smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

Im sure most of you F-body guys out there allready know about this. I found it to be another head ache. Just you think your in the last stretch and you think all I have to is bolt the rest on, Nope. Pull the master cylinder off so the 2 Aft bolts to the Lft side struts can be removed.


My pic's kinda suck but here are the before.

After.

Alignment sheet.

And after a day of driving I had a sneeking suspesion to look under the car. Good thing I did the right rear tire was way tight to the inner fender well. needless to say, I centered the rear back up and will take it in tomarrow to find out why I paid $87 so I could have one of my BFG's ground up!

John02Hawk

iTrader: (4)

Nice pics!

..Thanks for sharing and keep us updated!

-John

WS6 SRT-8

iTrader: (18)

X2. Looks like you have a wife that really understands a mans needs.

RFFG

Nice work, keep it up!

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

Thanks fellas, me and the wife have been married long enough she instinctively knows what it's going to take to make this car one of our own. It was here idea for the QA1's! mostly cause they where shiney But who is going to argu with that logic.

Any who, I had to crawl under the car today cause I forgot to grease the new zerk fitting on a few of the components. I took a few more pic's!

Sub frame conector, I really need to cut some of the threads off that long bolt hanging down. It's on the todo list. It's between the K-member and the body.


The Aft bolts on the BMR K-member have these Aluminium spacers here. Im not sure why or even if it go's here but it was zip tied to this spot when I pulled it from the box.


More shots from the bottom K-member and lower A-arms

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

If any one could identify these front brakes for me Id appreciate it, Id just like to know for future refrance for when I need to get parts. The previous owner said they where straight off a Z06 corvette. I know some of the big brake kits us a caliper adapter, these calipers don't have an adapter they bolt right up to the spindle. They are bigger how ever Im pretty sure a 17" wheel would not clear the calipers.



Just incase any one else needs a good starting point for there coil overs here ya go. I wish I would have had some kind of refrance to go off of, took me forever jacking the car up and down to figure out where I wanted it.


I mentioned a few post back that BMR should have welded another tab for a brake line. Here it is you'll see that I have mine Zip tied, I think a tab just like the one they welded just aft of where mine is zip tied would be a good idea. This way the stock brake line clamp could be utilized

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

You may have noticed in the previous picks that the stock sway bar is back in the front. I noticed when I put the BMR sway bar in that the thing weighted ALOT! It was also 32mm just like the stock one. I know that a WS6 car is supose to have ok suspension components from the factory. I was suprised that the BMR and the stock sway bar are both 32mm, the diffrence is that the stocker is hollow and the BMR is solid. My curosity go the best of me so I pulled the BMR sway bar out of the car and did a side by side comarison.
I do dig the powder coat on the BMR sway bar. BMR on the Lft, stock on the Rt.


Here is the big diffrence, weight! BMR weighed in at 21.5 Lbs, Stock 11.5 Lbs.
Sorry for the crappy pic's. BMR up top, stock bottom



Now I got to thinking, I just replaced the factory K-member with a light weight unit wich sould have saved me about 40 Lbs. Now why would I put the weight back into the front of the car with another component. I understand that the stiffness of the BMR sway bar is probably better than the stocker but I felt that the ajustablility of the QA1's, the car being a bit lower than stock and the style of driving I do was not worth the extra weight.

Websy21

iTrader: (34)

Very nice thread, to bad Sam never got back to you. His bars are hollow and are suppose to handle great. I also want to get his springs as well along with some koni's all around. Very nice job btw

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

Well we had a bit of a coolant leak the other day, I happen to catch it early so I only lost a few drops!
Im pretty sure some one had this problem before thats why there was a peice of aluminium tubing peiced into this smaller colant line. Easy fix, just took out the old tube bent up a new one. however this time I rotated the lower colant line clamp so it wouldent chaff the tube again and added a clamp to keep it from moving any where. I dident like that I had to zip tie it but it works in a pinch.
The old line.

fixed.

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

Got some new parts too!


Of all the research I did on suspension on these cars I hadent run into a little thing called bump steer. The wife noticed it right off the bat, cause it's now her daily driver and could only explain it as "it's not right". So by the time I was able to get into the drivers seat I could diffinetly feel what she had mentioned. A little turn of the wheel and the car reacted like it was a huge turn, of course it could really be felt more going over the bumps in the road. Not really a big deal but it's a pretty easy fix and it will make the wife happy.

Now I've never delt with or installed Baer brakes on any vehicals, but what I can tell from this tracker kit I would hope they know brakes better than steering. Im pretty sure the Heimes ends used in the kit are not a quiality teflon lines aircraft grade rod ends. I've used alot of cheap heimes ends on alot of offroad projects and these are very simular to them. Another cost cutting feature in the kit is the use of nylock style lock nuts. One of them ended up stripping out at 30 ft-lb while trying to torque it to 45 ft-lb. This not only ruined the nut but the threads on the shaft as well. I believe a crimp style lock nuts should be used in this application

On with the pic's, here is how I set it up so I could get it to the alignment shop.

