After snapping my stock 10-bolt at the track in the fall I decided to pony up and order the big boy S60. I went with MidWest Chassis because they were slightly cheaper than CRP. Although I will say Carl at CRP was incredibly helpful and far exceeded my expectations during the quoting process.

I ordered a Strange S60 with the S-Trac differential, 35 spline axles and a 3.73 gear. This setup should be plenty strong for anything I throw at it in the near future. Including slicks at the strip. I also am ordering a 3" chrome moly driveshaft to go along with it. I bought a set of used rear LS1 brake assemblies including everything needed to swap to disc, minus the prop. valve. That should give me a great improvement in the braking department.

I am going to start tearing the car apart this weekend. I want to take a lot of pictures and document the process since this is a popular rear end choice. Additionally I want to strengthen the body and chassis as I go. I have always had wheel hop so I am going to replace the worn torque arm mount along with possibly boxing the torque arm itself. I haven't found many threads of doing this but I have to believe that boxing the TA would greatly improve the strength of it and further reduce wheel hop.

I will try to keep this updated as I go. Any tips or advice from your own experience is welcomed.

 

Midwest has been super slow and a quit a few wrong parts shipped, I hope you get your parts b4 you retire.
There have been issues with them lately..

Good luck

 

I hope it was not a mistake ordering from them. I was quoted 3 - 5 week delivery and I will be one unhappy camper if it is late. They have not made a good impression on me so far too. I guess we will see...

 

I live an hr and 30 mins away from them.
2yrs ago I took some subframe connectors to them to make me 10-20 sets 4 MY customers. Over the course of 1.5 yrs I'd call and call asking if they had gotten anywhere with them. I kept getting excuse after excuse on y they weren't done.
I finally just went there and picked them up, they were stuffed in a corner and he told me he didn't really want to do them because HE wasn't getting calls for them. Uh, I'm the one that had people WAITING for them.
Had problems with a 8.8 rearend I had them narrow for a project.
2 strikes that close together and your out.

Now I deal with
http://burkhartchassis.com/

 

Wow, I don't blame you. I will certainly be sharing my experience as I go. It seems like the more experiences I hear about, the more nervous I am.

 

I got my rear brakes yesterday and took the backing plates off to send to MWC. Haven't decided yet if I am going to use the fancy pnts drilled and slotted rotors.
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I have some stock rotors off of my wifes car I'd trade you if you don't want the fancy ones.

 

Haha I will let you know if I want to take you up on that SWEET deal.

I made a lot of progress this weekend. Got the rear end completely out of the car. It wend pretty smoothly. Nothing broke. Didn't have to fight too badly with any bolts. The biggest pita were the ebrake cable snaps (those 3-prong clips). We discover that if you take a 1/2" boxed end 12-point wrench and slide it over the prongs it will pop free.

I also discovered that I can't box the T/A like I was hoping. It actually does straddle the driveshaft a bit which I didn't think it did.

Check out the carnage... you can see that the spider gears really wanted to see daylight. And they did succeed with the small hole they put in the diff cover.

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Subscribed. I want a Dana 60 so bad I can taste it.

I was thinking of boxing my torque arm from the outside, or the LH side. I was thinking I could cut a piece of plate and overlay it while its on the car, tack it, then fully weld it on the bench. We'll see.

 

There are some V6 4thgens that have a boxed factory TQ arm

 

That was one thought I had as well. It would certainly help, just not nearly as much as from the inside. That is interesting about the 4th gens... only V6's? That wouldn't make much sense.


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When you see the 4th gen V6 DS you'll understand Y.
They did it for a 2 piece driveshaft carrier bearing mounting point. Its heavy....

 

Oh okay I see what you are saying. So the torque arm isn't just bracing the rear end, but also supporting the carrier bearing. That explains why it would need to be stiffer.

 

Didn't do too much this week. I just pulled off the sway bar and started stripping my factory wheels. I'm going to paint most of the suspension components and the rear end with POR 15 as of right now. Plasti Dip will be used for the wheels. The stripper is some pretty serious stuff. I need to get sandpaper or metal scotch-brite to get the stubborn spots.

 

What are you doing for the sway bar mount? Some information I find out there says you need to buy one of those aftermarket kits to put a sway bar on. Other posts I have found say the mounts are already welded on the tubes and you just need u-bolts.......which is it if you don't mind me asking.

