For those unfamiliar with the Corvette IRS, here’s a side shot. The entire rear end assembly bolts into the car. The composite spring attaches to the outer knuckle. 2 control arms per side bolt to the chassis with an aluminum bracket. What’s not shown here is the aluminum torque arm that supports the transmission tail housing.
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As mentioned early I will be installing a 12 bolt because it was free (thanks dad) and familiarity. I started with a stock 12 bolt. After chopping the brackets and carefully measuring I chopped the ends off in a chop saw. Since the suspension needs to be of stock type I decided to run a torque arm set-up similar to the F-Bodies. I bolted and tack welded the tubes to the housing.
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The lower control arm mounts were made of 2” square and bolted in the stock location as the IRS arms.
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I was able to design a mount that would attach the spring, sway bar, shock, lower control arm and panhard bar. Thanks to BDM Millwright who CNC plasma cut the mounts for me. The material is ¼” mild steel. The axle ends are the large bearing Moser units. Through-out the process I simply relied on my trusty Mastercraft electronic level.
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I decided to run the torque arm up the passenger side of the car. This will hopefully give more room around the shifter when pulling the tranny out. The torque arm mount is made out of 1/8” steel and will be bolted and welded to the rear end housing.
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I fabricated a 2” square mount for the composite spring, which mounts to the IRS mounting tabs. The spring had to be shifted rear to accommodate an extra thick rear cover.
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