I have a 83 camaro and I'm looking to replace the rear end and do away with the torque arm. I want to find a rear with the upper and lower arms brackets casted to the housing. And the same width as the original rear. Can anyone tell me which GM cars would fit the criteria? Thanks

 

The drive-train is built around the existence of the torque arm. You can' just get rid of it unless you plan to back-half the car, which is going to drive your cost up and isn't worth it for most applications.

 

Ok I understand that, but would you happen to know what other applications would fit under the camaro?

 

Monte Carlo, Cultas, and Regals i'm pretty sure have the extra attachments. A fox mustang would also. I agree with red leader. The TA/panhard design is superior and tunable with aftermaket parts for better performance. I wouldn't recommend the change either.

If you are building a drag car would be the only acceptable scenario for this change otherwise your are severely hurting the cars handling capability.

Double check this info but i thought these could eliminate the TA
http://www.jegs.com/i/Lakewood/620/21700/10002/-1

Whatever you end up doing, good luck!

 

Using a diff with a triangulated 4-link upper and lower control arms isn't hard but good planning and lots of fabrication is required. Finding one that's not too wide or narrow to fit under a third gen might be a bit of a challenge. 4th gen diffs are about 2" wider per side and members have swapped them over and used 4th gen rims to get the proper backspace to keep the tires under the fenders. A slightly narrower diff will require rims with a little less backspacing. It all depends on how much inner fender room you have in relation to the tire size you want to use.

The GM A and G body cars typically used 8.5" diffs although you may find and older A body with a 12 bolt. Finding one of those for an inexpensive price is unlikely. The ford fox body should be an 8.8" but they also came with smaller diffs.

The bigger challenge would be to figure out how to mount the other ends of the control arms and how to mount them so it doesn't screw up the geometry and binds through it's arc of travel. There is very little room under the floor of a third gen compared to full frame cars that these diffs are normally found under plus there is also very little structural support in the sheet metal to provide a good mounting point especially for the upper arms.

Since converting to a different kind of suspension will require a lot of fabrication work, it would be easier to just back half the car and install a true 4-link. If installing a triangulated 4-link diff was easy, there would be a lot more conversions being done.

Keep us informed on how well your project goes.