Planning this swap as well and want to make sure I have everything to put it back together.

 

I am itching to pull the trigger on one myself. Gear swap-ability of the 9" center is causing me to drag my heels.

Nice thing about the Strange S60 is it comes with the sway bar mounts welded in place already.

OP - What width you going with? Stock 3rd Gen? Curious why you didn't just order direct from Strange as their pricing seem as competitive as any others I have researched?

 

It should come with the hardware and end links to bolt it right up. Here is an email from Midwest Chassis:

"The S60 will have 35 spline axles, S-Trac/Truetrac diff unit, LCA relocators, sway bar mounts, drain plug, sway bar end links, and Lucas Oil included. 3.73 gear is good, and a good driveshaft will be required(as with any aftermarket rear)."

He didn't say specifically U-bolts. might be worth me asking. I will try to remember next time I talk to them.

 

That seems to be the greatest advantage of the 9". I went with the 4th gen width. My theory behind that is so when the 83 gets too rusty or I grenade the motor or whatever, my plan is to go 98-02. I didn't do ABS or traction control but who needs that anyways. I looked at Strange's catalog and found that I was getting it cheaper through both Midwest and CRP.

 

The S60 shipped out today. Sucks I won't be able to do anything with it at all until the 11th at the soonest. Running into a problem on driveshaft length though. I am hoping I can get it figured out without installing the rear and measuring. Here is what I found so far. Strange offers a driveshaft specifically for the S60 in a thirdgen seen here:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/st...ion-type/700r4

It lists it as 39.375" long for a stock tranny to the S60. My seal is an inch further back due to the 1" adapter plate for the TKO. The current yoke is right against the seal. so if I take that into account I would need a 38.375" driveshaft.

Now, I have read that my stock driveshaft is 41.5" long. Right now it is about an inch too long due to the 1" adapter plate for the TKO. Additionally the S60 requires 1.375" to be subtracted from the stock driveshaft length.

41.5 - 1 - 1.375 = 39.125"

That is a pretty big difference. The only thing I am not positive about is that the 83 model is really 41.5". Can anyone confirm this?

I found some good info in this thread.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...explained.html

Additional resources on Tremec 3550 & TKO dimensions:

http://www.hanlonmotorsports.com/3550.html

http://www.5speedtransmissions.com/dimensions.html

http://www.w8ji.com/tko_600_shifting_problems.htm

http://www.tremec.com/anexos/TRSM-TKO-0711-R1_3.pdf

http://www.tremec.com/menu.php?m=103

http://www.britishv8.org/articles/fo...on-options.htm

EDIT: Looks like the T5 is about .6" - .7" LONGER than the TKO. running the numbers again I get 39.8" using my calculations and 39.04" basing off the summit driveshaft. dafuk...

 

I went with www.autoweldchassis.com and bought there housing/suspension kit for a 82-92 camaro and I couldn't be happier. There enginering is second to none and I got shipped to my door in about a week.

 

CRP is running a deal over at Tech. Talked to Carl and the new rear is on order.
Carl is a great guy to deal with, very patient with all my questions. Thanks for the tip. To save a few bucks, I bought new backing plates from RockAuto to be sent into Strange for the build, so I can continue to cruise till the new rear arrives.

Hope all goes well with Midwest for you. Looks like they have beating up pretty hard on their shop car with the S60 and it has been holding up quite well. Should be a stout piece.

For your driveshaft, if your stock 10 bolt still has the stock yoke, you should be able to give them the current "A" and "B" dimensions as per Figure 1 (per Strange driveshaft page) from your current setup and they can just remove the difference between the S60 and the 10 bolt. That is what I was planning to do. I can only assume they should know the difference in distance between each rears axle centerline to the front edge of yoke. Unless, it may be a liability thing with Strange, that they want the customer to give them the actual length and assume all responsibility if the drive shaft length is incorrect upon arrival.

Apparently, Strange will not sell the S60 with the aluminum non-support cover installed, as they had a few customer complain about clearance and now you have to buy it separate and install yourself. Did you get this same feedback?

