Irs Catback On Foxbody W/panhard Bar & Torque Arm...will It Work?

MFE92

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Aug 25, 2010
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It recently came to my attention that 03/04 Cobra catbacks bolt onto Foxbodies and fit great. This would solve a lot of problems for me which currently prevent me from running tailpipes at all. However, I'm not sure if it'll fit with a panhard bar and torque arm in place. Anybody know if it will?

Here it is installed on a foxbody but without TA/PHB

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Don't know if it will work with the phb/TA arrangement, but here is a better pic for you. On a fox body LX. My only concern would be potential ground clearance and/or wheel interference issues

IMG_0645.jpg


BTW, I just noticed the car in the pic you posted has an IRS not solid rear axle. Look at the camber on the rear wheels......
 
ok, this is begging the question. An IRS setup will not allow for the SRA to flex. I could possibly see there being room for the normal up/down movement while the car is on the ground but what happens when you have to jack the car up? The only option I would see would be to unbolt the pipes every time you lifted the car. This would inevitably lead to leaks. I could be wrong but perhaps the flowmaster pipes which are routed for max tire clearance would be a better option but they may not clear a PHB. I run 315 tires on fox axles and I have the stock exhaust but clearance is less than a 1/4" and one day I would like to install a PHB and a torque arm. so going back to dumps may be the only viable option for me.
 
ok, this is begging the question. An IRS setup will not allow for the SRA to flex. I could possibly see there being room for the normal up/down movement while the car is on the ground but what happens when you have to jack the car up? The only option I would see would be to unbolt the pipes every time you lifted the car. This would inevitably lead to leaks. I could be wrong but perhaps the flowmaster pipes which are routed for max tire clearance would be a better option but they may not clear a PHB. I run 315 tires on fox axles and I have the stock exhaust but clearance is less than a 1/4" and one day I would like to install a PHB and a torque arm. so going back to dumps may be the only viable option for me.

I plan to do a PHR + 18x9's on my LX and this has been rolling around in my mind as well. Only thing I can figure is I'll have to go dumps.
 
Stykthyn brings up a good point. Unless you put jack stands under the axle tubes, the pumpkin will hit the exhaust. V-band clamps at the mufflers will make it much less painful to drop the exhaust every time you want to do rear suspension work.

When I was mocking up the tails on my IRS swap, I did notice how the pipes sat in relation to where my PHB used to be, and there is no way they will both work together without modification to one of them. They basically occupy the same space.
 
Panhard bar and torque arm are for solid rear axle set ups. If you use cobra independent rear suspension you no longer have the need to control movement of the entire axle assembly because the differential is somewhat rigidly mounted to a subframe which is mounted to the chassis of the car. The panhard bar controls the lateral movement of the axle and the torque arm I believe limits the rotation of the axle housing using the leverage of the car itself. On an IRS car this becomes unnecessary because the center section is fixed in it's location by the surrounding frame. I think.
 
Panhard bar and torque arm are for solid rear axle set ups. If you use cobra independent rear suspension you no longer have the need to control movement of the entire axle assembly because the differential is somewhat rigidly mounted to a subframe which is mounted to the chassis of the car. The panhard bar controls the lateral movement of the axle and the torque arm I believe limits the rotation of the axle housing using the leverage of the car itself. On an IRS car this becomes unnecessary because the center section is fixed in it's location by the surrounding frame. I think.
This is an old thread. And IIRC, he was just talking about using the IRS catback on a car with a SRA