79 Bird... Need Suspension

[79TransAm]

What kind of suspension parts would you suggest for my 79 bird. I'm getting the hotchkis front coils that drop it 2" and the rear leaves that drop it 1-1/2". I was looking at Addco sway bars 1-1/4" frnt and 1" rear. I was looking at Lakewood traction bars. Have any suggestions on whether these r good? Also what companies would you suggest? I would like to find tubular a arms for the front, but cant find em. any help would be great.

[79T/Aman]

your 79 t/a should have a 1 1/4 bar up front from the factory and on the back sway bar I would put on poly bushings this will make the bar more effective, a 1" is going to get too big, and one good piece of advice , have subframe connectors on at least before puting on stiffer springs or the body will flex that much more and solid body bushings, you can check my site for control arms, pro-touringf-body.com

[79TransAm]

oh thats ur site, i saw that last night, thats how i got to this site... :)

[BEEBE]

What kind of suspension parts would you suggest for my 79 bird. I'm getting the hotchkis front coils that drop it 2" and the rear leaves that drop it 1-1/2". I was looking at Addco sway bars 1-1/4" frnt and 1" rear. I was looking at Lakewood traction bars. Have any suggestions on whether these r good? Also what companies would you suggest? I would like to find tubular a arms for the front, but cant find em. any help would be great.

79tRANSAM - I would reccomend a diffrent brand and style of a traction bar for any Lowered 2ed Gen. I would go with Calvert Racing Cal-Trac Bars, They now offer a newer even lower profile style. You will NOT be happy with the Lakewoods Or Competition Enginering Slapper Traction bars once you lower the car. They hang too low for the street on a lowered 2ed gen. My car is not lowered and they hang too low !

Frame connectors are a must.

Poly-graphite or Del-a-lum front bushings

If you rear springs are in good condition , you can save $$ ( to invest in better shocks) & do the Herb-Adams modification. Redrill the rear leaf spring mounts, this will lower the rear of the car 1" .

Good luck and have fun with the project.

[79TransAm]

thanx for the info, do you have the website for calvert racing?

[Tom Welch]

Solid body mounts and poly/delalum bushings will make a very noticeable improvement. Like the previous posts say the current sway bars should work fine if the bushings and end links are in good condition (poly). The control arms are fine unless you plan to race or show the car. Then custom arms will be desireable. Another area not touched on is tires and wheels. I suggest 17" wheels, 17x8 all around or 17x8 front and 17x9-10 in rear. 2554517 tires in front and 2854017 in rear.

[CoryM]

I just want to suggest not to lower it that much. I had the 2" hotchkis and it left me with no where near enough wheel travel. Every time you hit a bump in a corner you had to really hang on. Also if you are that low you cannot fit enough rubber up front to prevent understeer. Add the binding poly bushings to the mix and I was very unhappy with how unpredictable the car was. After just rebuilding the entire car I could not bear the thought of doing it again and when my tranny fragged for the 3rd time I sold the car. Poke your head under your car and see how close the front bump stops are to the frame. It should be about 2" or so which is the bare minimum for bump travel IMO. Any less and you will bottom out on bumps in corners and the front end will slide on you. If you want to buy new springs go to a dirt track parts place. They are less than 1/2 the price of the hotchkis and you can get ones that are perfect for your car. Just no fancy name attached.


I'm with BEEBE on the caltracs and the SFC as well. I twisted my 80 camaro up pretty bad, cracked the 1/4 panel, tore out the door striker and made it so the dome light wouldn't turn off because I didn't have SFC. There was a site where you could build your own caltracs out there, they are pretty simple units.

Just trying to prevent people from making the same mistakes I did. I was very disappointed and it was my own fault for not listening to people that knew better. If I get the time Ill go a little more in depth of what I learned on my car.

[BEEBE]

thanx for the info, do you have the website for calvert racing?

http://www.calvertracing.com/


Very Special Equipment (VSE) by Herb Adams
23865 Fairfield Place
Carmel, CA 93923
408-649-8423
Many parts to make the 2nd gens handle better. Lots of nice items. Catalog for $5.

[79TransAm]

thx for the info guys, bout the wheels. I was looking at 17x7 fronts with 245/45ZR17 BFG G-Force T/A KD's, and 17x8 rear with 275/40ZR17 BFG G-Force T/A KD's. A buddy of mine was telling me that when i lower it to trim down the bump stops like 1/4" for every inch of drop and to trim down the center bushing on the end links down 1/4" for every inch. so this adjusts for the loss in travel
79T/AMan... On ur site, whats the difference between the competition control arms and the pro street control arms? I'm looking at being a mainly street car, with occasional street course racing. Which would you suggest, just the competition.

