As promised, it’s time for the rear suspension. When I started this project my original plan was to get the rear frame kit from ABC Performance so I could stuff 335s out back. After thinking about it for a while I decided that if I’m going to go through all this work I wanted to try something different. During my dealings with Ron Sutton while I was at Ridetech, I learned about his suspension kits, specifically his offset three-link. After some discussion and numerous emails, a big ol brown box showed up on my door step with this stuff in it…
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
After having cut the front end apart with a 4 ½” grinder, I broke down and bought this Eastwood plasma cutter. It was relatively cheap, has a better warranty than the big names, and it works awesome! So far it has been able to cut ¼” plate without the slightest hiccup. Highly recommended if you’re in the market for a plasma cutter.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
With the old 9” in place, I located the stock rear axle centerline using a good old fashioned plumb bob. (I added the red line to show the plane I was using)
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
With the centerline marked, I removed all the rear suspension and started measuring for the new parts.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
Wanting to keep the body mount, I was able to do some fancy cutting thanks to the plasma!
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
With all my cuts made, the engine hoist made quick work of getting the old stuff out of the way.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
The first thing I did was get the new crossmember tacked in place so I could start fitting the new rear frame rails. After spending too much time trying to get these rails in the proper position…
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
…I got in contact with Ron and he sent me a new set of rails that were a better fit for me. He’ll probably chime in with more details, but I think these are now the standard rails in his rear kits. A couple of cool features is the holes for the watts link crossmember and sway bar tube are already in place, and there’s a line cut to locate the axle center line.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
The next step was getting the new rear end housing in place so I could locate the suspension brackets.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
Here the watts link crossmember and sway bar tube are tacked in.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
Lower shock mounts tacked in.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
Third link tacked in.
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Yelcamino, on Flickr
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Yelcamino, on Flickr