Hello Everybody,

I Have a 1983 Camaro, That I want to turn into a 10 Second Drag Car.
I am trying to figure out, what Kind of Rear Suspension and Rear end I should Use.

Will the 4th Gen Rear End Stand up to Hard Launches and Abuse that is Needed to Run 10 Seconds???

I would like to Swap in a 4th Gen Rear End, BUT not if it is Going to Fly to Pieces when I launch.

Thanks in Advance,
Jon

 

Search a little, all the stuff you need has been gone over before.

On a 10 second car, a 4th gen rear end will die and fast, they arent much [if any] stronger then the 3rd gen ones.

 

It will be stronger than the diff in your 83 but only because it will have 28 instead of 26 spline axles and will have a 7-5/8" ring gear instead of a 7.5".

You'll probably shred the ring and pinion teeth on both since they're equally small and weak.

Unfortunately, there are very few options for a better diff. With a lot of fabrication skills, it's possible to put a better diff under the car from the junkyard but it's cheaper to just buy a bolt in 9" or 12 bolt designed for a third gen. Expect to pay about $2000 for such a diff. I ran a beefed up 10 bolt into the low 11's but swapped in a 9" at the same time I installed a tranny with a transbrake.

As for the rear suspension, the factory style suspension is fine but you need to change all the parts to aftermarkets ones. Stock factory suspension parts have no place on a fast car.

Transmission? Engine?

Assuming this is to be a drag only car, stripping everything out of it not required for speed or safety will make it faster and easier on parts.

 

Ok, Thanks.

I Thought that the Rear-End would fly apart, I am just trying to get a Idea of what all I going to need to build this thing.

Would it Be Better just to Back Half the Car, Then to Replace all the parts with aftermarket???

I Just want the Car right the first time, I dont want to install a Rear-End that is going to fly apart.

I saw the Moser 12-bolt "bolt in" Rear, BUT is it short Enough to install some Big Slicks??

Thanks Again,
Jon

 

Talk to Moser and Strange, im sure they can get you what you need. Get some big gears, slicks and a strong engine/trans and you can get into the 10s.

 

The Moser 12 bolt would be a good choice. You can get it with the Ford 9 inch style axle bearings to eliminate the c clips. You can also get 33 spline axles. These rear ends are stronger than the original Chevy 12 bolt ever was. They are also lighter than the 9 inch.

 

The "bolt in" 9" or 12 bolt is a direct replacement for the factory diff. The length of the diff isn't the issue with big tires but the size of the wheel well. Doing a search for big tires, slicks or inner fender modifications will pull up lots of threads on what needs to be done to squeeze big slicks under the fenders.

How big a tire depends on what you want to do. If you want 32x14's like mine, you need to do a complete back half. Before I did the back half, I was able to squeeze some 29.5 x 10.5 ET drags under the fenders with a bunch of inner fender modifications and still ran into the 9's. A 28 x 9 ET Drag will fit with little to no modifications.

With a standard width diff, the most common large rim size is 10 x 15 with 5.5" backspace. This offers the best fitting for larger tires.

It can be a lot cheaper to just buy an aftermarket diff and install aftermarket suspension components. Back halving a car is expensive. I did my own but if you had to pay a shop to do it, it would be around $8000-$10,000 not including the price of a narrowed diff.

 

agreed. 4th gen rear ends are only good for daily drivers, and the occasional hard launch at the track since its the torsen gear posi. in our cars we have cone posi, if you have a posi, and it can take some abuse since its a basically simple design, as opposed to small worm gears in the 4th gen rear end.

id look into a bigger posi, what size are ours stock? like 7 and some odd inches. youll probably wanna get a 9inch in there. aswell as some steeper gears