I have been wanting a watt’s link for a while now. I have had some rubbing on the inner fender going on for years with my panhard setup and my 295 width tires. I recently went to a 315 tire and it obviously got even worse.

I am a huge UMI fan and wanted to wait until they come out with one, but with the way these tires rub and not knowing when UMI will release theirs I had to pull the trigger.

I have had an adjustable panhard from UMI for years and with a 3” true dual over the axle I also had to get the panhard relocation bar from them. Since my car is lowered I have always had the problem with the lower panhard bar contacting the upper one. This is obviously not good at all for suspension travel and with large bumps the rear felt VERY unstable and felt like it shifted the whole rear-end in a bad way under certain conditions.

I know UMI recently came out with a fix with their panhard bar bracket that lowers it on the driver’s side, but I knew I wanted to get a watt’s link eventually and would have to sell it at a loss later down the road if I could even sell it later on.

With my future plans of wanting to go with a MWC fab 9” and wanting to clear the dual exhaust it seemed like MWC was a clear winner.


You can see in the above pics just how uneven the panhard bar is as well as the spot where the bars have been contacting causing a “flat spot” on both bars.

The first thing I noticed about the MWC watts link is how light it was. I didn’t get a chance to weigh it but it was probably really close to the weight of the panhard bar and relocation bar it replaced.



The Install was pretty straight forward, which is a good thing as the MWC unit didn’t come with any instructions. The only real pain was grinding the brake line tabs off of the 10-bolt axle housing to clear the axle clamps. I also had to get longer u-bolts as well as spacers to lower the sway bar brackets so the sway bar would clear the watt’s link axle clamps.

I felt a very noticeable improvement right out of the gate. The rear felt much more planted and instead of the very hard jolts coming from the rear it felt almost more like the front suspension going over bumps if that makes sense. I am very happy with the improvement and wished I would have done this mod a long time ago.

 

If they had half holes for adjustment I would likely be willing to give it a shot. Unfortunately those smaller adjustments do make all the difference and nailing the chassis balance for a dedicated track car IMO.

 

I know there will be some setup learning curve with the watts but with as many holes as it has I think it will take a while to dial it all in. More holes or holes closer together would just add more setup time with probably very minimal gain. I did do a quick weigh of the panhard setup and it comes in just under 13lbs. the watts link package said 26lbs so with a few pounds in packing material I guess I gained about 11lbs.

 

Lots of clearance with the true duals.

I've been thinking of this for some time. I really like the MWC setup. Looks pretty lightweight all things considering.

 

I really like the MWC Watts link, pretty sure its the lightest design out there at the moment (cough... UMI cough...)

If you were to eventually get a 9" what mods would you need for the watts link to work? Just different axle clamps?

 

I'm holding out for a UMI WATTS Link here

 

Thanks for the UMI interest! We are working on light, strong, clearance, adjustability etc...

ramey

 

I made sure to ask this from MWC before I ordered. The fab 9" comes with the axle stands (if you choose that option at checkout) built into the housing. So the axle clamps that came with my watts won't work with the fab 9, but everything else bolts right up. If I got a different rearend than the fab 9" I would just have to get larger diameter axle clamps.

 

Now if only one of the big companies would come out with one with lots of adjustability and cool features for aftermarket rears


oh wait...

 

Thank you for the order we appreciate your business. When you are ready to order your 9'' give me call.

 

I will have to say we are yet to have a complaint about not enough adjustment with our watts link and more than a few have been sold to dedicated track cars.

 

It has even worked with the Kooks dual set up.

 

This works a couple different ways. If you updated to our housing we can weld the stands onto if you choose a backbrace option or go with out the backbrace and do a 3" axle tube bracket.

We discussed making one stand that does both however we feel clamping something between the clamp and axle tube is risk for possible slipping issues.

 

So I did a little more adjusting last night. Got under the car and adjusted the links to make them a little more level with the axle. Also adjusted the axle to center it up. I took the wife for a ride with me as well. She knows when I buy parts, but she has no idea what they do. She said right off the bat that the car rode much smoother. I know when I buy parts I intensely try to "feel" or "hear" the difference so I am glad that my impression of the better ride with the watts was confirmed. "Happy wife, happy life"

 

Good to hear.

 

This is good to know

 

is this bracket welded to the axle tubes?

 

It is an entirely different bracket set up for our fabricated housings but the short answer is yes the brackets are part of the housing when you purchase a watts link with out fabricated nine inch.

 

I happen to have a picture of one with Kooks.

 

thanks for the response. appreciate it.

additionally since you make fab'd housings. you ever pursue mounting the watts' center the housing and having the arms connect to the chassis (like where the panhard bar and panhard braces attaches to)?