Original 427 Street Cobra Suspension Rebuild

[David Kirkham]

Gents,

We had a TON of comments on our assembly manual thread (still working on it) and we just got an original 427 Street Cobra in the shop...so, I figured you guys would like to see a "check out/rebuild" of an original 427 Cobra Street Suspension. This suspension is almost identical to a 427 SC Cobra suspension. The main difference being the brake caliper and rotor. I will get into the specific details later.

The customer asked us to go over his car and see if there was anything that needed to be done to make his car "right" so he could drive it. Owning one of these babies is not for the feint of heart. It is not unusual to spend $10,000-$20,000 to go through the suspension of an original car. Parts are unobtainable in most instances and so you end up making them--usually out of UNOBTAINIUM, of course!

When we got the car it was supposedly "completely concourse restored." Well, I am sure most of us know what that means. There was a little TLC that the car still needed. The alignment needed some love and I was sure there were other gremlins lurking in the woods that needed to be ferreted out as there seem to be on all these cars. They are now over 40 years old, after all, and that is a LONG time for things to happen!

Feel free to comment and ask questions! I am happy to answer what I can.

Here is the first picture. This is a shot of the left rear suspension. The first thing you notice, of course, is that original 427 Cobras had INDEPENDENT rear suspensions! You would not believe the amount of people who have called us and told us they went for a ride in an uncle's, cousin's best friend's original 427 Cobra and they knew it had a solid rear axle...

Well, they DON'T!

Original 427 Cobras had a true independent rear suspension. (The following has been corrected due to a brain short on my part. ***Incidentally, Jaguars do NOT have a true independent rear suspensions*** Should read, Incidentally, Jaguars do not have a true upper control arm as they use the 1/2 shaft as the upper control arm.) Sorry!

Cobras do not use the 1/2 shaft as the upper control arm. They have a true rear upper control arm with plunging 1/2 shafts. You can see in the picture the top of the upright were the upper control arm bolts into the upright.

Another interesting thing is you notice the on rear suspension, ORIGINAL COBRAS HAVE OUTBOARD REAR BRAKES. On this car (street 427) the original calipers are cast iron. They are HEAVY!!! Notice an original Cobra has rear wheel disk brakes. It was one of the 1st production cars to have 4 wheel disk brakes.