After two days of suspension work...

[Tig]

A couple of buddys of mine and I have done the following, with my notes about each:

LCA's - Had the lowering bracket welded in and we installed BMR boxed LCA's, no big problems.

Panhard Rod - Quite easy, we had her finished in 20 minutes.

Adj. Torque Arm - The clamshell mount near the front of the transmission that holds the bushing played the role of b*%@$. After getting the rear bolted in, it took us about 1.5 hours to get the outside clam to connect with the inside. This was mainly due to a slight bend caused by us drilling out the stock rubber bushing. After finishing this, I went to adjust the pinion angle. Unfortunately I have a reading of -3 on the driveshaft and -1 on the torque arm. The axle was under load for this reading, and the arm won't adjust any further to get me to -3. (sigh)

Springs - Rear = cake. Front endlinks, what a pain. The driver's side bolt was installed apparently crossthreaded, making removal a two-man 30 minute process. Blisters through gloves to prove it. Endlink bolt itself bent during process, making removal more fun because we got to use a hammer. Passenger side endlink shears off as after we break the rust bond and it begins to turn, removal is quick.

At this point we've removed the spring/strut from the passenger side, but need new struts as well as endlinks. Driver's side we need to get a T-50 to remove two bolts. Hopefully I can find some shocks/struts in town, but need to check around.

Thought I would post this just to flex my fingers for a bit. Guess I'll need to borrow a spring compressor, too...

[Injuneer]

Why are you trying to set your pinion angle to -3deg?

[Tig]

I'm acutally trying to get it back to somewhere around 0. BMR recommeded a -2 to -4 initial setting.

[Joe 1320]

Hold on one second..... are you saying that your driveshaft is -3° and your pinion is -1°, or are you saying your pinion angle is -1° from the driveshaft?
Are you using both upper and lower adjusting points of the torque arm?

[Tig]

Using the driveshaft and only the lower adjustment on the torque arm, (if I'm measuring correctly) I got a -3 degree from the driveshaft and a -1 from the torque arm (suspension was loaded).

[Injuneer]

-4deg is not a usable number for a street driven car..... not sure why BMR would recommend that. It would be OK for the track on a very high HP setup, but you would have to adjust it back to -2deg for the street, or you are going to ruin the u-joints. I've never run more than -3deg at the track, and that's with an 800HP setup.

For most setups, -1deg to -2deg will work. The exact number also depends on the type of "end" you have on the torque arm. Using a soft rubber bushing allows more upwards movement than a stiffer poly bushing. Mounting the TA to the body rather than the tranny tailshaft, and using a spherical rod end reduces the possibility of upward deflection even more. I'm running -1.8deg on my setup, with decent HP, and rod ends on almost all the suspension components including the TA. Steve Spohn personally did the setup on the suspension.

If you are measuring it correctly, is sound like you have a 2deg difference between the driveshaft and the bottom of the TA mount, under the pinion shaft housing. If the net result is a downward point "vee", you have -2deg. You are measuring on the bottom of the TA rear mount, right?

[Tig]

Yup, off of the mounting plate for the arm, and directly from the driveshaft for the other.