I have an '84 Trans am I am restoring. I suspect it has the ws6 or ws7 option. My rpo sheet is missing. what can I check or measure to find out for sure?

Thanks,

 

Measure the thickness of your sway bars. (In MM).

 

Let's peel back one more layer of the onion:

What would you do if it has WS6, vs what you would do if it didn't?

There are 4 things that are different among the various suspensions: springs, shocks/struts, sway bars, gearbox ratio.

The springs are worn out no matter what they were when new. It doesn't matter what they were, they are just as worn out regardless. Throw them in the trash and buy new ones. Don't bother with any used ones from any of these cars, they're all worn out, since the newest of these cars are now 13 years old. Your 84 is now over 20 years old.

Same for the shocks & struts, except even more so. I replaced my 83's the first time in 86 IIRC; and I couldn't believe how bad they already were.

The sway bars on any 84 regardless of RPO are much smaller than those that came even on lower models of many later-model cars. So it doesn't matter if they have the mystical properties of "WS6" (I find it amusing how all of a sudden, people find that RPO important since cars started being called that, while for all the years before that sub-model came out, it wasn't an issue) or not, you can get better ones out of the junkyard or from the aftermarket. My recommendation would be to look at getting ones out of a higher-performance car such as a Camaro; specifically, an IROC. Or of course, aftermarket.

The gearbox is what it is. It's REAL easy to tell which one you've got. The better one is 2¼ turns lock-to-lock; the other one is more, at least 2½ turns. The difference is the ratio between how far the steering wheel turns, to how far the wheels turn. Again, IROCs are the best source for the better ones.

IIRC the best sway bars you could get in 84 were 32/21 mm, but they might have been available with 34/24. I have no clue about the "WS6" thing, only the parts themselves, which is all that really makes any difference. You can measure them with a Crescent wrench and a tape measure.

Another upgrade you could get from an IROC that no Firebird ever had, is the "wonder bar". It's a brace that goes between the 2 sides of the front "frame" portion of the unibody. It noticeably tightens up the front end, especially when turning and going over bumps at the same time.

 

If I found it was a ws 6 car it would be one more thing I can tell my 13 year old about his car that we are restoring. At 13 you know the attention span can be small at times and things like this can help perk it back up.

Thanks for the information though it was very useful. I had planned on replacing the springs and struts any way when we do all of the bushings.

 

the differnce between WS6 & WS7 is the WS6 used Disk brakes, and the WS7 used Drums.

As a note, the Sway bars for a Firebird with WS6 or 7 car are larger than any used on a Camaro the same year. The springs on a camaro are stiffer than a Firebird the same year. The wonderbar can be added for a whopping $50 from TDS, and if you get the black one no one is ever the wiser even at car shows. I have seen Formulas that were subposedly "all original" with the Wonderbar tho, could have been installed by a dealer I don't know.

John

 

i can tell you that an 87 Z28 rear bar is tiny compared to my 82 t/a rear bar

ive got an 87 z28 rear axle with bar and all sitting in the back porch right now, for the t/a



good luck

 

Was WS7 available in '84?

 

And why did the 1987 Formulas come standard with WS-6, and drum brakes??

That one NEVER made any sence to me

Just had to throw that in there, sorry

 

to make a better drag car .. just had to order a bigger motor

 

FACT:
There are 46656 possible RPO codes....

A THEORY:
Back before there were RPO stickers placed in trunks and inconspicuous places like center consoles, the space was limited to what they could put on the cowl tag. So rather than have a different Option for every option they could group things together.

For example, If we were to group several common options together we could save space on the Cowl tag. As a case in point the WS6 came with heavier sway bars, stiffer springs, Larger Rims, tighter steering ratio steering box, different shocks, and disk brakes. That would make 6 RPO's on the cowl Tag.

Since the difference between WS6 & WS7 is the rear brakes, it would make sence to simply make WS7 which would indicate drum brakes.

Starting probably in 1984 or 85 when the RPO sheet was beginning to be used, individual codes could be called out since there was more room to put the information. The WS6 still indicated The suspension portion and the steering ratio portion, But since the brakes were a different group they could break off the option. Then J65 was being used. The option existed before, but I would be curious to see if there are any cowl tags with both WS6 and J65.

John