Hot Rod Rearend - Hindsight

The rocker attaches to our homemade bracket by a one-grade eight-bolt. In the center of the rocker is a large rubber bushing that insulates the chassis for vibration and noise while allowing the rocker to pivot.

The stock Falcon bars were attached to the framerails with homemade brackets. Here the coilovers have been disconnected and the rear axle is jacked up against the 'rails to simulate full suspension compression. In this position, it's 3 inches from the ends of the axlehousing to the framerail on both sides.

In the photo, the coilovers are still disconnected and the axle has been dropped as far as it would go (much farther than it will be able to travel with the coilovers connected). Axle end-to-frame measurements remained at 3 inches, indicating the housing remained centered throughout its range of vertical motion.

If there is a drawback to this installation it's that the rocker and upper bar come close or may hit the trunk floor. But then we've cut better stuff than a trunk floor.

We went with Explorer discs from Currie Enterprises for brakes on the rear of our '34. The backing plates mount the calipers and the parking brake assemblies.

On the back of the mounting plate, the lever for the parking brake can be seen (top right) along with the mounting tab for the parking brake cable.

Included in the Currie Explorer kit are new 11-inch, solid rotors. Most popular bolt patterns are available.

Surprised? Built into the backs of the rotors are drums for the parking brake. Early Corvettes used a similar arrangement.

Brand-new single-piston calipers are also part of the Currie kit. The rubber cap in the center is the bleeder, below is the inlet port. The relationship between the two turned out to be important for us.

To reinforce that the Currie brake kit is complete, even the special T-bolts for attaching the backing plates to the axlehousing are included.

Before installing the axles, we wiped the seal surfaces with Currie's 9+ gear oil.

The axles were slid in place; access to tighten the retaining bolts is through the hole in the axle flange.

Although it's hard to tell from this angle, with the suspension fully compressed the caliper's top mounting bolt and the bleeder hit the frame. In most cases this won't be a problem, but we're using a particularly narrow rearend to accommodate.

Our solution to the interference problem was to swap the backing plates side for side and mount them upside down. The calipers stayed on the correct side of the car.

Mounted lower, the calipers clear the frame and the bleeders remain above the inlets so bleeding the system shouldn't be an issue.

All finished and ready to roll, the rear tires are 245/70R15s on 8 1/2-inch-wide Wheel Vintiques solids. Clearances are tight, but the Watt's linkage should allow us to run slightly less clearance than normal.