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Rear suspension recipe

greenmachine

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Hi all
I have finished the front suspension/disk brake swap finally. Next up rear. I'm doing a true trac with 3.91 gears. I need opinions on most effective/budget friendly rear. Here's what I'm thinking so far.
1.) super stock springs
2.) 1" lowering blocks (little pro touring attitude).
3.) bilstein shocks
4.) pinion snubber
5.) possible cal tracks but that's down the road after I finish paying off the rear end rebuild.
Thanks guys. Here's my motivation pic.

image.jpg
 
That all sounds good. But if you go Cal tracs I'd stick with their leaf spring AND shock. So either SS springs/Bilsteins/Pinion Snubber or full on Cal Tracs.

Have a few friends that went through all this and ended up just buying the rest of the Cal Tracs setup.
 
IMHO for a street driven car a pinion snubber with about 1 1/2" gap works pretty well. For a drag strip application the snubber is totally not needed with the correct leaf springs and shocks.
 
I'd consider Hotchkis leaves that already have a 1" drop versus blocks or at least have the leaves de-arched.
 
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This is my suspension that I've run for 30+ years and like a lot, except I have 2" lowering blocks. With super stock springs, 2" lowering blocks don't "lower" the car, they put it back to "normal" height. Without the 2" lowering blocks my rear bumper was belly button high. You can also get the car to "normal" height without lowering blocks with SS springs by using the upper holes in the extended front leaf spring shackles BUT you have to cut off your rear end's spring perches & re-weld them or you pinion angle will be WAY off (been there, done that).

1.) super stock springs
2.) 1" lowering blocks (little pro touring attitude).
3.) bilstein shocks
4.) pinion snubber

As for pinion snubbers, I have a little different opinion. My car would wheel hop at launch so bad it would knock the fillings out of your teeth. Both an adjustable pinion snubber and "slapper" el-cheepo tractions bars both helped my car tremendously to launch better, street or strip. I custom cut my snubber to about 1" from the floorboard and am very satisfied with the results. (I had to trim it since it wouldn't fit "out of the box" with the 2" lowering blocks). fyi - I never ran BOTH...just the pinion snubber OR slapper bars.
 
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Opinions on Calvert split mono leaf with cal tracs, decent shocks.
 
Alright. Here's my set up: reinforced k member, reinforced lower control arms, 1.03 torsion bars, offset upper bushings for more caster, frame connectors, front and rear sway bar. Hotchkiss 2" drop springs, heavy duty shackles, fox street shocks.
 
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