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Started with reaming out the holes in the slugs that I welded to the center link..
I ended up using longer inner tie rod ends from I believe a '73-'79 X-body application (GM obviously did a similar fix as I did by moving the inner TRE locations inboard after my model year!), and because I couldn't find a long enough length outer TRE in 11/16" thread, I ended up re-using my tight existing 5/8" outer TRE's. This meant I had to make some tie rod end connecting sleeves..
After the first test rip last night.. **** it real good. The steering is firmer but quicker since swapping to the fast ratio steering arms and pitman/idler arm. Turn in is super quick but doesn't have that crisp biting edge.. mainly because I still haven't made a front sway bar yet! That'll be a future update. Going around sharper corners with bumps at speed is super sweet now.. steering is completely neutral with no weirdness! I'm stoked.
Frojoe ! Man that is some awesome work you are doing there. I think you will be designing space shuttles some day. Hope to see you out there this summer !
Frojoe ! Man that is some awesome work you are doing there. I think you will be designing space shuttles some day. Hope to see you out there this summer !
Do you go to either of the Richmond McDonald's or the Burnaby Market Crossing (Canadian Tire parking lot) Thursday night meets?
Damn been a while since I caught up on your work. You engineered the **** out of that!!! BRAVO!
Can you get a final measure/chart on the bump steer now that you have the finished parts? You know this means you can't change anything else on the steering or alignment because it will fubar your near-perfect bump steer haha.
Haha thanks, it was a lot of work but I feel it was totally worth it. Now that the steering feels much more responsive, I was going to double-check my toe, then lift it up and put on caster dollies at which point I could take some measurements.. I want to measure what the Ackerman is like since I've moved the middle of the inner tie rod end ball back about 3/4". I can measure the bumpsteer when I take the LCA's off to weld on sway bar tabs later in the summer, since it'll be easiest to remove the coilovers with the LCA's off.
Edit: since the UCA's, LCA's and spindles are all using stock locations which I am not into modifying/changing, the only way that this new optimized bumpsteer geometry (centerlink) becomes obsolete is if I really jack the front of the car up.. but since it looks so sweet at this low ride height, and now has good camber gain and steering.. why would I do that!?
I'm going to do some experiments with moving my wheels outboard with thicker slip-on spacers to increase scrub radius, as my return-to-center still isn't what I'd like it to be. The trail of the wheels should be good enough to make them return decently since I settled on 6.25" of caster. The Steering Axis Inclination (SAI or Kingpin Angle) on these stock spindles is supposedly 8.75*, which should in theory be enough to create good return-to-center. I'm thinking the scrub radius got a lot smaller since widening the front rims entirely inboard 1.5", possibly counteracting some of the return-to-center action and steering wheel feel I gained by going to the correct quick ratio steering/pitman/idler arms. It is also possible the the T bar in my steering box is pretty weak allowing lots of power assist as it's very manageable to turn the 275's while stopped on pavement.. not pink-finger-turning like a Cadillac, but not as much resistance as I'd hoped. I don't think there's any way of confirming what assist level box I have since I can't find any stampings/markings beyond the fact that it is indeed a 12.7:1 quick ratio with metric o-ring fittings.
Going off on a tangent here but below is a good link I found for steering box information on these old cars...
gjestico.. that's awesome! Let's go for a cruise soon!
GIZZ.. by MRP do you mean Mission Raceway? I rarely go out there, but there's a group of a bunch of us including Rybar and Marktainium that do the Friday night cruise out there every se often.. usually a couple times a summer. I haven't hit up the Richmond meet yet this year.. a bit far from me since moving to North Vancouver, but the Market Crossing meet is manageably close to me so I occasionally go to that one.
I do like cruising around but I think it gets a little heaty with a bunch of loud v8 cars in a pack. Even if I'm obeying all of the traffic laws my truck is a VI waiting to happen.
You nailed it, it's too loud at idle and in traffic. Visually it's stock except for the tires, if I can get my 60' in an acceptable range I'll keep it at stock height.
Now that the weather is good, do you have a lot of chances to drive the car? Without a working speedo dash cams tell the speed, lots of phone apps work, gps navi units. I only look at the speedo when I see a cop.
I drive the car into work or elsewhere every 2nd or 3rd day.. I split commuting between the car, my silly Cummins 2nd gen and actually cycling a bike into work. After thrashing to get my car together on a Sunday a couple weeks back I daily drove it for 9 days in a row.. the most consecutive since I used to occasionally commute it to BCIT. The girlfriend really enjoys me scaring her friends in it though.. hehe.
As for speedo.. I need to take the dash out to rewire the signal wire from the Holley ECU since I found out too late it needs a specific plug on a separate I/O terminal other than what comes on the basic main power harness. Also need to figure out how to wire the wideband Speedhut gauge to some Holley output. And add in key-on wiring for a future transmission pump. And while I'm at it I think I'm gonna remove the heater core to save some weight and free up room in the engine bay for next winter's "refresh". Oh and need to figure out if my intermittent headlight power is from the dash switch, highbeam switch, or funky original wiring/fuseblock.
Long story short, I've memorized that 4th gear 1500rpm or 5th gear 1100rpm is 50km/hr, and 5th around 1400/1500rpm is something like 80km/h. I also just got in the mail a suction cup phone holder and I have a GPS app I like, so I might keep tabs on things like that for the time being..
There honestly hasn't been any work done to it other than fill it with gas, and [finally] clean it, and by that I mean I somehow swindled my girlfriend into washing it last night, hehe..
Other than that, I've been doing doing some mental and CAD planning of exhaust re-work. I'm going to do 3" oval tube from downpipe back to Magnaflow mufflers, then 3" over the axle. I've also been contemplating 3.5", however muffler selection is very limited, mandrel bends are way pricier, and there's no way I'll fit tailpipes over the axle.. I know it would be "room to grow" but realistically this car will never need/benefit/require that extra 0.5" step up from 3". I've assembled an excel sheet of bends and qty's I need, maybe I can get some help here for vendors tho. So far I've found:
- Mandrel Bends (used to be my go-to for tubing, but their SS selection has drastically decreased since I last checked)
- Vibrant (available locally likely at a decent discount)
- Online Metals (straight tube only.. best prices but no mandrel bends)
- Race Part Solutions (spotty selection and prices)
- Spintech (sweet stainless merges, transitions, and bends.. but holy $$$)
Does anyone have any other preferred places to source SS or other tubing online?
05-09-2016, 12:36 PM
