Imp558 Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 My Regal is a '96, it's got what I presume is FE1 it's the leaf rear -w- no Sway bar, and the front is a 30mm bar. I may swap the 30mm bar out for a 34 if I can find one. I'll also be doing bushings all over up there and possibly more. In the rear, my car was optioned with the coil spring suspension. If I can find it, is it worth swapping one from a wrecking yard car in? The '97 is very different with the exception of the trailing arm, GM p/n 10244461, it's the same trailing arm in the rear '97 GS coil setup as in my car. That could be good info because a lot of you guys appear to have the same rear as me and 3800 Performance offers a NICE aftermarket one for $129.99. If anybody's interested all you have to do is find your GM p/n and compare it to mine, should fit. At any rate, I'd love to hear input on how to set up the rear end in this car from some of you more experienced w-body folks. Thanks in advance, here's a link to that arm: http://www.3800performance.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BMR-TA&Category_Code=SB&Product_Count=12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BXX Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 Your regal could never get rear coil spring suspension.. 97-up was Gen 2 Wbody that got it, and 95-up Monte Carlo and Lumina were Gen 1.5 and get rear coil springs. The GMPP rear trailing arms that list for Gen 2 Ws are identical as Gen 1 and 1.5.. Its a bolt on. I have them on my 96 CS along with a bastard assortment of other vehicle parts on it Find my threads on the rear suspension here, I have a lot of documented info and parts to swap in, and several other people have great threads and info as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp558 Posted September 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 Thanks 1LoudCutty, I got that off of Alldata, it shows the '96 as having either, for the record it gives the crossmember p/n 10062854 for the leaf spring and 10152132 for coils. The '97 shows only the coil spring setup and the crossmember p/n is 10401734. The 2 systems look pretty different and I didn't compare p/n's beyond that because it was apparent the later crossmember wasn't going to bolt in without fabrication. I'll have to do some more research, maybe that was an export thing or something? I'll follow your posts and read some more about rear upgrades here first since chasing this '96 coil rear could be chasing a white buffalo, and if I can make the rear leaf perform well it certainly has cost effectiveness since the car already has it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 like it was said, there was no option for rear coils in your 96. You can, however, make your own custom coil overs for the rear like 1loudcutty did. You could also, which is much cheaper, source a FE3 leaf from a junkyard. Or you could even get a Birchmount leaf made to your specs. Also, those trailing arms are quite overkill for most. You can get upgraded ones for less at wbodystore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp558 Posted September 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 I know, somebody would have found it by now in a yard somewhere. Funny that Alldata shows it though, that's what I was running on. I wonder if any of the parts searches would offer that as an option? Doesn't matter anyway because if the parts were available we wouldn't be any further ahead than the conversion 1LoudCutty did. What's cool is that I looked his car up and every p/n is the same as mine to a tee, are they all the same till '97? At any rate every detail of his conversion should be identical with the exception of ride height so I've been reading that thread intently! I'll check wbodystore out before I go shopping, which won't be real soon anyways, I thought about the FE3 leaf, but if it's going to get all tore down anyway I may as well do the conversion. Thanks again guys for the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp558 Posted September 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 This is kind of cool, so I thought I'd post it. When Alldata showed the coil setup in 1996 that nobody has seen I compared it to 1997 and it was very different. I have no intentions of actually trying to locate one since it would be cheaper to convert my leaf rear over using the methods here, but just for fun I went to http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/ and looked around. They show the same pics, and list parts as available! If this is true then it could open a new door for the community since the crossmember should fit several pre-1997 cars. Here's what I found: 1996 Leaf spring, the style we all know and love: 1997 Coil we're familiar with: 1996 Coil (White Buffalo) rear suspension: Is there something I don't see here? Again, not that it matters, but how cool it would be if there were another source of factory parts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertISaar Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 as much as i like to split hairs, and we all know i do, they're showing drum brakes on a regal? 4 wheel disk was standard from 88-up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mra32 Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 i think your white buffalo suspension is from Luminas/Monte Carlos known as gen 1.5's You'll notice they are the only w-bodys to get drum brakes, which is shown on your suspension diagram. They also had rear coil springs but the front suspension from 1st gen cars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertISaar Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 i think your white buffalo suspension is from Luminas/Monte Carlos known as gen 1.5's You'll notice they are the only w-bodys to get drum brakes, which is shown on your suspension diagram. They also had rear coil springs but the front suspension from 1st gen cars this brings up an interesting question: bring up the same diagram for a 95 regal, see if its the same, if so, its another case of alldata assuming everything is identical across platforms.... not the first time i've noticed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp558 Posted September 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 (edited) Yeah, I noticed the drums. I figured there had to be a reasonable explanation for it, but it's funny that it shows it. I knew somebody here would be able to identify that.I've found my way from the board here so this point is moot, if such a thing was available it would cost more and leave me with drum brakes. I'm going to put all my suspension parts together in the cold weather, then lay the Regal up in the spring while I drive my truck. It'd be super cool to get the suspension done, get the new engine built and in and have the dyno tuning finished by summer 2010.mra32, this was Alldata, and gmpartsdirect.com, I'm with you, Alldata is only right 90 something percent of the time. These images are from gmpartsdirect.com, but actually show the same in Alldata. Edited April 5, 2016 by Imp558 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 you aren't aware that the gen 1.5 cars were available with both drum and disk rears. the spindles are the same... and either would fit. people have upgraded their drum brake equipped gen 1.5 cars to disk brakes without a problem time and time again. however, the gen 1.5 rear will not fit in a gen 1 car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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