It's summertime and we are finally getting somewhere!
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| Above you see the 1989
Trans-Am rear and
torque arm. It's a drum brake rear with 2.73 gears and a posi. I had to
open up the framerails and weld brackets inside, to accommodate the
trailing arms. Also note modern
shocks. I cut off the F-body spring mounts and welded new ones, which
are
now straight above the axle (Buick had them ahead of axle, Trans-Am had
them behind axle). There's also mounts on the trailing arms for the
Airlift
air springs (sleeves). I also revised the panhard bar location on the
axle. Note
how nicely the torque arm fits the frame X-member. Just had to weld on
a simple bracket, and invert the rubber mount.
I got the whole idea of swapping in a 3rd gen F-body axle from Glen of Arizona, see www.hotrodsbyglen.com |
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| These pics were taken the same day when I dropped the engine/transmission combo on the rolling chassis. I was able to free up one of the original lever shocks. The other one was seized for good. I was lucky enough to find a used one, and I just swapped in the valving from the seized one. The passenger side motor mount was revulcanized at a local shop. The rear mount was substituted by a pair of old Volvo mounts (because they were affordable and available). The left upper outer control arm joint is a new one, as well as both tie rod ends, but otherwise the front end was in good shape. You can see the pedals here as well. The clutch pedal mechanism was worn out and when I rebuilt it I took 2 inches of slack out of it! |
These disc brakes give me bragging
rights
;-)
The white sidewalls are on this side because I'm going to make soooo wide whitewalls on the other side. I ground off all the lettering on the other side, and I'm going to paint them with a special whitewall paint. See www.itbuk.co.uk |