i recently swapped my drum brake rearend on my 82 firebird with a disc brake one from an 86 with the calipers on opposite sides. i have a few issues.

-first i had to get a brake line adapter cuz my car had 1/4 double flare and the new rearend needed a 12mm bubble flare. i got a 1/4 double flare female to 3/16 male and a 3/16 female to male 12mm bubble. i found them at kragen even though they told me over the phone they did not have such adapters. this problem is now solved

-second i had to change the torque arm cuz my original was too long?? it seems the mounting point for the torque arm on the rerend was closer to the front of the vehicle. is this normal? i thought all 82-92 rearends were the same?? are they? and also how much of the torque arm, if any, should be coming out of the bushing on the tranny?? with the other torque arm it has now it does not go all the way through the bushing, it is about 1/2 inch too short to go to be flush on the end of the bushing. will i need a longer torque arm??

-next i had to deal with the driveshaft. again it seems like the rearend is closer to the front of the vehicle cuz i need to shorten my driveshaft by about 3 inches. how much should the drive shaft be sticking out of the tranny with the suspension loaded?? i was told to bottom out the shaft and pull it out 3/4 inch and then measure my desired driveshaft lenght, is this right?? i also plan to lower the vehicle with sportline eibachs and i dont want the driveshaft to bottom out under suspension compression. should i go with the 3/4 inch rule or what??

-lastly my rearend is now sideways. it is not sitting under the car in the direct center. it is more towards the driver side by about an inch or two. the panhard bar bushings dont look like they are stretched or anything like that. its like my panhard bar is too long maybe?? or do i need to re-torque my rear control arms and panhard bar because they may have been torqued with the rearend sitting a little offset?? wat do u think?

If anyone has any info to give me i really appreciate it. Thank you

 

Are you sure the transmission length isn't the problem? You can center the rear end with an adjustable panhard.

JamesC

 

my 82 firebird has a 200r4 and the 86 camaro i got the rearend from was i think a 700r4. i know they are different. but the rearend deffinately has the driveshaft yolk and torque arm mount holes moved more towards the front of the vehicle about 1 to 1-1/2 inchs. anyone have any more input?