Rear Axle and Suspension

January 28, 2013

The Rear End arrived today. Ford 8.8 with a Torsen Trac Lock differential. 3:55 gear set.

February 4, 2013

To get the Rear End ready we had to remove the axles and install the rear caliper brackets. The torsen is a little different than the regular 8.8 Ford.

February 10, 2013

Today Kamryn and I set our sites on getting the Rear End off the ground. We thought we’d need some serious manpower because it’s so darn awkward and heavy but brains beats brawn yet again.

By putting the rear end on 3 stands and positioning it just so, we were able to back the chassis to it on the dolly and bolt in the lowers control arms… then a few pumps with the jack and repositioning of the jack stands and voila – installation complete!! We were pretty proud of ourselves!

February 11, 2013

Installed the painted rear callipers (see the timeline gap page) Kamryn assemlbed one right along with me… so any brake failures going forward will be blamed on him 🙂

BUT WAIT…

After reading numerous threads about the harsh ride, I decided to call Dan Ruth (Dr. Ruth… you need to see the ’33 he built for his dad. (Google “Dan Ruth Hot Rod Lincoln”) of Innovative Rodding and I have ordered his QA1 Ultra Ride coil over shocks and springs for both the front and rear. The springs are longer and lighter (lower spring rate) than the F5 ones supplied and the shocks are single adjustable with 18 settings.

PARTS UPGRADE

The installation of the longer QA1’s require some mods to the brackets. A holesaw took away enough metal to allow them to fit quite nicely.

March 11, 2013

Why all the changes?

RECAP – The revision in rear suspension above. Gone are the Koni’s with 500# springs and replace with QA1 Ultra Ride adjustables in front and rear with 325# Chrome springs.

For some unknown reason FFR’s design does not center the rear wheel in the fender opening… axle is too far forward. As far as tires go, if I want to have at least 4 inches of tire around the rims, I’m forced to go with 17’s front AND REAR to accomplish this and stay within the maximum of 26.5″ rear tire height with fenders. Based on the measurements we took last week (See the Body and Structure section) I’ve decided to make a few changes. It required a quite a few mods and some new hardware but nothing too dramatic.

After speaking with Dan Ruth, I’ve decided to replace the lower rear control arms with adjustable ones. I’ll pick up an extra 3/4 – 1″ of wheelbase but will likely have to replace the driveshaft. In order to be able to dial in the pinion angle, I’m replacing the uppers with adjustable control arms as well.

All of this will center the rear axle in the wheel opening and allow me to use an 18″ or 20″ rim on the rear (20″ my first choice) with a taller tire. Falken makes RT615K’s in 295/40R-18 that are 27.3 inches tall and Nitto has a 305/35ZR20 (28.4″ Tall)… either should be perfect.

Dec 16, 2018

After a fine afternoon spent with my friends Joe Boniferro and his son Ryan (Joe’s Transmission) With their skills in building race cars they have confirmed that the rear end is square to the chassis, that the pinion angle is set properly and that the rear wheels are centered nicely in the rear fenders.

While we have chassis symmetry front to back and side to side, the body itself sits about 5/8″ to the left of center at the rear. Not a big deal I suppose; probably as good as most new cars these days, but it does offer a small problem with rear wheel sizing. I stayed conservative and will space one side out, if need be, to fill the openings.

The Dr. Ruth Adjustable rear 4 link allowed me to afford a taller rim and tire combo, but required an longer driveshaft. That task was handled by Niagara Drivetrain. They re-tubed the one that came with the car and once painted, went back in slick as puppy shit!

Let’s Talk Tires/Wheels

I bit hard and pulled the trigger on new rims and tires. With the trends changing over the time this build has been on going, I switched up a bit and ordered custom wheels through CARiD. I choose FOOSE® – F201 NITROUS 2PC CAST wheels. They are a polished rim with gloss black centers. Tires are NITTO NT555 G2. The sizing replicates the ones from factory five, though the fronts have a slightly smaller backspace.