Spirit R/T Suspension Damage

[Dan15]

So I just picked up a 91 Spirit RT and long story short, while towing it home I hit a large boulder and a good amount of damage happened. Most of it can be repaired but the rear axle and rear sway bar are going to need replaced. Question being, is the rear axle and sway bars on any Spirit the same width or are they unique to the RT's? I'm hoping to be able to just use any spirit from the junkyard to fix this up but don't want to spend all the time to measure and compare if someone happens to already know?? Thanks ahead of time.

[86Shelby]

To the best of my knowledge, they are the same width as long as you keep with the same year. I wouldn't doubt it if the sway bar inside the axle is a different diameter between the R/T and other trim levels.

[Reaper1]

Different body styles list different rear track widths. I have found that the flanges that the brake adapter/spindle bolt to can be different thicknesses. In the end it isn't really enough to make a huge difference.

The "sway bar" is actually the round thing inside of the "U" channel of the rear axle. They are different depending on suspension options. R/T's got a solid bar. The way you check is look at the flange I was just talking about. The bar is welded to that and the end is visible...so just look to see if it's solid or hollow.

I imagine the other part you need is the "track bar" or "panhard bar". This is the same for all the K-based cars AFAIK. Adjustable ones are out there. I consider that a "must have" if you lower the car so you can re-center the rear axle.

[Dan15]

Thanks for the help guys. I ended up getting a non RT rear axle including the sway bar and the track bar. Width was same but as mentioned the sway bar is thicker and welded into the RT unlike the non RT style.

Another difference worth noting for future reference is the bushings. Idk the exact term but maybe the rear control arm bushings? Anyways the RT has large oval style and the other spirit. 93' I believe. Has just circular and smaller bushings. Is this depending on the year or a special RT version?

[Reaper1]

I honestly don't know whether those trailing arm bushings changed with suspension option. I do know that my '90 G-body uses the big oval bushings while my '88 uses the round ones. I have always been under the impression that the '90-up cars should all have the big oval one. Of course it's totally possible someone swapped it out at some point!

[Dan15]

Yeah that is true. I unfortunately didn't notice the difference until too late. I just went with the most trust free option the junkyard had. And idk if I'd go to the effort to change it again until I find another RT axle with the welded in sway bar.

[Reaper1]

All of the sway bars are welded in (or should be...they do crack loose), just some of them are hollow and others are solid. Thinking about it, there might be different diameter ones, too...but I'd think they would either be super base models or some other type of body style...and it would be smaller.

If it works, I wouldn't change it. If you aren't happy with the way the car handles there are other ways to tune it.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Pretty sure the bushing design change is a year thing, not an RT thing.