Well its kind of a woe and a happy time... I posted awhile back that the rear end of my car had been eating tires pretty bad(like having to buy two back tires every 2-3 weeks), I have yet to solve the problem. I noticed the other day that my rear passenger side tire had a 5" gap between the tire and fenderwell, it kinda looked like somebody had jacked the body of my car up. My dad caught a glasp of it and said that it may be hanging because of a bad bushing. My dad bought the rear end in my car out of a wrecked 04 v6 after my stock 7.5 blew. I was wondering if the rear could be hanging becasue of a bad bushing if it means that the axle is bent/wraped.

Now away from the bad and on to the good newa... I am currently 3-4 weeks away from having the money to buy shocks/struts and another 4 weeks from coil overs if things go as planned(knocks on wood). I plan to run coil overs up front and I am getting the Bilstien shock/struts but I would like to know if the Bilstien kit from american muscle will suffice the coil over or should I just get the kit from maximum motorsports? I have heard that coil overs give off alot of noise is this true? Will the added handling justify the noise? I will also be purchasing the mm 4 bolt cc plates from am. is there anything else I should take into consideration?

Sorry about the long post.

 

Cant help you with the axle, but the bilstiens should be fine for the coil-overs. A mm tech actually recommended them to me. Good choice on getting their 4-bolt cc plates.

 

Thanks shaun. I just didnt know if the Bilstiens from am where the same as those from mm. but worst cause with the axle is it is bent, I put off everything for a couple weeks and get an 8.8 an install everything at once.

 

Well at least you have an excuse to upgrade to an 8.8

 

Well i measured from the fenderwell to the axle on both sides. The driver side measurements were 15" and the passenger side was 14 1/4". My dad said its a bushing and im leaning towards replacing them with some poly urethane. But i also noticed that the lower control arm on the passenger side looked like it had knicked part of the under carriage. If the bushings dont fix the problem then i guess im getting an 8.8.

 

I would purchase everything from maximum motorsports or griggs racing personally. I dont know about American Muscle.com, but i'm under the impression that MM has custom valving in their Bilstein struts, and I know Griggs rebuilds their koni struts with the custom valving before sending them out.

As far as noise, they will squeek but uh....its not super loud, and if you keep them turned down for daily use(like you should) it wont be very noticable. You will develop a lot of noise from your stock bushings in the front end, as the lower than factory geometry will eat them babies up!

 

Thanks cliff. I do intend on getting poly bushings up front and out back.

 

Exactly which bushings are you talking about??

 

IIRC the poly kit that im going to be getting came with the tie rod, a arms, rear upper and lower control arm bushings, and i dont remember lol.

 

Ohh that big as$ kit, I know what your talking about...I should probably look into something like that..