Got the other from Fordpartsuk so they will go one with the polybushed wishbones.

Cheers for the reply anyway

trublustu said:

[post]346499[/post]

I have bitten the bullet and gone for plan B
Which it just as cheap.
I`ve bought a pair of decent quality droplinks and handed them to a metal fabricators to cut 50mm out of them and properly weld them back together.

I`ll be picking them up tomorrow, I`ll post up a pic.

Click to expand...

Hi, how did this end? I am thinking of doing the same thing (shorten by 30mm) as i don't want to spend much money on adjustable links. Just wondering if it made a big difference with the shortened ones?

To be honest, I cant say I can tell... lol

Because the car is only driven infrequently, it`s often difficult to analize individual mods.
And this was done with a raft of other upgrades.

The car loves utterly corners though. so I certainly havent wrecked it.

I want to get some stands for the front axles at some point so I can see exactly how the car is sitting on it`s adjusted springs etc.
I might even try swapping them for standard length items to see what they both feel like, back to back.

Well 50 mm looks a lot to me but it depends how much it is lowered offcourse. In theory it should be better and reduce the pressure but a lowered Puma is full of surprises right . I will try this out on some spare links,got enough of them.

Not convinced about the benefits, ARB will find its level with the weight of the car because there's nothing to key it in to the bush, I would think after a few miles the ARB will rest in the new lowered position so there's no load as such when you're stopped after its bedded.

Only real reason I can think is if it was that low that it was reaching the end of travel and contacting something, but you'd hear that.

I'll stand corrected if there's a genuine benefit but I'm struggling to find it.