[wally8]

Those widths are a little too narrow for the tires you want to run. Bump them each up by an inch and the backs maybe even to 9.5in.


Wally

[79TransAm]

so you think what tom whelch suggested is good?

[yody]

As you probably know the second gen F body, has pretty decent suspension geometry, with a few mods it makes for a very good street car. It won't be a porsche but will be extremely good without doing major mods. To push it any farther, or to be competitive will take a lot of mods. Here is what i did for the front suspension;

Global west del-a-lum bushings in the lower control arms.
SPeedtech tubular upper control arms with del-a-lum type bushings, gives you more caster without shims
Hothckis 1 3/8 hollow front sway bar with polyurethane
Billstein shocks valved to front springs'
Hothckis BB front coil springs
AGR fast ratio steering box
all new steering assembly, centerlink, tierods etc.

For the rear suspension i used
stock de-arched 5 leaf multi leaf springs (hothkis's 3 leaf spring would be a better spring if i did it again)
Del-a-lum bushings in the front and rear spring eyes.
since i used a solid bushing in the front spring eye i didn't use a rear sway bar
billstein shocks valved for the hothckis rear springs

This is a pretty decent but "simple" suspension. It should work pretty good for what i am doing. If i were you i wouldn't even consider using an type of traction device. If you plan out your suspension correclty and use decent springs you will not need a traction device unless you are using sticky tires at the drag strip. All the traction devices do is create big bind and reduce your ground clearance.

If i was in your shoes i would definetly go with the spring combo that you plan, and use the hothkcis front bar, and only use your stock rear sway bar, if you don't have one you can find them easily. Leave it off intially and tune the car with it. If you find you still have understeer in the rear..THen get the bigger rear sway bar. Stay away from polyurethan if possible, especially in the rear. They squeek BIG time. Get the springs from hothckis without the rear poly, and get the del-a-lum's. Use rubber in the fron tspring pocket if you plan on using a rear sway bar. The herb adams front srping eye bracket mod is a good thing to do AFTER you get the car up and running. It should be a mod that you do to see if it works better After you setup the supesnions. Just like the rear sway bar. Use GOOD shocks, no KYB's. USe either billsteins or Konis.

Definetly get a good set of subframe connectors, either use the ones from the guy who posted above or get them from alston racing. They are the same design, Definetly don't use those crappy competition engineering subframe connectors. Also get the solid subframe bushings from either speedtech or global west. Email me for any questions..

[79T/Aman]

79 transam, our pro street arms are a direct replacement for stock arms, the comp arms have racing none removable bushings but no give and last a long time and have improved geometry.
Now let me add that you NEED to keep rubber in the leaf spring bushings! leaf need to camber as they compress one side at a time (going up driveways, over bumps...) also your front bar is a solid 1 1/4", the 1 3/8 hollow bar is no better.

[yody]

the hollow bar is lighter, not sure how stiff it is since it is hollow. Also what kind of different geometry are we talking on your arms?

[79TransAm]

thanx for the help everyone, yody youve been a great help. ill make sure i save this info for when i start doin my suspension. I think what im gonna do is do my interior, than my engine/drivetrain then my paint. At that point i can atleast drive it around on the weekends, then ill dive into the suspension. Also yody, how did you match the viper six speed to your 468?

[79T/Aman]

yody, my arms have 5* of castor built in them and won't need a ton of shims

[yody]

cool. i have a D+D T56 viper six speeed, it comes with an adapter plate and everything else needed to bolt in, all i needed to do was make an new tranny tunnel, so I could raise up the tranny where i wanted and cut a new hole for the shifter, also re weld the tranny mount tab on the crossmember

[79TransAm]

got ya... thnx once again for the help.

[JoshStratton]

Sorry to bring up an old post, I am just curious why no one suggested the Hotchkis TVS Sport system instead of purchasing everything seperately? I was thinking of buying it. Is there something I don't know?


The Hotchkis TVS is a all inclusive kit that has been designed and tested as a system. No need to mix and match components. The TVS system includes Sport Coils, Sport Sway Bars, Heavy Duty Tie Rod Sleeves ,and Sport Leaf Springs. Part #'s Included 1612, 1908F, 2236, 2408C Applications: 1970-1981 Camaro Small Block , 1970-1981 Firebird w Small Block

[79T/Aman]

why buy a kit with sway bars that are not any better than what is on the car to start with?

[JoshStratton]

I dunno. That is the kind of information I am looking for. What is the price difference between the Hotchkis and what you all did? The Hotchkis is about $1050.00