rear swap and air springs info needed

[jaywish]

Hi Folks,

I need to do something with my rear end. Currently it is the original 3.08 upgraded with a posi clutch pack plus repair axel bearings.

What I would like to do is keep with the 3.08 posi, so I do not need to play around with speedo gears.
Plus convert to to disk and change my existing air shocks to air springs.

There is a yard in the bronx with numerous late model rears with the calipers and rotors included. Plus they have TC air springs.

I did some searching here to find some threads I read in the past which had good info but I could not find them.

From what I know, 92 to 97 is an easy swap. What would need to be done to use a late model rear?

What type of controls and compressor are needed to run the air spring suspension? Is the contol system seprate or integrated into the main computer?

Thanks,
Jay

[gadget73]

should be able to simply bolt the 97 rear in. You have to rework the brake lines though.

Air springs require the air plumbing, compressor, and the harness. The computer for that is not part of the engine computer. Reasonably sure it still lives in the trunk, and the compressor lives under the hood, under the air filter box actually. There is also a height sensor that mounts to the one upper control arm in the back. Should be mostly a matter of just running the wiring and plugging the parts in. You can also just fit coil springs in there if needed. The perches are the same.

[jaywish]

The low mileage rears that I have found are late model, 05 and up.

[gadget73]

Oh. Thats a lot of work. The mounting is completely different. Basically what you need is the late model car to whack the various brackets from, and a welder to fit them to your car. Once all thats done, you end up needing 2 totally different sets of wheels too since the late model rears have a funny offset to them. If you bolted the stock wheels up, they'd stick out past the car and look rather retarded. The late front wheels would be sucked very far in up front, looking similarly stupid without spacers.

[jaywish]

Yes the older wheels are deep dish style, where the newer ones are almost flat. The new axles must be longer. So the older ones would stick out a bit in the back. I wonder if they would hit the wheel wells.

It probably would not be hard to get the body brackets. I wonder how much adjustment there is in the setup to compensate for imperfect setup.

I could never find an older rear around here and believe it was low mileage. I guess never is not correct but it sure would be a fluke.

[pantera77]

People have run pre 03 wheels on 03+ before. They stick out past the fenders up front, but actually don't look that bad out back. With a boxes carnivorous wheel wells I really don't think it would look that bad. Maybe some 1/2" - 1" spacers in the front to make it look right.