Thanks for the info, guys!
I do have some documents relating to the Cobra from the period before I bought it. It seems that the previous owner had Keith Crafts's shop north of Dallas set the ride height--do you think I'll need to have the ride height reset since I didn't mess with any of the settings (only the one rod I had to extend about 1/8"). When I disassembled the rear suspension, it was with the idea of only replacing the old, hard, crumbling bushings with modern pieces. I was surprised to find when I got the bars off that some of them had one, and even a couple had both, of the jam-nuts loose. I don't know if that presented problems or not, but I could certainly see how it could.
I think the first thing I ought to do is to make sure that the wheelbase is the same length on both sides, that's why I asked if a good front end/alignment shop might have machinery to check that. I could see problems in that area causing "crabbing". If that happens, nothing I do will be right.
Jerry, do you mean that I ought to have installed all 4 bars with the end bolts, meaning the bolts that go through the sleeve in the bushing, loose? I certainly didn't do that. Initially I had difficulty getting the two bolts that hold the upper bars to the frame bracket to engage in the threads...the passenger side was the first to remedy itself with a well placed "whack" with a rubber mallet--I guess it was just slightly short of reaching the threaded area in the frame. On the driver's side I had installed the bolt into the wrong "hole" on the bracket...only one, the middle hole, is threaded. I felt pretty dumb when I realized what had happened!! Both of those bolts are "blind", meaning there is no nut on the other end, only a threaded portion of the frame (or, perhaps a captive nut welded on the inside of the frame). The other 6 ends have nuts as the bolts extend all the way through the brackets. I'll try to post photos in the middle of next week when I get back home, that might make it clearer.
To make things even more complicated, there is a panhard rod that extends from the driver's side of the frame to a bracket on the passenger's side of the area where the pumpkin mounts. That appears to use urethane bushings, too, but it is tight so I am not going to tempt fate by taking it loose right now.
Thanks to all who have given advice....this sounds much more complicated than I thought when I started to work on it if all this is going to be necessary!
Cheers from Dugly
Threaded Mode
