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The upper and lower control arms attach to points on the car structure that can and do move relative to each other under heavy acceleration. Additional bracing between these points will reduce this "flexing", but not completely eliminate it. By preloading one brace against the other I think...

I do think that overtightening where the bushing was shot to begin with was at least partly responsible. Doing so prestressed the quarter panel by pulling it too hard toward the frame, which I suspect caused the quarter's shape to "flatten" a little. Flatter panels will buckle before panels...

The best advice I can give here with respect to decoupled TA tuning is to visit FRRAX.com and look for posts by Unbalanced Engineering and sgarnett. Another guy there - JonA - is pretty knowledgeable about this sort of stuff though I don't know whether he ever got a decoupled TA for his own...

Bingo. With enough tire, a stiff enough suspension, and an aggressive enough alignment it's not all that hard to hit a lateral-g number almost no matter what sort of suspension lives under each end. It's the slaloms that separate the well-developed from the less so. In this chassis, the...

You have that correct as far as the geometry requirements go. Four links that aren't all parallel in plan view are all you need, so it's still best to avoid having the uppers end up fighting with a Panhard Bar or Watts link especially when you're driving at race levels. However, a street car...

pumkin - the big casting in the middle of the rear axle that the differential gears, posi, and the gear oil goes into. The UCAs attach to ears that are cast into the top of this thing. snap oversteer - oversteer that suddenly occurs in the middle of a hard turn. There are a number of possible...

You could run a PHB or the Watts link that Marcus at SCandC.com now offers. BUT . . . you need to keep all OE rubber bushings in the existing UCAs (no poly) AND you need to locate the PHB or WL pivot up at approximately the same height as the UCA ears on the pumpkin. Failure to do so will put...

I think that Moog #5413 will drop the rear a bit, though I'm not sure how much. I'm really uneasy about using coilover springs in the stock big-spring seats especially for street driving. Those small-diameter springs are not as stable as big springs. You can get big springs in various rates...

I would get them. If it turns out that you ever have to adjust the uppers much to get things to fit, you'll steer the rear axle slightly (because the lowers are skewed). To steer it back so it's perpendicular to car centerline you'll need to be able to adjust at least one of the lowers. Norm

OK, I think we're on the same page as far as braking is concerned. Let me suggest that whatever crossmember used to resist the torque arm loads be made fairly rigid. Any deflection in the crossmember will tend to become a vibration, in which case wheel hop could follow. I doubt that this...

Actually, I'd think that it would be easier to package a 3-link. The pumpkin already has ears that could be at least part of the axls-side attachment, and the frame crossmember has brackets that you could attach a chassis-side attachment to. There's a bit more to it, but the hard points...

A couple of things with respect to PHBs vs WLs. In anything resembling sane street driving most folks would be hard pressed to tell the difference. You do have to be "leaning on it" pretty hard. Another is the initial inclination of the PHB (let's assume with the driver only aboard, or...

Yup. 2745 mm, actually, per the 1979 owner's manual, with a 108.1" US measure also given. This is GM's "metric chassis", if you know any roundy-round racers or read Circle Track magazine. Guess I'm bored this evening. Norm

Here's why . . . What you're really trying to do is turn the engine torque reaction into something useful - like re-planting the RR (that wants to go light from the pinion trying to climb up the ring gear). Basically, you're working the engine torque reaction against driveshaft torque with the...

Something like this? SCandC has other, less expensive/extensive suspension upgrades as well. With respect to the "late 80's Monte", all of GM's downsized RWD intermediates are pretty much the same as far as general suspension arrangements are concerned. Differences are mostly in springs...

This "tire lean" is camber in alignment-shop terms. By your description, your camber is too far negative. A little negative is OK even though the OE specs probably don't include negative values, but if it's far enough negative for the average individual to see it's too much. I suspect that...

The first order of business here should be to find better seats. I've had a few severe episodes of lower back pain and lots of not-so-severe ones, so I have a vague idea what you're going through. Don't be afraid to look outside the GM parts catalog - I've got 1987 Maxima seats in mine now and...

They have a very specific purpose (involving fairly serious dragstrip competition), but this kit won't help a street driven car enough to be worth the downsides. In autocrossing, the order in which the greatest gains are obtained is nearly always (1) driver "seat time" and experience driving at...

Assuming that the upper arms are horizontal at static ride height, it looks like there's a mild advantage for the dragstrip even if you aren't up around 100% antisquat. If anything, the shorter arms allow you to gain more antisquat faster as the rear begins to squat, which would call a halt to...

From some measurements I made a long time ago . . . LCA true length 19.10" LCA side view projected length 18.97" UCA true length 10.96" UCA side view projected length 7.75" Feel free to correct me if they're off. Norm