Chrysler 300 Pedder's USA LX Suspension Upgrade

Scott Seifreit and Larry Neville start things off by removing the exhaust system to gain access to the rear cradle. The brake lines were then removed because the cradle must be lowered away from the car to remove the rear cradle bushings. This also makes the control arm bushings easier to access.

The staff of Precision Motorsports designed this "homemade" cradle support in-house. It's fixed to a transmission jack and perfectly holds and supports the rear suspension cradle while it's being removed.

With the cradle support in place, the bolts are removed and the shocks are loosened from the body, and then the guys removed the rear cradle and transported it to an open area.

Removing the factory bushings will require some grinder work.

Once the cradle bushing was treated to a few sessions of the cutoff wheel, it was ready to be removed by yet another in-house tool.

The end result is this destroyed bushing. "They were designed to wear out, but they weren't exactly made to be removed very easily," joked Scott.

The remaining bushings are simple to replace. The crew takes out the rear control arms to replace the eight bushings housed in the four control arms.

They are easily removed on a press.

Here's the camber-adjustable bushing that will be installed loosely in a temporary position before being taken to the alignment rack for the final camber to be set. Notice the offset metal insert inside.

The new Pedders cradle bushings literally slide in and the cradle is ready to be raised back into the car. The shocks are attached to the cradle before being raised to make installation easier.

These spring-perch adjusters will determine the car's ride height and are hung on the body before the cradle is lifted back in place. This is a remote-perch coilover. Some coilover systems feature the spring over the shock body in the rear like the front, but it's usually not used in the rear because of the vehicle's design.

They put the cradle back in using the transmission jack, and bolt everything down and reinstall the brake lines.

With the back of the car taken care of, it's on to the front. The front of this 300 uses Bilstein struts with Pedders springs.

These radius rod and control arm bushings are easily....

.....pressed out, and the new red Pedders bushings pressed in.

The Xa coilover is raised to the body with the strut mount attached, and the upper control arms were pressed in off the car.

To make rear suspension adjustments easier, Pedders includes these remote adjusters that place the top shock adjuster within easy reach with the trunk open. The fronts are easily adjusted by popping the hood and turning the tops that are clearly marked with +/-.

Once all the new parts were installed, the SRT8 was taken over to the alignment rack to receive an aggressive street alignment. According to Precision, they set their alignments one of four different ways. See the sidebar for the alignment specs.