OK guys, heres what i have going on.....

I have SSM lift bars.....if you arent familiar with it, it makes the rear somewhat of a pseudo-4 link. The lift bars are lower than the LCA's which makes the LCA's the top links in the system.

This system works well, it has nasty bite and great traction. However, the lift bars are about parallel to the ground with the suspension loaded. Im going to fabricate some LCA relocating brackets for the front LCA mounts....

angling the front of the LCA down, should improve the geometry and give me a better instant center....however, im a little fuzzy as to what the best location for the IC is in the car. Ive heard alot of conflicting stuff.

Any of you suspension gurus have any ideas?

in this pic, the yellow arrows point to the lift bars, the lift bar cross member, and where the bars bolt on.....the red arrows are the rear LCA brackets

 

I had that same setup on my 88 GTA. it welds to the axel housing right? take it OFF. it works awesome i know, but after a while it will crack the housing. my father has been welding and hot rodding for a long time now.he welded them on and told me what would happen. the lca's on that kit are to close togeather, they don't flex right. think about it, when you hit a bump or pot hole on your left side, the axel will dip down on the left, on the right side it will go up. with the arms welded on the housing, it doesn't give it room to flex and breaks the welds. im just letting you know what happened to me. i cracked my axel and lost the 500 i paied for the kit because jeg's would not refund me after i told them what happened. they told me its not ment for street use or stock axel housings, they didn't tell me this when i ordered though.

 

ya there are alot of problems with it.....but it does work awesome at the track......i can see how it is prone to cracking also, but its coming out when i get my moser 12 bolt anyways, and im fabricating new lift bars for it....im going to make them adjustable and improve the flange where it connects to the housing. IM toying with the idea of welding a bracket onto the housing and fabricating a whole new link to connect it

 

i loved mine untill it cracked my axel. i actually came up with an idea for the kit. im thinking if you get a pipe and cut it in half the long way, you can weld that to the lca's in the kit then use u bolts to bolt it to the axel. so rather then cracking thehousing you'll just bend or break the u bolts. just need to find a piece of pipe that will fit the housing. i wasn't using the rear sway bar with the kit because you have to cut holes in the brackets to fit the sawybar on with the kit. are you using the sawybar on your application?

 

nope i didnt put the swaybar back on either. the car launches really straight so im not too worried about it.

im not sure if youd have to do that to connect the bars with a u-bolt....if you use a u-bolt that fits over the axle and is long enough, you could fabricate a piece to go under it (similar to the strap that welds on) and drill a hole in the front of the bar for the bolt to go through. In the back you would have to add something for the bolt to attach to. However, if it was a ubolt that you wanted i think that would be the most stable way to go about it. ive toyed with the idea, but im deathly afraid its gonna move on me.

the other way i was thinking, was to weld to flanges on the bottom of the lift bar in front and behind where the axle tube is located and use 2 large u bolts to hook it on, 1 on each side of the lift bar. actually that sounds like a good idea.

you could even use small pieces of heavy gauge steel tubing to come up the sides of the bar, which would make it a little more rigid. that would also, allow you to adjust your pinion angle more than once.

 

I have been running the South Side Kit for over a year now and except for a few broken ring gears, I am really happy with them. The car is driven everyday and is not driven easy. I have a nasty habit of side stepping the clutch.

As for breaking the rear housing, it has not been a problem. Maybe running slicks could be a problem, but radials have been fine so far. I did however finish the tub welds the General never got around to. I have the 9" cut and ready to go, I just have not had time to use do it yet...

 

im going to call south side tomorrow and pick their brain because im concerned about my new 12 bolt which i'll be ordering shortly.

I dont know if i will be able to order just the bars, as they are sold "as a kit only" according to their catalogue.

the axle tubes on the 12 bolt are larger as well, which would require some flange reworking and new reinforcement straps to be fabricated.