From sprint cars to late models need help

[ibanez42054]

So I have always been around sprint cars , the class is pretty much dead in my area , late models pretty much run at 3-4 tracks within 2-3 hours of me weekly so I decided to give late models a try. I picked up a race ready 09 Rayburn combo car for a decent price and I wound up getting the car from a guy who knew less than I do so a lot of my experience has been correcting some mistakes he made. Understanding the rear of the car has been a big struggle for me so when I got the car the bars were set up like a 4 bar on the LR with the shock mounted on a solid clamp to the axle on the front , I was told the current birdcages were for the swing-arm set up so I flipped the bars while working I noticed the j bar was bent I replaced it with one close to the size in my spares and I’m afraid it maybe too short the bar without the Heims is about 17inches long and with almost two inches of thread out and the bar pretty much flat , I was able to get the rear end square so I’m concerned with that the other two bars I have are purple and 27 inches and 29 inches. Dunno if I should change over to those or not , first time out and the car handled awful so tight it was almost undrivable I would up scraping the wall because no matter what I tried the car would not turn I went off of rayburns recommendations for a baseline I’m 90% sure I did something wrong just not sure what yet. I am in the process of changing the left side to 4 link with the z link on the right side I pulled the birdcage off today and was curious if I could remove the lower plate and replace with a plate with shock mounting locations to get the LR shock behind the axle. Not sure if the brand due to no stamping but I’ll call try to attach a pic.

[Jim11h]

An older Rayburn is not exactly an ideal starter car compared to today's cars. Call Rayburn and get measure info from them. Bar lengths etc make sure correct rear-end in car. Lots of times guys buy wrong rear used and think they can adjust for it.