Today we're going to be looking at our
rear suspension for the 65-70 impala and Chevrolet full size.
Hi I'm Damien Brase this is Steve Smith. We're with QA1. Steve what are we working
on today? Today we are installing our brand new 65-70 Impala and full size rear suspension.
So we've got the coil-overs we've got the trailing arms the panhard bar
uh sway bar uh the full package. So I'm excited about this one I can't wait to get started.
All right let's put the stuff on. Nice. Okay Damien so we're under the car now looking at
this uh kind of unique three-link setup tell us what we got going on here. So the three-links
are by far the most common on these cars uh some of the cars with big blocks four speeds did come
with a fourth link so there'd be a mount over here on the axle. But this is a 283 car so. So
yeah we didn't really need the fourth link here. Yeah we've got one upper uh trailing arm and then
two lowers with a panhard bar. Yep um somebody did add a rear sway bar onto this car it does
have air shocks and some add-in spring rubbers to get the back of the car up a little bit. I don't
like it let's rip it off. Yeah let's get it out of here get this thing set at the proper height.
Yeah we should probably put these uh jacks here to support the axle. Always keep it in in its spot.
Wanna race?
The lower springs will have a retaining plate that you'll need to unbolt from the trailing arm.
We've got that done so Damien's got the spring all ready to come out.
We're looking good. Here's that plate. Here's the plate. There's another one
and there's another one.
All right so we've got this thing stripped down to the lower trailing arms.
The upper one trailing arm on the passenger side
and the panhard bar. Before we remove this panhard bar Damien's got another jack supporting
the pinion here so the axle doesn't rotate on us when we pull this panhard bar off. So here we go.
Okay so we're at that point in the disassembly where we've got the lower trailing arms off.
We do have the upper trailing arm still on there just for stability. We're going to
remove that once we have the new lower trailing arms on. But if you look at these old ones that
we took off of here you'll see the bushings are just mangled they're old. They're gone.
Stamped steel all that junk. So we're gonna put those in huh. New tubular trailing arms
new poly bushings installed on both ends they are greasable. New hardware is included with them so.
Nice. Well we'll get those put on and then we'll remove that upper trailing arm
just to keep all the stability into this. We'll show you that next.
All right so we've got the lower trailing arms on the car and we've removed the
factory upper trailing arm. Now this we removed it with the bracket that's installed via the three
mounting studs because our new upper trailing arm comes with the bracket. You will find a stack
of shims here that will help with the pinion angle adjustment. Now our ride height is going
to change. We would recommend keeping these shims in case you need to change the pinion angle later
after the ride height is set. Tell us about that arm Damien. So with the fixed arms like Steve said
you want to hold on to those shims and readjust the pinion angle once you get it set. If you're
using our adjustable trailing arms then you won't need to use those. We do have a new upper mounting
bracket that comes with the trailing arm. It does have multiple holes so you can adjust your
instant center using that. New poly bushings pretty much ready to go. Here we go.
All right so we've got the old panhard bar out of the car and we've got the new QA1 with the
X-Series rod ends with all of the appropriate hardware. We're going to start the length to
the same length as the old bar for now that will change with our ride height. Tell us about the
bushings you found there Damien. So factory ones have some fairly large rubber bushings
pretty worn out uh the sleeve actually came out of the inside of this one when we pulled it off.
So I think the the rod ends will make a nice addition and help keep this
axle centered underneath the back of the car. Oh yeah. Well let's get it done. All right.
Going to install our rear shocks on this setup we're going to use the
t-bar style connection similar to the factory style shock. Now because we've
installed that t-bar for you we're going to have trouble getting the spring over the top.
So what we're going to want to do is take a 7/8 wrench we've already done this and
loosen this jam nut here that allows the t-bar to simply unscrew off the top there.
Then we can put our spring over the top. I've got the upper spring cap. Voila like a magic. And
then our t-bar will screw our t-bar and eyelet will screw back onto the shock rod once we've
got that tightened we'll re-tighten that jam nut and we'll have it all assembled. What about that
lower mount Damien. Here's our lower shock mount bracket this is going to bolt on locating off the
factory shock bolt hole and then you will have to drill a couple half inch holes in the axle here.
This does have ride height adjustment built into it so you get a couple inches
of adjustment out of the bracket along with an inch or so of adjustment in the shock itself.
In preparation for the rear sway bar we've got these three-piece anodized aluminum
clamps that will hold it to the lower trailing arm. Now easiest to do would be to
set the bar parallel to the ground here and get our stands connected to the bar itself.
The front one is going to be one inch from the end and the rear connection is going to
be just before the radius here you can clamp those down tight. Now that that's done we can
go in set it right on top of the trailing arms put the trailing arm clamps on and we're done.
So
we've got all the parts installed on the 66 Impala. We've got our one inch sway
bar adjustable panhard bar tubular upper and lower trailing arms and our adjustable
coil-over shocks. She's looking good. It's looking real good. Yeah so we're ready to
be done with this and check out the front install video that we've done. Of course if you like this
video hit the like button subscribe. Any questions you have hit us up on our social media platforms
or email us call us at the tech line and we'll see you next time. And #goDRIVEit. Oh yeah that too!
Hi I'm Damien and you're...Steve. I'm Steve.
Should I just go like this the whole time? Is it Impala or
Impala? Yep Dr. Dre he declared it in his song.
Impala.