I just recently picked up a 91 GTA. It's a nice car with a carbed 383 and Tremec 3550. However, the guys before me had a Southside Machine subframe connectors and rear control arms/trac bar kit put on the car. So as a lot of you know that elliminates the rear sway bar, lower control arms, and torque arm and the arms weld directly to the axle tubes. Well after it had been driven on the street a while and the arms bottomed out enough times one tore completly off of one axle tube taking a piece of tube with it. The other one started to crack the tube but didn't come completly off. I took the axle out of the car and tore it down. I cut the remaining arm off and the side that was still attached is actually in worse shape than the one that tore a chunk out. I plan to remove the SSM arms and associated hardware(keeping the subframe connectors) and convert back to stock suspension, which I got all of the parts for with the car.
So obviously the most for sure way of going forward would be to get a spare axle housing and swap all the guts over(stock posi diff, stock 3.42 gears, axles, disk brake hardware, and TA Performance aluminum rear cover) and having it setup in the new housing. I called a local shop and they quoted $250 for setting it up if I broght them the axle and parts.
I'm also entertaining the idea of recovering the broken piece from the one arm and cleaning/grinding everything up as well as I can and having my friend with a tig weld it back up.
Another option would be to buy some pipe/tube stock from a steel supply yard and section out the damaged area and weld in a patched section from the pipe/tube stock(not completly cutting the tube in half and welding in a ring, but more cutting out a uniformly shaped band and welding in a matching band). To do that I need to know what type of pipe/tube it is. I took some measurements and it seems to be ~2.605" OD and ~0.198" wall. Has anyone worked with these rears enough to know the type of tubing? Seamless?

Here are some pics of the damage: http://www.turbocamaroproject.com/TornTubes/

 

the tubes are 2 5/8 od.

welding that kind of patch will most likely warp the tube a bit, not sure if it owuld be enough to cause issues with wheel bearing, but something to keep in mind.

honestly, is it worth it? you can pickup a different rear for a couple hundred bux or less if you are lucky

it seems like the previous owner couldnt weld for **** by the looks of things, probably why the tube tore
that carnage is pretty cool though

 

Will a housing with drum brakes take disk brakes without any problem? I'm assuming just swap out the backing plates and you're good to go?
I'm a little green with 3rd gens. I've owned only my 4th gen for the past 11 years and know it like the back of my hand, but haven't been into that 83 a whole lot. But now I have two 3rd gens to get familure with.

 

He actually had it installed at a shop....

 

Add that to another reason why SSM bars are junk. Glad they stopped making them.

 

I'm certainly not impressed especially after getting an intimate look at them as I was cutting the other one off. That and I can't see how the shop would have been able to install them and have any kinda of perpendicular alignment with the axle seeing as how the whole thing is just referenced off of the sf-connectors which are initially bolted to the front LCA mounts pretty roughly...
Though I guess if they were on a moderate track-only/trailered car they might last longer.

 

Alright, so I took some time today to remove the 10-bolt rear from my 83 camaro intending to swap the guts from the GTA's rear into the housing from the 83. Well I got it out, got it home and then compared it to the GTA's housing and I don't see how I'll be able to swap the GTA disk brakes to the 83's drum housing. The welded on tube ends are totally different. So I guess I'll either have to find another 3rd gen disk rear somewhere or try and repair this one.

 

i have a rear housing for you in arlington. i just stripped it down. it's on the parts for sale board in the engine/drivetrain. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...s-10-bolt.html

it's for drums but i don't remember there being differences, at least in the later years

 

What do the welded on bolt plates on the ends of the axle tubes look like? Nearly perfectly square? Or very rectangular with an angled top?

 

angled

 

By the way, you are to leav the lower control arms on the car with the SSM lift bars. and run them together. thay are not made to run them with out the lower control arms. (just use your stock ones) they are lighter then the aftermarket C/A at that point with the SSM bars

Been running them for over 16 years
and will Keep running them,

installed right, they will last the life of the Car.
some dont like them, others love them,
it's the ones that have them, that Love them

Running your SSM lift bars with out the LCA is a Bad thing

(when installed right)