CAE 

Watt Linkage for Kadett B/C, Ascona A/B, Manta A/B

Functional principle

A correctly constructed Watt linkage creates a straight, vertical up and down movement of the car body in relation to the axle. This results in significantly calmer driving action on the rear axle and better traction both while accelerating as well as at all driving speeds. The vehicle lies in a noticeably better position. The lateral "wagging effect" is eliminated. Any shearing forces on the rear axle are distributed to two body seatings.

For faultless and correct functionality, the following principles must be observed:

• The swivel point of the compensator must lie on the centre line of the axle and the car body in the vehicle longitudinal direction. (The horizontal height is to be disregarded and is determined by available space.)
• The two transverse shear bars must be of exactly the same length.
• The horizontal height difference of the body seatings must be equal to the hole spacing of the compensator.

Technical description

The Watt linkage consists of a reinforced rear axle cover with welded-on centre bolts. The bolt or the compensator has been purposely mounted in a low position to avoid a change of the boot floor even for extremely low vehicles.

For all vehicles the axle can thus compress completely all the way to the stop without touching the compensator of the boot floor. The reinforcement of the cover consists of braces and an internally welded-in 3mm steel sheet that follows the contour of the cover. Seating of the compensator on the centre bolt with maintenance-free PAP bushes. The shear bars are equipped with Unibal joints and thus permit exact axle guidance. Included in the delivery are all screws and bushes as well as the 2nd body seating. It is also possible to order 2 body seatings on request. This may be necessary if there are space problems due to the arrangement of the exhaust.

Accuracy

At CAE, all Watt linkages are manufactured in small series on a specially constructed straightening bench with a tolerance of +/- 0.3mm. Even for re-orders, this guarantees that the covers can be exchanged which makes a lot of sense especially if several axles are used! The transverse shear bars are preset to the correct measurement and usually should then not be adjusted again. If this should be necessary for some reason, then both bars need to be set to an identical length again.