Trick Chassis 8.8 swap geometry issues?

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UC645

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Apr 20, 2020
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I couldn’t find anything on this so I decided to make this thread.
Has anyone installing a Trick Chassis 8.8 swap kit had any strange geometry issues? Specifically, if you jack the rear up with no springs, shocks or drive shaft in the car, will the axle come up and contact the frame or will it stop a few inches short?

I’m not saying this is a problem with the kit, but rather I’m curious as to wether or not anyone else has had the same experience.

Back when I was throwing my 8.8 in, I figured I was going to make up a bump stop setup that extended over stock height out of necessity, but ended up scrapping the idea because I found the rear end just bound up at extreme upper travel and the axle tubes never came near the frame. I looked around and couldn’t find it hitting on anything so I figure it might be a combination of the short upper arms that go with the instant center brackets running out of travel (radius?) and binding against the travel arc of the lower arms. Regrettably I forgot to take pictures, and now this issue has come back to bite me as I try to find the proper shock for this setup, since stock length ones won’t fit with my current lowering spring setup. I’ll probably have to get a set of Vi-King’s or AFCO’s and will need to run bump stops on the shocks themselves rather than the axle housing, but I’m not sure if Vi-King will keep a shock under warranty when used like this, bump stop or not.
 
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ostrich

Master Mechanic
Aug 27, 2012
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It's funny you posted this, I was going to post a situation I have/had as well with my 8.8 swap, Again I don't believe its the product, but haven't really found a solution. Put everything together, measured and adjusted for my pinion angle 2* on the street. Everything was fine when I first drove the car, Then I noticed that the car had a hard time in reverse and in drive it didn't move forward easy (ie. no gas). I figured it was one of my rear brakes., or emergency adjustment. It was very hard to turn the rear wheel by hand. adjusted the emergency cables, no change. Eventually just took the rear brakes off, no change. Now is it the gears/posi setup. Tried to remove the driveshaft, stuck in the tail housing. Once remove rear turn, no issues. Brake back on no issues. Somehow the driveshaft got pushed into the tail housing, pop it out reseated everything seems to be fine now. Don't understand how the rear could have move, uppers & lowers all tight etc. Baffled, but when reading your post got me thinking again. Thinking of a pinion snubber? Not losing sleep over it, but confused...
 
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64nailhead

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I say no good on the rear getting bound up. It sounds like you’re going to bending/breaking mounts, arms or frame when the axle hits full travel up. What ostrich is describing is his distance from trans to rear has changed - sounds like something moved.
 
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UC645

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Apr 20, 2020
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I say no good on the rear getting bound up. It sounds like you’re going to bending/breaking mounts, arms or frame when the axle hits full travel up. What ostrich is describing is his distance from trans to rear has changed - sounds like something moved.
I’m really worried that’s going to be the case, but I’m not sure how or why it happened when I was test fitting everything.

I was under the car last night to get rear arm measurements for Mac from SSM and noticed I left my bump stops in place on the axle and now there’s about an inch and a half between the tops of the stops and the bottom of the frame- closer than where I remember them being during mock up. The pinion snubber seems closer than the bump stops though, which confuses me even more.


Here’s hoping I’m just being a dunce as usual and forgot to take the shocks or snubber out when I did the mock up.
 

64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
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You have to be the judge of how much travel you have. You could always modify the axle stops so that they contact the frame prior to the binding position, but that might be impractical based on the amount of suspension travel you have.

Also, you might be able to get away with spherical Heims’ on the front uppers.
 

ostrich

Master Mechanic
Aug 27, 2012
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Ontario, Canada
I say no good on the rear getting bound up. It sounds like you’re going to bending/breaking mounts, arms or frame when the axle hits full travel up. What ostrich is describing is his distance from trans to rear has changed - sounds like something moved.
Yes I agree something must have moved, but everything seems fine now. Everything tight. Will see in the spring. I just thought I'd post that up just for thoughts. Didn't want to mess up UC645 post.
 

UC645

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Apr 20, 2020
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You have to be the judge of how much travel you have. You could always modify the axle stops so that they contact the frame prior to the binding position, but that might be impractical based on the amount of suspension travel you have.

Also, you might be able to get away with spherical Heims’ on the front uppers.
As it sits, my goal is 3 inches of travel before I hit these stops, which is kinda high. But I noticed that they’re actually closer than they were during mock up years back, or at least it looks like it.

I’ve discovered I’ve got another problem in the meantime- the driver’s side is an inch higher than the passenger side! Nothing looks tweaked or out of place and I’ve got no spacers in it so I’m stumped. Unless one of the rear springs is the wrong pounds/inch rating or the wrong length, which I can’t check until spring.
 

DSPbuilt

G-Body Guru
Jan 7, 2016
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I think pictures are needed. Did you cut off the mustang quad shock mounts? I have yet to drive mine but have moved it up and down with no issues.
 
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UC645

Royal Smart Person
Apr 20, 2020
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I think pictures are needed. Did you cut off the mustang quad shock mounts? I have yet to drive mine but have moved it up and down with no issues.
No pictures, but I do have the quad shock mounts cut off. The car is currently on the ground with no shocks on, and if I bounce it, it hits the bump stops. I’m going to chalk this up to my shoddy memory and delete this thread after a while.
 
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