That something, is the Direct Connection Leaf Link! I am in the process of putting a Dana 60 in the Aspen that I bought from Andre over in Michigan (68shifter) which is a great looking piece, and it was a great price. Good guy to deal with! Anyway, we have yanked the old stock 8-3/4 with 3.23 gears out this past Saturday. This week I will finalize the brackets, and with any luck, get them water jet cut at work.

After attending one of Dave Morgan's Seminars www.davemorganseminars.com I think I will change the leaf link design slightly. It's hard to explain with out pictures, but I will be moving the bottom mount for the diff above the leaf spring, instead of below the spring like the original design. I will be contacting Dave once I have everything drawn up to see what he thinks. When I talked to him about it at the seminar, he thought the leaf link was a great idea that just didn't get enough use. The four links came and that was the end of that.

Why am I doing this instead of Cal Tracs? I would like to try something different, and I think the leaf link is a neat part of the Mopar history. There is nothing wrong with Cal Tracs, their success speaks for themselves. There is also some class races around here that would knock me up a class if I put a ladder bar or 4 link in the car. I think I will be able to claim stock suspension with the leaf link. It is still using the factory suspension, just in a different way.

So, I will try to get pictures along the way, and let you guys know weather it works or not! I think there is a few guys out there using it with success.

What do you guys think??

-Kenny

I thought about doing this myself. I will be watching what you do.

Do you know of a URL or drawing that would help me remember what a "leaf link" suspension is?

Big Cube, I don't, but it's in a DC book at the shop. I will try to upload a picture of it later today. I feel the original design points the bottom "bar" (drawing a line between the lower mount of the diff, and the leaf spring front eye) to far up. Moving this pions above the leaf will flatten the bottom "bar" out, more like a more modern 4 link.

-Kenny

Well since I haven't seen a direct connection catalog since the late 70's or early 80's if you can scan a pic it would be helpful. My opinion on most of the old tricks is they are phased out for a reason, if they really worked, people would still be using them. But it never hurts to try to start with an old idea and make it better.

It's a different system, and commonly gets mistaken for it. Your thinking of a kit that lets the axle slide on the leaf, and allows you to ladder bar a car without the use of coil overs.

-Kenny

I have an old DC book at home, early 70's I think, I'll look for it and see if I can find the diagram.

Take some pictures.
My opinion is that the Calvert and the leaf link are the same concept just different locations.

Hmm, interesting. I would like to see pics of it, not because I want to do it but I like different.

There yas go

I agree,Kenny!...dare to be DIFFERENT! Best of luck with your "experiment"! BTW..have you had time to work on the valley plate for the RPM's??? Maybe my price range made you re-think the idea!???

For a little back story, The last passes I made with the car was using bone stock suspension basically. factory original shocks, factory Aspen springs using a stiff over load spring clamped to the front segment of the spring. The car had the 3.23 gears, and the tire was a 27 x 10.5 ET Street. This netted a 1.55 sixty foot, and a 10.68 @ 128mph. The car isn't picking the wheels currently.

The changes being made:

Leaf Link
Dana 60 with 4.10's
MT ET Drag 9 x 29.5
QA1 A-Body Stocker "R" front single adjustibles
QA1 Proma Star custom mount rear shocks (a coil over shock with out a coil)
I am already using a set of Afco sliders in place of the factory shackles.

Here is the best launch photo with the old set up. It usually ran a 1.59-1.60 with one 1.55.



-Kenny

OK, so if I understanding this correctly the horizontal bolt though the leaf spring bracket goes through the lower brackets welded to the axle housing. The upper bars connect to some other bracket on the chassis(floor). Your mod is to move the leaf spring bracket to the top of the spring instead of the bottom. (for lower ride height?) The thing that would concern me is how much the pinion angle will change due to non-equal arcs. The other concern is how strong the new axle brackets are but I'm sure some of those concerns could be mitigated with bracket design. Will be interesting to see how it works for you.

There were two inherent "problems" with the original leaf link.
First clamping the spring solid to the pivot created a bind, you could ease that by having the spring slide in the pivot. Second issue was even with ss prings it would kill the spring at the front eye very quickly. Calvert addresses this with their monos being much thicker than even the old made in Canada ss springs. Despite these correctable shortcomings they did work but were shelved when Jenkins tilted the playing field when he debuted his Vega

I'm not much of a drag race historian, are you talking about the 72 grumpys toy car, the one that kicked everybody's butt and staged crooked to run straight? 9.60s?

What happened after that? Did mopar come back after another rule change or something? They outlawed the hemi colts etc, right?

I love the 70's stuff!