Suspension 101
 

Where can I learn about suspension? I have no clue what a Pan Hard bar is.. or a tri link or 4 link is... Or why our Watts Linkage is no good...

I wanna learn so I can figure out what to blow my hard earned cash on...

What's MacPherson Strut.. Wishbone or all that crap...

What's the difference between a strut and a shock...

Someone help me.. Point me to web sites with diagrams and videos and such.

TIA

a strut is what is in the front of your 1st gen with the spring coiled over it. a shock is like the rear, a single unit outside the spring. wishbone is the shape of the control arm which is stronger then a normal control arm. it of course looks like a wishbone. a macpherson strut is pretty stndard setup on struts. my wrx and camry both used the macpherson. the maxima also uses a macpherson. i don't really know of strut setups that aren't macpherson now that i think about it. what you should probably concentrate on is how camber, caster, and toe affect the car as well as sway bars. these are the things that we have control of (at least on the front).

as for the watts linkage, i believe the problem is with the car going to low and binding due to the geometry of the suspension.

you can gain some knowledge by asking around, but my suggestion would be to just to to the book store and find a good book. Or pull up one on Amazon if you don't have a good one near you... This is a wonderful resource:

http://www.wincom.net/trog/stu/books.html

Someof them are expensive (Miliken, but supposedly the best) I found the Chassis Engineering book at Borders by me and it does a good job of explaining everything you just asked and a whole lot more...

oh yeah, and it was like only $12 or something

go to my site,
click my sig and go to the tech section and you will find suspension 101