'97 Mustang Solid axle to '03 Cobra IRS swap

Some of us bolt-on power under the hood, others go for an exhaust mod and new springs to lower the ride. But, that's not good enough for Kevin (aka Blind). Kevin rips up the the Auto-X track as frequently as he can with his 1997 Mustang GT. He already has suspension mods and a Cobra motor swap along with a few other goodies. It was time to look for a different performance edge.

Recently, a deal came along that Kevin just couldn't pass up. Let's check-in with him to see what he is doing this time -

Source: http://www.westcoastgearheads.com/sh...with-the-stick
Article by: Blind (Kevin)
Photos by: Blind (Kevin)
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Getting rid of the solid axle in my 1997 Mustang this weekend.


Installing an IRS from a 2003 Cobra, it has some goodies already, namely MM poly IRS bushing kit and a diff brace.

It came with the stock `03 cobra bilstein shocks, stock springs cut 1 coil, and a new in box ford racing 4.30 gear + master installation kit + 2 bottles of royal purple fluid + ford racing friction modifier.



Hopefully the install goes smoothly, I got it from a guy who had it in his `98 mustang so everything I should need came with it including some long bolts for the quad shock mounting bracket to go through to the floor of the trunk.


Why am I doing this?

1. Ride quality
2. I don't want to spend any more money on this car, and to get better performance out of the solid rear would take more money than getting great performance out of this IRS, and I should be able to resell all of the solid axle parts that I had for about what this swap will end up costing.
3. the solid rear has a really minor clunk, that drives me insane on my daily commute, on a track car it would be irrelevant but I'm very anal when it comes to noises that my cars make,

Click here to read the discussion and see more photos