Rear 5 lug swap complete

[Mintsick]

Figured I'd throw up a quick picture as I've not really shown what the car looks like on here. The swap consisted of:

- Used 8.8 that had an Auburn lsd with 3.55 gears installed in it
- LRS 5 lug rear swap kit for drum brakes
- Drake muscle cars aluminum rearend girdle/LubeLocker gasket
- SVE upper/lower control arms
- MM stainless rear brake hose
- New emergency brake cables
- OEM Mach 1 17x8's with 245/45s

I left off the quad shocks as well as the pinion weight/damper after reading a bunch of threads around here but I believe both are going back on. It will wheel hop if I get on it hard enough. I'm still tracking down what I can only describe as a "loose" feeling in the rear when taking off from a stop and real slow speeds in 1st gear, I am hoping that I just need to snug up the control arm bolts.

I have 94/95 spindles, PBR calipers, proper moog ball joints, and MM stainless braided hoses for the front - The OEM 17x8's will be going up front and I will be ordering a pair of 17x9's from AFSWheels for the rear.

 

[Stever89]

Looks good, now for the fronts. I need to do this too, but not without a set of 5 lug wheels first, and that's gonna take a while. Nice work

 

[Mustang5L5]

Stand next to the rear wheels and push the back end of the car side to side. If you see the wheel move in and out of the fender, you need to torque the control arms down better.

The wheel shouldn't move when tight..just the tire should flex

 

[Mintsick]

Thanks Mike I'll try that test for sure.

 

[Mustang5L5]

When i did my 5-lug, i took my rear out to do it so i could paint it up, clean it, etc. When i reinstalled, i had the same exact feeling of "looseness".

I did the "hipcheck" test and found the rear moving to the side from under the car. Had to go back under with a torque wrench. I forget the spec, but wanna say it was around 90 ft-lbs of torque. After tightening it up 1 last time, rear has been solid ever since.

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

your upper control arm bushings may be beat.

 

[Mintsick]

I'm almost sure it's just a matter of needing to torque them down more, as I recall putting the rear back into the car was a pain so I probably just tightened them "good enough" which is obviously not good enough.

MAC'n, every bushing is new control arm wise (poly) EXCEPT for the stock rubber bushings mounted on the rearend itself for the uppers...they looked OK to me but I will keep these in mind if there is still an issue after ensuring everything is tight...how big of a pain would it be to replace the upper bushings with the rear end in the car if I need to?

 

[Mustang5L5]

That shouldn't be an issue. Same deal with my rear. All arms and bushings new, but i purposely left the stock rubber bushings in the rear axle. Everything works nice

Shameless plug...poly bushings for the axle for sale if anyone interested
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-9...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a6aef2f30

 

[Mintsick]

Yes I assumed this would be an OK setup, the ebay link doesn't work.

 

[Mustang5L5]

It's actually preferred...reason why i'm selling the poly bushings. (wasn't trying to push a sale...just a coincidence i'm selling now)

Spoke to techs at max motorsports who recommened the typical poly on the lower arms, but leavng rubber on the uppers for a little compliance, especially on a street driven car.

So my setup is Max motorsports lowers, and the Steeda boxed uppers (which are actually ford racing HD uppers that are boxed and zinc'ed) they came with the poly bushings for the rear, but i chose to install rubber instead.

So yes, rubber bushings will work fine here. My car rides great like this.

 

[Mintsick]

^ The body attaching side of the SVE uppers are poly, I have noticed a slight increase in NVH but nothing drastic it all.

 

[ReefBlueHatch]

Looking good, I always wondered what Mach 1's would look like on my car. Now you get to have fun doing the front, lol.

I just bought a new set of SVE uppers for $20, but I'm debating on using them because of torque box damage.

 

[Mintsick]

Haha thanks, the front better not be as tiresome as the rear was! I've already cleaned up and POR15'd the spindles, next is cleaning up and doing the same to the PBR calipers and brackets.

Do you already have TQ box damage or are you worried that the poly bushing on the body side will cause it?

 

[ReefBlueHatch]

No damage, they're actually in great shape. I'm just concerned, one of these days I'll do reinforcements because I'd like to run DR's. I already have MM lowers so some new uppers would be nice.

 

[Mintsick]

So I did get a chance to tighten up the rear control arms and reinstalled a new set of quad shocks, wheel hop is gone and the "loose" feeling seems to have disappeared.

I recently changed my mind on what wheels I want to run, I am set on keeping the quads installed and I don't want to deal with clearance issues so I want to stick with an 8" rear wheel. Mach1's are nearly impossible to find, especially since I already have 2, when I do find individual wheels the prices are outrageous. I also wasn't as impressed with how they look as I thought I would be...so I picked up a set of these for a killer price this weekend:

I think it looks 100% better than the Mach's, what do you guys think?

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

I think the Bullets look much better than the Mach 1 wheels. I only like Mach 1 wheels on a 99-04 car. They don't looks good on fox and Sn95's.

 

[Mintsick]

Thanks I think so, only thing is I don't even think Mach's look good on 99-04's!

I'm hoping to get the front end converted to 5 lug tomorrow on a day off from work, I'm anxious to see how the car looks with 4 matching wheels.

 

[citmov]

I like the bullets! That silver'ish color goes well against the Reef Blue in my opinion.

 

[Mintsick]

Ya man I agree, I don't think I've seen many/any pictures of a reef lx with Bullitts. Plus I got lucky with the por15 color I used on the drums, I think it blends in nicely with the anthracite on the Bullitts.

 

[citmov]

Ya man I agree, I don't think I've seen many/any pictures of a reef lx with Bullitts. Plus I got lucky with the por15 color I used on the drums, I think it blends in nicely with the anthracite on the Bullitts.

I didn't even notice that at first. Pretty cool lookin!