it is so refreshing to see a practical hotrod. someting that does more than just go fast or turn sharp. congrats on building a car that is just as easy and fun to drive as a brand new gto.

 

Thank you for your kind words. Hearing things like that really make me feell like all the effort is worth it.

Yesterday I took the car to get the corner weight set and to make sure that my front sway bar was installed in such a way that it was not pre-loading the suspension. I took my car to Nashville, to Earl Owens Chassis. If anyone in that area needs any kind of fabrication or setup help, Earl knows his stuff.

Here are the new corner weights:

--LF------------------RF
1094-----------------1044



--LR-----------------RR
968-----------------913

This is with driver of similar weight to me.

Total: 4019 lbs
Distribution: 53.2 Front / 46.8% rear

Cross weight 50%

This was done with the front sway bar disconnected. Minor adjustments were needed on the drivers side rear spring jack to get the cross weight to 50%. Once the weights were adjusted I installed the sway bar in such a way that it did not alter any of the corner weights. I know that the sway bar was preloading the suspension fairly heavily before. This was evident by the fact that when I made right turns, the car would handle very neutral. There was just a hint of understeer that was easily controlled with the throttle. When making left turns the car would push much harder and the understeer was less controllable with the throttle.
Now the car handles the same way whether I am making left or right turns.

After installing the AFX spindles, I had to get the car aligned again. I decided to add just a hair more negative camber.

-.7* camber
5.5* caster ( little more on the right)
0 toe

The handling is very neutral. There is just a hint of understeer that is easily modulated with the throttle. The biggest difference is going over bumps, especially when just one wheel hits a bump. Before, the car would dart and wander. I have no doubt that this was cause by the bump steer due to the b-body spindle swap. With the AFX spindles all of that is gone. The car tracks straight as an arrow when going over bumps. There is a slight tendency to track along the grooves in the road, but I attribute that to the shorter sidewall on the new tires.

Andrew

 

Thank you. I was actually talking to my buddy that came with me to get the car scaled, and we were talking about how my GTO is similar to a new GTO in many respects. Love your sig quote btw!

Andrew

 

i'm buy'n up all the parts to build my 68 camaro/firebird with a 01 ls1/t56 and i hope they turn your build into a sticky because it is so in depth and detailed about every little part of your build

 

Tonight I decided to take the car to the drag strip to see how my new tires worked. I got to the track, did my burn out. The car pulled hard out of the hole. I was able to launch it from about 3000 RPM, slipping the clutch a little, no tire spin. On the 1-2 shift, it felt like I missed second. No big deal. I aborted the run. Stepped on the clutch and got nothing. No pressure at all. Straight to the floor. I matched the RPM and got the car into 3rd gear and drove back to the pits. Looked under the car and saw a nice little stream of fluid coming from the bellhousing. So the hydraulic TOB puked.

I now have less than 9 days until RTTH IV. I need to order a rebuild kit. I may even order a new TOB. I am not looking forward to spending the weekend on my back, but it's better that this happened now and now a week from now.

Andrew

 

Sorry about your luck Andrew! I was finishing off my falkens last night night, they have TONS of life after there are no treads left, And they hook very well lol. But my night was cut short with a broken motor mount. No fun.

You'll have it back together!!! Very curious to see what your car will run on the strip.

 

I would call Keisler in the AM. I bet they will help out.

 

Calling Keisler will not do anything. This is not their issue. I am using a TOB from Quarter Master. I have a rebuild kit on the way and I also ordered the Howe TOB that is supposed to have internal stops as well as longer travel than the Quarter Master bearing. I am just not looking forward to pulling the transmission.

Andrew

 

I already ran a 12.78 with my rock hard, dry rotted Nittos. I bet with these Fakens I will be able to get a 1.8 60 foot time. If that happens, it will run 12.20s

Andrew

 

Ahh.. gotcha. Thought you got all your tranny stuff through Keisler.

 

Keisler does not make parts to put Richmond transmissions into old cars.

Andrew

 

These wheels kick ***. I was not a huge fan of them before, they really do look great!

 

No mystery here:



Based on the cut in the o-ring the problem was over traveling the bearing. I guess the excitement of drag racing made me press on the clutch pedal just a little bit more than when I drive around town. I will do some more investigating and see if I can limit the movement of the pedal and still get enough travel at the bearing to release the clutch.

Stay tuned for more.

Andrew

 

Not sure about other manual trans cars but I know E36 BMws had a threaded, adjustable stop that attached to the floor pan.

You could install it like this:



Check out this link for a low buck version:

http://www.wecool.net/bmw/ClutchStop/index.htm

--JMarsa

 

I will definitely do that in the future. For now I did the lazy man method.

I shortened the rod that connects the pedal to the MC. This reduced the stroke of the MC thus reducing the stroke of the TOB. I was still able to turn the output shaft easily by hand when the clutch was pressed. So I was definitely overtraveling the TOB before. Back on track for RTTH IV!

Andrew

 

Andrew, will you be checking out Drag Week at all?

Jesse

 

Thanks for reminding me. They are doing a test and tune tomorrow and I think the first official day is Tuesday.

Andrew

 

you had B body spindles on when you tryed the SPC upper control arms?
what lower control arms do you have?

 

Did you come down for Drag Week? All the cool kids are in the mountains....


PS, Andrew car looks eve better in person....!

 

I put the SPC arms on while I still had the b-body spindles. I am not using ATS spindles. The lowers are from Global West.

Andrew