Ajusted acodingly to make close.

Here is all the carnige from the falty nut, I sent pic's to Baer as well to see what they have to say about it.

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

The nut insatalled is a crimp stlye lock nut, a much better lock nut and temperature restant.

Installed, alignment shop with square away the rest!

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

I figured as long as I was under the car I should change the belts. It appears that the prevoius owner had installed a harmonic balancer! Little power adders are always nice to find, I had to figure it out cause the stock belts I picked up dident fit.
These are the belts I ended up with.

here is what I found on the harmonic balancer.

RsSean

iTrader: (27)

You weren't kinding when you said pic crazy. I need to get a job with you. A 02 T/A and all those aftermarket goodies. +1 for a understanding wife/girlfriend.
Keep up on the good documentation you'll look back at them one day. I do belive those front rotors are Baer eardispeed rotors.

bigblock4-speed

Your brake question.. well, i dont know if those are actual z06 brakes or not.. still looking into that. The question of a 17inch wheel not being able to work with those brakes- a 17 would be the smallest wheel u could put on. I have a wilwood 6piston cal. on my ss, and a 17 is the smallest i can go.. So you shouldnt have any problem with 17inch- (if looking to do that in near future)

I have to give ya credit- putting some money into a car, but will turn out very nice!
Procharger on the way? lol.

Goodluck n keep up the good work! nice thread!

bigblock4-speed

Your brake question.. well, i dont know if those are actual z06 brakes or not.. still looking into that. The question of a 17inch wheel not being able to work with those brakes- a 17 would be the smallest wheel u could put on. I have a wilwood 6piston cal. on my ss, and a 17 is the smallest i can go.. So you shouldnt have any problem with 17inch- (if looking to do that in near future)

I have to give ya credit- putting some money into a car, but will turn out very nice!
Procharger on the way? lol.

Goodluck n keep up the good work! nice thread!

JD_AMG

You might not like hearing this, but if your trying to build a corner craver, and good daily driver QA1s are near the bottom of the list of shocks to have. They are drag shocks, and made to allow weight transfer, which is the opposite of what your want for good, stable handling.
If you ever find the car to be floaty, disconnected, unpredictable, or twitchy its because of the shocks.

sidewayz28

iTrader: (24)

if you want your car to handle, do your self a HUGE favor, do it RIGHT the first time, and save up to buy Koni's. Thank me later

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

Id just like to know the brakes for any future mantiance that I need to preform on them.
Me and the wife are pretty happy with the wheel and tire combo. Im not a big fan of 18"s up front and 19"s in thew rear. I prefer same size at all corners just for rotating purposes. Im a real self mantience kinda person, a person can really benifit crawling around and working on there own vehical. Thanks for the info though, sounds like you have quit abit of caliper on your car. Ill take note of this just incase I come accross some 17"s I can't live with out.


For some reason the Wife keeps bringing up the forced induction conversation. Procharger does seam like a great reliable set up and keeps the heat out of the engine bay. On the other hand a turbo is always good free horse power and looks like plenty of folks on the board have some nice set up's that work really well. No promises on forced induction right now but ill keep doing reasearch on the topic, like everything else I do it will probly boil down to running accross a good deal!


Thats ok, Im not bolting parts on the car to make it strickly a short course racer or a drag car. Im actually pretty happy with the set up, it's diffinetly much better that the stock 100,000 parts that where on it. I is a bit stiff at slower speeds but as low as it sits I don't have to worry about dragging anything when those bigger pot holes sneek up.The wife tells me just about daily, some one at the light wanted to race me again. She try's to play it off like she's mature enough not to try to race from light to light next to some kid in a SS Cobalt. But the kids usaully spill the beans on the rest of the story, so maybe I did make the right choice!


I know, I did a pile of reasearch and everthing on the board here pointed right to Strano. I did make the call to order a Strano set up but when 4 days went by and I dident get a call back I had to go else where. I don't blame Strano at all im sure he was busy, but on the other hand when I need something now I have a hard time waiting.

smashmetal

iTrader: (2)

It's good to know Baer stands by there product, I e-mailed the pic's of the stripped nut and stud. I recieved a phone call back the next day. I was a little ticked that the rep said it looked like I had placed the nut on crooked wich may have cross threaded the parts. I insured him that I did not, but the tone of his voice told me other wise. I have over 10 years experience turning wrenched on aircraft I don't think I will cross-thread a 1/2 nut in a wide open area!
Any way Baer made good and had replacement parts to my door in 2 days.

BIG_MIKE2005

iTrader: (116)

Cool & good job so far man. I will tell you from experience to get rid of that stupid power steering cooler pipe in your top radiator hose. Mine ruptured internall & by the time I know it had let powersteering fluid leak into my coolant system.

You really don't need it since you live in a area thats not unusually hot most the year & your not autocrossing it. I removed mine & have been daily driving it for over a year now like this without problems. Not to mention it's one less thing that can go wrong later.