PLucas

iTrader: (1)

I dont think that low in these cars looks good. Just my opinion though

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

Why not look into one of those adjustable air setups. So you can raise the vehicle with the push of the button. Expensive, but if your determined then its worth it.

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

I asked this question a while ago and back then,
found none. But they are made for 1st-gens and
A-boies etc. so maybe in another decade....

-1.5" might be a bit extreme. I would have
preferred a spindle drop to lowering springs
though.

Alt

iTrader: (6)

I would believe that the picture of the red transam is at full drop on a bag setup. To be able to achieve another 1.5" lower would be very nice in my eyes. I am quite a fan when it comes to the mini truck scene and I'm currently building the air bag setup for my SS convertible. The post Jason linked to about his 19's is something I am going to refrence if I decide to go with a larger rim/tire in the future. Jason if you hear anything about a drop spindle please let me know, as I will return the favor.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Determined about what? This is a handling vehicle, not a cruiser. I have my suspension very dialed in with 550lb front springs with the Ground Control coilovers and Koni SA shocks. Airbag suspensions are not known for their handling as it's difficult to determine the spring rate. It changes so often there's no way to get your shocks valved for it. Plus the shocks for these airbag setups go through the airbag which means you have to use whatever shock and whatever valvings it has. That just plain sucks. I don't even want to think about air suspensions unless I can get a small sleeve to fit the springs that normally stays flat and then can add air pressure to raise the car about an inch or two just for driveways or to get the car on a lift or something. As far as I know, no one makes such a thing.

Plus you also have to consider that the air bag setup is still not going to allow the vehicle to get lower than stock. To get that last 1.5" I would still have to modify the shock mounting points or run a drop spindle.
EDIT: I found a way to use air bags with Koni shocks and am custom building a front suspension right now.

Yes it is. That is Ragtop Rat who is in Norway.

You guys need to keep in mind this thread isn't about slamming a TA, I pretty much want to keep the ride height I have now, but just have more suspension travel to protect the tires and smoothen the ride over really tore up streets.

Alt

iTrader: (6)

So what are you going to do as far as scraping and such with your current ride height? Is it just as simple as dialing in the coilovers and raising them while using the drop spindle to lower the vehicle? Please forgive my ignorance of coilovers but is my assumption correct?

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Your correct in that once the drop spindles go on they will lower the car and then I will adjust the coilovers to raise it back to the height it was before.

I've had 26" fender lip heights for about 2-3 years? now anyway, I don't scrape on anything. You get used to driving a lowered car. I can tell just by looking what driveways I can go up. The steeper ones require going up them at a 45* angle. The REALLY steep ones I just avoid. For instance, if a business has a really steep, tall entrance that I know is too tall, I'll park next door or across the street. That's pretty rare and isn't a big deal even when it does happen. If you've never driven a lowered vehicle, don't sweat it. It just takes time to adjust.

In case anyone is confused about what a 26" fender lip ride height looks like, there are a few pics of my hooptie here.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showpost....0&postcount=41

Alt

iTrader: (6)

Well my '95 is lowered and I know how difficult it can be on the back country roads up here in MD sometimes. If I find anything about spindles I'll be sure to send the info your way.

hpjunky98

iTrader: (3)

I was just serching for quite a while on google and yahoo, and i couldn't find any drop spindles anywhere available for our cars. seems like most of them are only made for the oldschool camaros, but not the newer ones ... Its a shame, because if somone made some, I would definently buy them. they seem to have many more advantages than drop springs.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

I was messing with the back of the car and came up with this:



Now with a few mods I can lower it about 3/4" more than this. This would give me about 2.5" ground clearance with the suspension at full compression. Right now the torque arm is touching the parking brake cable.

I'm shooting for 5" of ground clearance at ride height. This is what the K-member and trans crossmember are at. Everything looks good except for the exhaust. I'm going to have to make a new Y-pipe that will tuck 1" higher than the stock piece. That's going to be tricky.

I've learned that on the front the A-arm can move up right at 1" when the tire is touching the metal fender. So in theory I could just mod the upper shock mount to give me the 1" extra I need and then trim the metal away to allow the front tire to tuck that high. I wouldn't need the drop spindles.

Or if I could find a lower ball joint that was taller by 1" then I wouldn't need to modify the upper shock mount. Hmmmm. So there's a few ways to go with this.

BTW, 5" of ground clearance seems to be the magic number. That's what I have at my current ride height and I really don't scrape on anything except for the exhaust on a steep driveway. I did some measuring on a Ford GT40 and it has a full belly pan meaning it has a flat bottom and it is right at 5" as well. So if I can get my exhaust up high enough I should be good to go. The extra travel that I'm shooting for should help the ride quality as well as provide a safety margin at high speeds. The GT40 has a good 4" of compression travel which surprised me, but that's probably what you need for high speed driving.

