300px, 5-link live axle suspension In automotive suspensions, a suspension link, control link or link is a suspension member, that attaches at only two points. One point being the body or frame of the vehicle and the other point attaching to the knuckle, upright, axle or another link. The link pivots on either a bushing or a

ball joint In an automobile, ball joints are spherical bearings that connect the control arms to the steering knuckles, and are used on virtually every automobile made. They bionically resemble the ball-and-socket joints found in most tetrapod animals. ...

at each attachment point. A link differs from a

control arm In automotive suspension, a control arm, also known as an A-arm, is a hinged suspension link between the chassis and the suspension upright or hub that carries the wheel. In simple terms, it governs a wheel's vertical travel, allowing it to mo ...

because it can only control one of the degrees of freedom by itself. In the attached photo of a 5-link

live axle A beam axle, rigid axle or solid axle is a dependent suspension design in which a set of wheels is connected laterally by a single beam or shaft. Beam axles were once commonly used at the rear wheels of a vehicle, but historically they have als ...

suspension, the different types of links can be seen. These links work in tandem with the

coil spring A selection of conical coil springs The most common type of spring is the coil spring, which is made out of a long piece of metal that is wound around itself. Coil springs were in use in Roman times, evidence of this can be found in bronze Fib ...

s, dampers, and

sway bar An anti-roll bar (roll bar, anti-sway bar, sway bar, stabilizer bar) is a part of many automobile suspensions that helps reduce the body roll of a vehicle during fast cornering or over road irregularities. It connects opposite (left/right) whee ...

to control all

six degrees of freedom Six degrees of freedom (6DOF) refers to the six mechanical degrees of freedom of movement of a rigid body in three-dimensional space. Specifically, the body is free to change position as forward/backward (surge), up/down (heave), left/right ...

of the axle. The upper links (orange) and the lower links (yellow) work in tandem to control the pitch, yaw and the fore and aft movement (surge). The

panhard rod A Panhard rod (also called Panhard bar, track bar, or track rod) is a suspension link that provides lateral location of the axle. Originally invented by the Panhard automobile company of France in the early twentieth century, this device has been ...

(green) controls the left and right movement (sway). While the springs and dampers (not shown) control the up and down movement (heave) and the roll is controlled by the sway bar (also not shown). It takes a minimum of two links per wheel in a

MacPherson strut The MacPherson strut is a type of automotive suspension system that uses the top of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot. It is widely used in the front suspension of modern vehicles, and is named for American automotive engineer Ear ...

-style suspension and a minimum of three links per wheel in a

multi-link suspension A multi-link suspension is a type of vehicle suspension with one or more longitudinal arms. A wider definition can consider any independent suspensions having three control links or more multi-link suspensions. These arms do not have to be of e ...

References

Automotive suspension technologies {{automotive-part-stub

See also

References