 

LS1tech is where I originally saw all the information on S60 deals. Carl really is great to deal with. He did much more than I was expecting while I was talking with him. Offered a lot of information I never even asked for. Clearly very customer orientated. I am going to end up installing the rear end and measuring the driveshaft length. The strange driveshaft yoke affects the length also. I never had any communication about a aluminum non-support cover. I just know mine is coming with a cover that has a drain and fill. I asked for a purchase order summary like most businesses do, but just got an email saying "order is for a Strange PRSF05 package, LCA relocation brackets installed, 3.73 gear." Not really what I was expecting but w/e.

 

I have the S60 in both my 89TTA and my 89GTA. Feel free to ask me any questions as I have alot of experience with this. I got the stock 82-92 width for both my cars. There are a couple of fitment issues to deal with.

The brackets for the sway bar are welded on a little two wide so they start running into the curve on the ends of the sway bar.

Mounting the 1LE brakes required an M12 washer shim to move the calipers about 2mm outward to center them on the rotor. I had this issue with both cars.

For driveshaft length, I went with what Strange recommended for my car. I don't remember the length, I could measure mine from center to center though. They had me install the S60 first and take some measurements.

 

Thanks for the input! Interesting about the sway bar mounts... hopefully they recognized the issue and fixed it. I will pay special attention to make sure the 4th gen brakes I am putting on are centered on the rotor. It SHOULD be a direct replacement fitment I would think. Notice should being capitalized?

I am finally going to be able to spend some time on it this weekend. My goal is to get it painted and bolted in so I can measure for driveshaft length. I appreciate your offer to measure! Don't bother though because one of my issues is that I am running a TKO 600 which is slightly shorter than the T5, but then I have a 1" thick adapter plate. I am getting wiser as I get older and have learned it is better to take the extra time and not skip steps. Hopefully the rain holds off this weekend. I can't paint if it is raining obviously, and I am going to do that while it is out of the car. I will update soon with my progress.

Any tips on the installation?

 

First step is to bolt the LCA's in, then just use a floor jack to hold it in place and bolt everything else on.

Are you using LT1 brakes? They are very similar to the 1LE brakes that I have. Not sure if you will have the same issue. Just make sure the carrier is centered over the rotor.

I don't think they've addressed the sway bar issue, but it isn't that big of a deal, it's just a little annoying. I think the 4th gen sway bar is wider, and they put the mounts in the same place for 3rd/4th gens.

 

Did you notice any difference in power with driving the bigger gear and axles?

Did you have to do much for floor mods to get the axle to fit up to the bump stops? Any pics?


OP - Any update on yours? What are you planning to paint it with? I used POR 15 on my 10 bolt and it came out really nice. Stuff is really strong if all the prep work is done correctly and it leaves a real nice smooth finish.

I am still a couple weeks away from picking mine up.

Strange sold me the driveshaft without measuring. As I am running the LS1 and T56 combo, I am also able to run the stock 4th gen driveshaft, so they had no issues with selling it to me. We'll see how she fits...

 

Hey guys, I was able to make some headway on the car this weekend. It rained non-stop Saturday, Sunday it was cloudy, and yesterday was beautiful. I Swapped out the control arm bushings with a friend at the shop he works at. A torch and air hammer did the trick. Then I painted the rear and control arms on Sunday. I used Por-15. It seems to have come out okay. Once I am 99% done I will touch up some of the areas that are getting scratched from banging/prying on it. The important part was getting it mocked up in the car with the mounting bolts in place so I could measure for the driveshaft. It took a little persuading, but the control arms, panhard bar, and torque arm are all bolted in place and got my seal to center measurement.

89******bird, I am using LS1 brakes and I will update as to if I have the same issue. I will be working on it this weekend.

 

Wow!!

That looks great! Are those drum brake backing plates on there? I'm so glad to finally see a real setup out in the air instead of in a web page.

I want one!

 

Thanks, hopefully it will turn out pretty nice all said and done. The backing plates are for LS1 rear discs. The e-brake is drum.

It looks like M*llet (business in the front party in the back) is censored since I referred to 89m*lletbird and it went to ******.

I am getting more and more nervous that my wheels won't clear the LS1 calipers I got. I know they wouldn't clear stock calipers, but these ones have had the ribs ground down slightly to clear a set of 15" wheels the other guy had. They may be enough to clear mine but we will see.

 

Made SOME progress this weekend, not a lot, but some. I swapped out my hood release cable (nothing to do with the rear, it just needed to be replaced). That took longer than expected. I had to remove 3 interior panels and cut up the cable into 3 sections to get it out. Getting the new one in wasn't all that bad.