One more pic from the side:

Alt

iTrader: (6)

Thats so pretty tucked up in there.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

I wanted to bring this back up as I may actually make these, but I have a tough question I hope someone can answer for me.

Concerning making a 2" drop spindle:

What would be the difference in mounting the lower balljoint 2" higher than stock and using a balljoint that has a 2" longer shaft on it?

Basically, the only difference I see is where the actual pivot point is. Does it matter where the actual pivot point is?

I haven't found a longer balljoint and it would be very easy to mod the A-arm to raise the stock balljoint mount.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

After a lot of thought, I think raising the balljoint location would be equivalent to making the stock A-arm bowed down in the middle and then just dropping the ride height 2". It will be just a geometry change. For example, instead of the arm being being level with the ground, raising the ball joint would be like lifting the end of the arm up 2" (just with the lower shock mount in a lower position) so it's no longer level. It will look level, but it woun't be. I think the only real result is a small loss of camber gain under compression.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

I plan to shorten the top of the spindle so all the upper arm geometry will stay the same. Overall, I think this will duplicate a dropped spindle except for the slight reduction in camber gain I mentioned.

trackbird

iTrader: (4)

http://www.racecraft.com/proddetail.php?prod=300107

http://www.racecraft.com/proddetail.php?prod=300106

I know nothing about them, but there they are.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

I was asking about the geometry changes. Does anyone know about that?

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

BTW, neither the Racecraft nor the PA Racing drop spindles are really suitable for anything more than drag racing.

You can learn some more about both in this thread:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspension-brakes/781211-raised-spindle-lowering-body.html

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

I'm definetely bringing this back up as I want to do it. I've made a few more decisions and learned some new info since the last time I really thought about it.

First, I found a guy who tubbed the front wheels for more suspension travel, so now I know it can be done.




The main tub is 1/8" steel. I want to tub the front and rear for more travel. I'm also going to be switching to some shorter Koni 8216 coilovers with 500lb springs and selling my Koni SA and Ground Control setup. The 8216's will be a lot shorter. Here's a real big pic of the DA version.
http://www.koniracing.com/images/File/8212large.JPG

Now here is the really trick part. Not only will I maintain a consist and known spring rate, unlike airbags, I also plan to mount 4" or 6" hydraulic cylinders to the upper rod ended shock mount. Yep, just like a lowrider. A hydraulic setup is cheaper than an air setup, but it might weigh more. I'm trying to find out if a single pump/battery would do what I need, which is raise the front and rear semi fast, like over a few seconds. I don't need to hop or anything. I might be able to make the car wiggle around a little, but that's all. I plan to mount the pump and valves under the car out of the way.

With this setup you adjust the coilovers to whatever compression and extension distances you want and that will stay fixed. I'm thinking about 2.75" of wheel compression and 2.5" of wheel extension or something like that.

I want to be able to set the car on the ground when I want and then raise it up to it's normal ride height while driving and then lift it way up for steep driveways. It's going to be a lot of work, but it really is the ideal setup as far as I'm concerned.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Getting back to the drop spindles. I was considering mounting the lower balljoint about 2" higher, but that may alter the roll center as well as the camber gain. In order to really do it right I need to find an extended shaft balljoint. That way the LCA pivot point doesn't change, yet the spindle itself will sit higher.

So far I have found the Steeda X2 for the Mustang. I'm willing to adapt the balljoint mount to anything that is longer.


http://www.steeda.com/news/tech_arti..._balljoint.php

I still need to look at several race car shops to see if I can find a longer unit. 2" would be perfect, but if I can find a 1.5" or even a 1" taller unit that is better than the stock unit. Although it may be cheaper and easier just have my welder guy cut the bottom of the spindle off and weld in some steel plate to space it 2" or so.

As for the upper spindle mount, I can do like Kenny did in that camaro pic I posted above and just notch the fenders to make room for it ot I can shorten the top of the spindle through the welder I found here in Houston. Leaving the ball joint stock and notching the fender is going to increase the camber gain, but I'm not sure what other effects it may have. It may be fine, I don't know. If anyone has any ideas of what this may effect geometry wise, please let me know.

BTW, you can find more pics and info on Kenny's air bag dropped camaro here:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance-detailing/787832-project-obsessed.html
and here:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/tools-fabrication/801893-tubed-camaro-pics.html

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Here is his upper A-arm mods:





I'm really not sure if that much modification is needed or not. I may be that the upper arm will hit the upper shock mount and that's why he raised just the end.

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

If you want to see some of the mods I've completed, I made a page listing them, just check my sig.

Flipping the upper balljoint over is actually a good idea. I could modify the arm to fit around the outside of the spindle. Tire clearance may be an issue, but it wouldn't require cutting down and rewelding the top of the spindle. I may need to find a smaller diameter balljoint and then machine the tapered hole the other direction. It's doable. I just need to find the best solution.

Oh, and I'm sure a bumpsteer kit will be needed for sure. That's easy.