Once I had the billet aluminum arms installed on the tube that actually does the work I placed the two end mounting brackets on the bar and clamped the whole assembly into the chassis. One more time of measuring and squaring of everything and I welded the brackets to the car. I should say that I probably had the whole assembly in and out of the
car a dozen times cleaning the factory goop out of the way and grinding all the areas to be welded as good as I could. Cleanliness is definitely the goal when getting ready to weld.
Now that the upper bar assembly was installed I temporarily installed the rear end housing with the new upper and lower control arms in the positions they would be used but I did not install the coil springs because they were not needed at that time. Using a floor jack I raised the housing into position and fitted one of the rear wheels on to establish ride height. Then I installed the link arms that connect the upper sway bar assembly to the housing brackets, made sure that the upper billet arms were aiming just a few degrees down towards the rear of the car so that they would never hit the underside of the floor under compression, and marked the position of the brackets to the housing.
After making sure both links were adjusted to the same length to start with and the housing was level in the car, I welded it in. That’s it! Done! The new rear suspension is installed! Man does it look COOL! I removed the housing and checked all of my welds, painted the bare metal areas, greased the sway bar sleeves that the bar fits in and I was ready for final assembly.
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This time I installed the new Moroso “Trick” rear springs part # 47510 making sure to install them on the proper sides. There is a difference between the left and right springs as far as the spring rate and the right side is longer. Everything went back together like it was supposed too and I hooked up the brake line, reinstalled the Aeromotive fuel tank, connected the Comp Engineering shocks and that part of the project was done! The only thing left was the installation of the Competition Engineering aluminum bushings, part # C3610, in the transmission crossmember. This was literally a five minute job and helped to eliminate another weak link in the chassis essentially turning the crossmember into a chassis stiffener.
I did actually manage to make it out to the track for some testing and I quickly found out just how different the new Muscrate suspension was. To sum it up, it’s like having a new car! I’m out of room to go into any details in this article but the suspension definitely works as advertised and I promise I will show the adjustments I made and give some race results in the next installment.
 This is the trusty old air bag housed in the passenger side spring. It has served it's purpose over the years but it's got to go! |
The next race I’m going to is the IHRA Div.5 Pro-Am at Cedar Falls Raceway. The event will actually be the first for the Div.5 season because the Pro-Am that was scheduled for Cordova, Ill was postponed due to rain. For now, thanks for reading and I hope maybe I helped shed some light on the new generation of a true “bolt in”, with some welding, hot shit new suspension for Muscrate.
Remember, there’s always hope, and when in doubt, DO A WHEELIE !!! 
SOURCE BOX
| Competition Engineering 80 Carter Dr. Guilford, CT 06437 203-453-5200 www.competitionengineering.com |
Moroso 80 Carter Dr. Guilford, CT 06437 203-453-6571 www.moroso.com |
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