1987 Shelby CSX rear axle

[iTurbo]

I'm trying to gather all the parts to rebuild the suspension/chassis on my '87 CSX. While taking it apart, I discovered that it probably had the rear axle/trailing arm assembly replaced at some point. I came to this conclusion because: A. it had oval pivot bushings, B. it had a hollow bar in the U-channel, C. the trailing arms are about 1/2 longer than the Shelby Lancer trailing arms.

So what did the CSX originally come with? I know on the rear axle in my Shelby Lancer it had a solid bar in the U-channel and smaller round bushings...seems like the CSX would have got the same thing.

So anyway I also discovered that the rear axle I took out of my CSX was broken. The hollow bar had snapped free of the U-channel on one side making it very flimsy and I wanted something more original so I got a used rear axle out of an '87 Shelby Lancer. I stripped it down today in order to get it ready for the powder coaters and I find out that it's bent! One of the trailing arms is sticking up higher than the other and you can see the arm has buckled slightly near the lower shock attachment point. I don't even know if I can use this thing now. What the hell am I going to do now? I'm half tempted to just throw it together anyway but I'm afraid the ride height might be off by 1/2 inch side-to-side on the rear.

How possible is it to cut the hollow bar out of the U-channel and reweld the solid bar in? I'm worried that might warp the U-channel but it looks like that's next.

[mopar3.0]

ide remove the stock sway bar , plate the axle over and get a sway bar from poly bushings

[iTurbo]

Yeah that would work. I may do that. I was hoping to 'have it all' though. On my SL I had rebuilt the rear with poly bushings, boxed in the panhard bar, and added the polybushings.com anti-sway bar and I love it.

When I boxed in the panhard bar, it warped it though. I only boxed in the first 12" or so on each side and stitch welded but it warped anyway. It still works but it was a pain to install since it had a slight twist to it afterwards. That's why I'm reluctant to do the same on the main U-channel.

[iTurbo]

OK, so I found an SL rear axle that I was going to use in my CSX but it turned out to be bent. Can anybody confirm or deny that the '87 Shelby CSX came with the *solid* bar in the rear axle's U-channel? Or were they hollow like most production cars?

As soon as I find a good one I'm going to have it powder coated. I don't want to bother with the powder coating if I can't find something original. But if the '87 CSX came with a hollow bar originally then I'll just settle for that and find a local one. Anybody with an original '87 CSX want to crawl under their car and tell me what they find? Even if the car has brakes installed you can still tell if it's solid or hollow by feeling the end of the bar where it protrudes through. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about.



The rear axle is from an '87 SL and you can see that the bar is solid where it comes through just below where the hub bolts on. I just need to know if the '87 CSX was the same..

[Turbodave]

Jeremy, I have two 87 CSX's in my garage right now, neither appear to have been molested in the suspension dept. I will try to get a look at the rear axles tonight.

[iTurbo]

Hey Dave, did you ever get a look at them? I've heard from a couple '87 CSX owners in the Denver area and between them they checked three different cars and all had the solid bar.

It's not too big a deal though because I've finally found a good solid bar rear axle out of another SL for my CSX build. I used to have an '89 Shadow rear axle in my SL so I know they interchange just fine between early P and H bodies.

[Turbodave]

Thanks for the reminder, been a busy week and totally forgot the other night.