i know a guy that is selling a 3.73 posi 8.5 out of a firebird complete with rear disc brakes, but it has coil springs and my regal has leaf springs. how hard would this conversion be (regal to coil rear suspension)? would it be easier to convert the rear end to accept leaf springs??
Why does your regal have leaf springs?? It should be a coil spring car. Anyway take the Guts out and swap them. If they are the same 7.5 it will work except the axle splines are different sometimes.
its an 84 regal, i THOUGHT that it would have leafs but i dont really know now lol. well, since the regal IS rear coils, would the firebird rear end swap in no problem, or are the spring/shock mounts different?
Not even close. You can use it for resale if you get a deal on it, otherwise not worth your time and aggravation to convert the Firebird leaf spring to coil spring and it may be too wide.
With all the work involved with cutting/welding the control arm mounts it's not worth it to put under the Regal. As stated above, if it's a good deal, buy it to resell it and use the profits towards another rear.
this is the rear end out of a 97 firebird...no leaf springs here lol. the guy wants 100 bux for it, so thats a good deal on just the posi and gears out of it...right?
If it really is an 8.5, the rear is worth good money to a 3rd gen f-body owner as the 7.5s are called "glass 10 bolts" for a reason. You'd have to cut off the panhard rod mount, relocate the lower control arm mounts, add upper control arm mounts and move the spring perches to the right location for a g-body. Buy it for the $100 and sell it to a 3rd gen owner for $800+. The f-body 8.5s only wound up under Firehawks, so they are quite rare.
3rd Gen F-bodys used the following rears: -7.5's (weak) -BorgWarner 9 bolts (often found in GTA's) -Dana44's (a service counter option in the mid to late 80's...very rare, possibly the FireHawk piece). All will be slightly wider than earlier A-body rears, & quite a bit wider than the '78+ A/G series rear. The disc brakes off the '97 rear can be adapted onto an earlier rear, but don't expect anything else from such a rear to work under a coilspring '78+ Regal. If bought cheap enough, one could part such a rear out, keep the disc brake pieces, & apply any profit towards a correct fitting HD posi G-body rear. Good luck. :3gears: Roger
