[Mister Pontiac]

Been continuing the progress on the 71's suspension. This week, I finally pulled the original 3.23 open 10 bolt. Based on the stampings and date code, I have no reason to believe this rear was ever out of the car. After 50 years & 120k, some of the bolts let me know.

In its place, the long awaited 3.07, 12 bolt Posi has been installed. Been waiting to get to this!

Of course there are a million little details to the swap, but a few worth mentioning...

I had previously installed a set of 1" coil spring spacers (with the worn out factory springs) which had the rear sitting just about where I wanted it. Well with the new springs (and reinstalling the spacers), the rear is higher than I like now. I'm going to give it a little time to settle in, and I'll be installing some 60 series tires next month to drop the tire height an inch or so. At that point, if I still think it's too tall, I'll pull the spacers back out.



You may also notice I went with one of the T/A style cast rear covers. I decided to go that route primarily for the simplicity of filling and draining the pumpkin without needing to pull the cover. Whether or not there's any benefit to helping stabilize the bearing caps, I don't know. But since I also installed a set of no-hop bars, and they bolt in right in front of the factory fill plug, something needed to be sorted.

I also opted for a set of adjustable upper control arms in order to fine tune the pinion angle. I figured that was a good plan as I don't know what spring spacers (if any) I will continue to use in the years to come. Again, flexibility was key for me as this golden girl is my daily. I tend to change things up as time goes by.

Anyway, I've attached a few pics of my week's adventure. Of course I had to do a quick operational check after install too...