I wonder in the name of cheap rear swaps if the rear from say a 1990 ford t bird turbo coupe with independent rear suspension would theoretically swap into my 82 ta? Or would the same issue of torque arm still be necesary to install? It would be stronger and has disc brakes which my weak 7.5 inch does not. I'm just not sure how indep. Rear suspension might approximate a four link suspension and the t. Arm may be unneccessary. Halfway done on the 383 and still concerned about output above 400 hp. Street driven. No slicks

 

If you change the rear suspension to something different, then any junkyard diff is a possible candidate providing the width is close enough to fit. If you keep the stock style suspension then you still need to find some way to adapt the torque arm to the diff.

It's not easy to do a 4-link without doing a back half to the car. There just isn't enough room under the floor and no real structural frame to attach the 4-link brackets to.

If there was a cheap and easy way to do a junkyard swap, there would be a lot of threads on how to do it. The third gens torque arm suspension prevents any sort of easy or inexpensive swap.

 

I see Mr Iroc. I guess i'm not the first to suggest it. I got excited when looking at the I .R. S. somebody had locally and it had a small frame connected that had 4 connection points so i thought it might resemble a 4 link and eliminate the torque arm. I didnt expect good news but hoped anyway. Thanks

 

The IRS will not require a torque arm because the differential housing will be mounted solid to the frame. The only moving parts are the outer controll arms. You can install the IRS if you have the fabricating skills to make the modifications to the frame. Usually the weak parts of a IRS is the half shafts. They tend to break u joints or cv joints.

The '90 T Bird isn't a Turbo Coupe, it's a Super Coupe. The Super Coupe had a roots type blower on a 3.8 V6 instead of the turbo 4 cylinder of the earlier Turbo Coupe. The Turbo Coupe had a solid rear axle, not IRS.

 

Hope you have some serious fabrication skills and good tools.

 

Wow. No i would not want to bet my life on my welding skills. The last post was interesting though from. Possibilities point of view. I just looked up the ad. It is for a t bird supercoupe. So it sounds possible just not for my hackjobs. Would love to take measurements of the irs someday. Thanks again guys

 

They are putting them all the time into old F150 to the frame. Shouldn't require much more effort than swapping in a straight axle 8.8 probably a lot less actually since you wouldn't need a torque arm. Come out of a v8 car with more power by a lot than a third gen and used in Cobra Mustangs as well. width seems right too. I am researching it , in fact came across this thread in that process. So far it is beginning to look ridiculously easy.