1979 Firebird Formula Rear Suspension Replacement/Upgrade 

Your video was excellent to refresh my memory because my rear end has been out of the car for a little over a year ! I am restoring a 79 trans am ! Every thing all new ! Thank you great video !👍

The 1979 WS6 suspension found on the TA's and Formulas were excellent in their day. I had the added feature of 4 wheel discs on my TA and can attest that it was a performer at auto crosses. The mods you are making to the car, especially the 400 Pontiac engine, will make you smile. Keep working on the suspension it will pay off. Good luck and excellent video.

‘79 Formula is a year and model type that doesn’t get much love, hope you keep these videos coming. I’m an original owner of this exact same car so if you need someone to test drive and let you know how it compares to when it was new, I’m your guy.

In my opinion, a Formula is the same in performance as a Trans Am , just an economy edition. I have a '79 Trans Am. 20 years ago I had a swaybar link break on me as I was cranking through a curve at speed. Inspecting it I saw the person that cut the old exhaust off hit it with a torch. Back then there was no replacements available anyplace. So I had to make my own. Haven't had a problem with it since then. Going with a 400 will definitely wake up the performance over the 301. You did a great job with parts selection. Did your research and made frugal choices like I would do. The only thing I think I would've done differently would be to bolt the front mounts to the spring eyes and torque the bolts then install the mounts to the car. That's the way I did it in my Nova. Yeah those cage nuts vary in quality. I ran into that many times in my 20+ years as a professional. Been working on my own cars since I was 16 (so that would be about 38 years). Good luck with your projects!

Scott, nicely done and presented. I'd be interested in learning more about your plans with this car. This past July I bought a 1979 Camaro Rally Sport with a 305 V8 & 4-speed transmission. I'm making almost identical suspension changes. I just received new rear springs from Detroit Eaton Spring, KYB shocks and I'm adding a 0.875" rear sway bar. Additionally, I rebuilt the rear end with a 3.23 ring & pinion and added a positraction carrier. Up front I'm adding all new bushings, new KYB shocks and a 1.25" sway bar from a WS6 Trans Am. Brakes are being rebuilt while I have the suspension apart. Once all that is completed I'll begin to work on the engine. Feel free to contact me so we can chat up our similar builds. Regards, Keith.

So I’ve got a 1979 Camaro and I have what looks like the exact same kit as you, but my car is a Berlinetta so it never had a factory rear sway bar. So when I went to install the end links I did not have the bolts to bolt the end links to the frame rail and I noticed while trying to find bolts that the holes in my frame rails are not threaded. Is it ok to drill and tap those holes so they will take a bolt?

I think you did a good job on your video. I may have missed it, but on the sway bar bushings..are they rubber or poly? I'd like to change mine keeping it stock or maybe a notch better.

Where did you get the sway bar and links from? I can't pinpoint it in the video

Unfortunately for you, You'd have to go back to 1979 to see what the best Pontiac had to offer. Because these cars handled very well in 79. But you've been spoiled with 40 + years of suspension technology.