blacksheep-1

Stolen from mouthbreather motorsports..

Tom Beverly and Lewis Tanner

http://www.mouthbreather.net/IRSSWAP.HTML


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[TD]Step 1: With the rear of the car supported by jackstands, remove the brackets that hold the rubber axle snubs. These are spot welded to the frame rail and may require some coaxing. We found a combination of grinding, drilling, chiseling and very large prybars works well. You may want to use a spot weld removal tool, availible at body shop supply stores. Ignore the IRS in these photos, it is much easier to do this with it out of the car.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 2: Place the IRS on a dolly that allows the unit to freely be rolled under the vehicle. The one we used is about 5" total height.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 3: With the rear mounting arm brackets installed (marked in red), locate the dolly so that the IRS front lower mounting arms are positioned under the torque boxes/ LCA front mount position. These arms are highlighted in green.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 4: Using two jacks (one under each side of the car), raise rear of the vehicle off of the jackstands and remove them. SLOWLY lower the vehicle into position, moving the IRS assembly as needed to line up the mounting points. Make sure the mounting arms are lined up and the bushings are not binding on the mounting holes.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 5: Continue lowering the vehicle until the bracket can be bolted to the frame rail into the rear quad shock mounting location using the rear bolt hole on the bracket as seen in the picture on the left. The bolt is not in place in this photo, but you should get the idea. (It's the leftmost bolt location...)[/TD]
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[TD]Step 6: Raise the vehicle and support it using jackstands. Remove the dolly from the now suspended IRS assembly and place a jack underneath it, raising it to support the IRS assembly. Remove the bolts that were placed into the rear quad shock mounting point.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 7: Jack the IRS up until the rear mounting brackets come into solid contact with the framerail and inner wheelwell. Mark the interference points with a black marker or anything else you have laying around.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 8: Lower the IRS until there is room to use a hammer to massage the offending wheelwell bits out of the way. Massage it good, real good![/TD]
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[TD]Step 9: Raise the IRS until the mounting brackets make contact with the framerails again. Locate, mark, and curse the interference point on the passenger side trunk floor/fuel tank. Lower the IRS and grind and hammer as necessary. We didn't have any interference on the driver's side, but you may want to have a look-see.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 10: Raise the IRS again(up, down, up, down... it's a bitch, huh?), until the rear brackets are completly flush with the frame rails. If you can't get them flush, go back a couple of steps and try again. Now, mark the position of all of the bracket holes with that marker you used in step 7. Lower the IRS.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 11: Using a 1/2 inch drill bit, drill out all of the holes you just marked. Make sure you make it through both sides of the frame rail and into the trunk. (You may want to move the trunk liner before doing this. Then again, you may not.....)[/TD]
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[TD]Step 12: Remove the bracket from the IRS upper mounting arm and attach it to the frame rail, but don't tighten the bolts down too much, as some slop is good here.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 12a: Raise the IRS again. Carefully position the upper arms into the brackets, make sure you don't catch the bushing on the bracket and bind it up. Bolt the Upper arms in and torque the bolts holding the brackets onto the car to the point that you are comfortable that the suspension is not going to fall out from under the car.[/TD]
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[TD]Step 14: Lower the jack holding the IRS in place. Look! It (hopefully) didn't lower the IRS with it! Get that jack out from under the car and admire your handiwork, as the hard part is done. Go ahead and put the gas tank back in now (not shown in picture). Right now is a good op[/TD]
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[TD="width: 76%"]Step 15: Install the brake caliper onto the mounting bracket. Position the brake hose mounting bracket so that it will not be caught in the suspension during movement. Mark the location of the mounting tab and drill a 1/4 inch hole to accomidate it. Use a self taping metal screw to mount the brake hose bracket to the frame rail. [/TD]
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[TD="width: 76%"]Step 16: Using a tubing cutter, cut the factory brake line running down the transmission tunnel approximately 2 feet before the line reaches the existing brake block, which will be left in the car if you have followed our directions to this point without reading ahead, as it is too much of a pain in the ass to get out now. We will go ahead and justify leaving it in there by saying something about knowing where it is when or if you ever go back to stock.... Now, place a threaded fitting on the tube and flare it. Attach a dual female brake line (in red) connector to the end of the line. It should look a lot like the one in our picture now. You should also go ahead and remove the old tubing leading to the brake block, we found it takes about 10 bends to break it off. [/TD]
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[TD="width: 76%"]Step 17: Determine the best place to locate the brake distribution block (T-Fitting) and approximate the amount of brake line required to mount it and connect it to the fitting you put on in step 16. Go ahead and measure the amount tubing required to reach the calipers on each wheel, add a bit to that measurement, then cut some tubing for it. A bit too much length is much better than not quite enough. Note: You should not have the two lines leading to the calipers on yet, pretend they are not in that picture.[/TD]
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[TD="width: 76%"]Step 18: Using a precision tubing bender (at MBM, we use our hands!), form the brake lines as needed to reach the rear caliperd from the T-Fitting without being caught up in the suspension. Pay a lot of attention to the LCA travel.... It should come out looking something like this picture. The fittings on the hose are metric, so pick up a set at the auto parts store while you are buying the line, fittings, and brake fluid.
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[TD="width: 76%"]Step 19: Remove the calipers from the mounting brackets, install your rotors, then put the calipers back on. Tighten them down. A lot. Be sure all of your fittings are nice and tight (but remember they strip very easily...). [/TD]
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[TD="width: 76%"]Step 20: Install the shocks and springs, bleed the brakes, mount the wheels, and drive that open exhausted beast to the muffler shop to get the Cobra catback modified to fit on your H pipe. The modification is pretty simple and you shouldn't have to pay more than $75 or so to get the whole thing up and running. You have to shorten the catback pipes to meet your existing H pipe and make a new rear hanger bracket for the rearmost mounting point. The mufflers and tailpipes fit perfectly! Here's a picture of our Bassani catback ready to go! You may want to swing by the alignment shop on the way home! Have fun and don't blame us if you kill yourself....[/TD]
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blacksheep-1

Some Mod is going to have to fix this post, I cut/pasted several times and this is what I've ended up with.......I give

Brutal Metal

I'd love to get my hands on a low mile 03/04 Mach1 SRA with oem 3.55's caliper to caliper, I'm just cringing at the thought of snapping one of the wimpy 28 spline half shafts in the 99 IRS first time at the dragstrip I'll be launching under 3K I can promise!

blacksheep-1

If you want to "borrow" a diff, I have one lying around, they swap pretty quick. I would be interested in buying the IRS if you want to get rid of it, the 28 splines are going for (about) $700 the 31's are going for over ($1500) right now. In either case, dont' try to drive out of a wheelhop, it'll just break the half shafts and new ones are pretty much unobtainable. I think the only place you can get them are form drive Shaft Specialties in Cali and they're not cheap!

Brutal Metal

Yeah I have my eyes and ears open constantly for spare 28 spline halfshafts, there's a clown on Ebay that's had a single axle listed for months and won't come down on the price, $400 fricken dollars, DREAM Buddy!