I also mounted a caliper and a wheel to check for clearance. without a rotor it only barely touched the wheel on one spot. With a rotor on I don't think it will touch at all. Very tight fit though. Next weekend I am hoping to get pretty close to done, and by the 23rd I want to have it finished. I am losing one week to traveling.

Lost part of the day Saturday to some wheeling with a buddy. Figured some may enjoy a picture.

 

Continuing to make progress bit by bit. This weekend I accomplished swapping the proportioning valve, assembling my brake assemblies, and began taking apart the interior to swap the rear shocks.

Luckily my brake fittings came apart pretty easily and none of the lines got damaged. Getting the fittings started was kind of a pita though. Maybe some of you guys have a tip for the future when trying to get those lines started... it seems like it is hard to push on the fitting itself and turn it to get it to start. It just wants to slide up the line. I got all of them on with the help of my brother, it would be nice to know a trick though.

I need to finish up my wheels this week and HOPEFULLY drive the car on Sunday.

 

I got up bright and early on Saturday and got my shocks all swapped out. I spent way too much time taking the interior panels off when I really didn't need to. The day didn't go so well after that. 3 hours were lost to towing my brothers V8 S10 that broke down 45 min away. My patience meter was at zero shortly after I got back. I can't/will not use the brake lines on the stock rear end. One fitting was frozen and the other line was bent around by some monkey and looks like crap. The sway bar end links aren't going to work either. Take a look at the picture, the link needs to be even longer than it is. I am going to buy a longer bolt and longer sleeve to correct the geometry.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though! Hopefully be rolling down the road on Saturday.

 

Looks like your end link bolts should go "up" instead of "down" so you don't have ground clearance issues with the bolt sticking down too far?

 

Pointing the bolt up would reduce the distance from it to the ground, but really there is no way it would hit the ground either way. I think the picture makes it look like it hangs down farther than it really does. the lower control arms, center of the differential, or the center of the sway would hit way before that bolt. Plus it makes it a little easier to install I think.

 

Started Saturday morning on a mission: Drive it today!!!

I successfully accomplished this mission. Everything hooked up, brakes bled. Parking brake cable modified. For the parking brake cable I made a simple modification that cost less than $4.00. I looped each cable and used cable clamps to lengthen the LS1 cable just enough to reach the upper cable.



Also bent 2 new brake lines that came out pretty good for my first ones I think.














I took the car for two 30 - 45 min. rides at different speeds and engine braking slightly to let the gears see all different conditions. After that I said screw the 500 mile rule. The posi works GREAT. Very predictable. Everything I did with all the new bushings an mostly the rear shocks made the car handle much much better. It feels more connected to the road. I am REALLY impressed with the brakes. The car feels like it stops in half the distance it did before.

I only had/have one issue. I was hearing a scraping noise in the brakes. Ended up it was just the backing plate shield that was dented and contacting the rotor. Took the wheel, caliper, and rotor off and fixed that no problem. However I drove it again and there is still the same noise, just not as loud. Might just be the same thing on the other wheel. No big deal though.

Overall I'm real happy with it! Still have to touch um some paint but happy to drive it around. Such a fun car especially now that I can control the angle at which the car goes around corners

I will get some more pictures of the rear in the car this weekend.

 

Some more pictures just to show the width. Shouldn't look any different than a 4th gen rear width.

 

I wonder if you are missing the spacer? when I did mine they fit perfectly there is a spacer plate used.

note between the backing plate and axle flange there is a spacer.

 

I ordered an s60 for my 92 Camaro and I can't bolt my sway bar onto the rear end, even with the mounts slid all the way out to the ends of the sway bar. The widest the mounts on the bar can go and not run into interference is 29", factory and hotchkis bar. The mounts on the rear end are at 31 1/2". Both measured at the bolt hole. How did you get yours to fit? Mine is over an inch away from fitting. What is the measurement on your s60. Strange says the 31 1/2" measurement is correct and no one has had issues before, which I believe is bull **** on both accounts. And I can't return it because according to them nothing is wrong with it. I don't have the money to have it fixed by a local shop, and I can't return it, so all I have is a 250 pound paper weight. any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

The last message I posted was meant for this post.