Has Anyone Converted to a Short Front Spindle?
#164
I ordered this:
And recieved this:
These are the correct bungs. It turns out Ballistic Fab has changed their design. I'm a little bummed, but I think I can tweak my arm design to compensate.
Oh yeah, I also decided on 1.5" x 3" x 1/8" wall tubing and got me a 12' length for $38.
And recieved this:
These are the correct bungs. It turns out Ballistic Fab has changed their design. I'm a little bummed, but I think I can tweak my arm design to compensate.
Oh yeah, I also decided on 1.5" x 3" x 1/8" wall tubing and got me a 12' length for $38.
Last edited by JasonWW; 05-30-2011 at 02:10 PM.
#166
Well, it took 2 1/2 weeks, but I finally got my spindles back from the machine shop.
Behold! The worlds first Corvette hubbed, Solstice spindle.
A comparison of the hub thicknesses. The Solstice hub is on the left.
Here's an overlap showing how much material was removed from the bore.
The soltice hub to bore clearance was 1/100" and you could physically rattle it around in the bore. The machinist bored it out just enough for the C5 hub to have a snug fit. I mean it's right on. No slack, but it slips right in and out wiith ease. I then used a pencil grinder and made the bolt holes a little oblong so they would fit easily. Initially I was worried about weaking the spindle by removing too much material. It turned out that so little material was removed that I no longer have any worries about strength. It's practically as strong as stock.
Now I can get back to making the lower control arms. The lower balljoint angle on the spindle is 8*. I intend on running about 1* negative camber on the wheel. The lower control arm will be flat at ride height and move an equal distance up and down so I'm going to set the balljoint cup angle on the arm to about 9*.
The ball joint has 50* of movement! Wow, more than I realized. The lower arm will only move 18* so I have lots of room to play with. Maybe I'll shoot for a 10* balljoint cup to arm angle. It's a nice round number.
Behold! The worlds first Corvette hubbed, Solstice spindle.
A comparison of the hub thicknesses. The Solstice hub is on the left.
Here's an overlap showing how much material was removed from the bore.
The soltice hub to bore clearance was 1/100" and you could physically rattle it around in the bore. The machinist bored it out just enough for the C5 hub to have a snug fit. I mean it's right on. No slack, but it slips right in and out wiith ease. I then used a pencil grinder and made the bolt holes a little oblong so they would fit easily. Initially I was worried about weaking the spindle by removing too much material. It turned out that so little material was removed that I no longer have any worries about strength. It's practically as strong as stock.
Now I can get back to making the lower control arms. The lower balljoint angle on the spindle is 8*. I intend on running about 1* negative camber on the wheel. The lower control arm will be flat at ride height and move an equal distance up and down so I'm going to set the balljoint cup angle on the arm to about 9*.
The ball joint has 50* of movement! Wow, more than I realized. The lower arm will only move 18* so I have lots of room to play with. Maybe I'll shoot for a 10* balljoint cup to arm angle. It's a nice round number.
Last edited by JasonWW; 05-31-2011 at 06:57 PM.
#168
I've been reading up on bushing designs to find what would be best for my needs.
The Del-Spheres and Roto Joints seem to both suffer from high wear rates sometime needing tightening every few weeks and I just don't like that.
Rod ends perform well, but of course wear quickly and need to be replaced often and ride harshly.
So I got to thinking of a hybrid design that uses a rod end for the camber bushing and rubber for the caster bushing. That will give really good cornering feel and still soak up the bumps.
Now instead of an actual rod end, I'll replace it with a much bigger, cheaper and longer wearing ball joint.
So in the pic below, the red dots are the ball joints and the blue dots are rubber bushings.
What do you guys think of this design?
The Del-Spheres and Roto Joints seem to both suffer from high wear rates sometime needing tightening every few weeks and I just don't like that.
Rod ends perform well, but of course wear quickly and need to be replaced often and ride harshly.
So I got to thinking of a hybrid design that uses a rod end for the camber bushing and rubber for the caster bushing. That will give really good cornering feel and still soak up the bumps.
Now instead of an actual rod end, I'll replace it with a much bigger, cheaper and longer wearing ball joint.
So in the pic below, the red dots are the ball joints and the blue dots are rubber bushings.
What do you guys think of this design?
#169
Simply amazing
OMG. I have probably spent 3 hours reading all your various setups and the evolution of this project. Totally bad ***. I can't wait to see this completed.
#170
Jason,
Very impressed with what you are doing with the Solstice upright. Any updates?
I'd love to see pics of the final (?) upright/spindle set-up and a list of the part numbers you settled on: Spindle, hub, ball joints, steering arm, etc.
If you could include rough costs that would help as well.
Nice piece of work!
Tom
Very impressed with what you are doing with the Solstice upright. Any updates?
I'd love to see pics of the final (?) upright/spindle set-up and a list of the part numbers you settled on: Spindle, hub, ball joints, steering arm, etc.
If you could include rough costs that would help as well.
Nice piece of work!
Tom
#171
63 Falcon front solstice suspension
Could you give me some help on the solstice front end conversion to c5 hub's Im looking to use for the front of my Falcon, would like to put it all into CAD to check geometry first, any help would be great please DM me, I tried your email and it came back as a old email.
Thanks
Thanks
#172
Could you give me some help on the solstice front end conversion to c5 hub's Im looking to use for the front of my Falcon, would like to put it all into CAD to check geometry first, any help would be great please DM me, I tried your email and it came back as a old email.
Thanks
Thanks
#174
I never got into counting the pulses on the hub reluctor to see if was the same as stock. I know there are small electronic units that can change the pulse count to make it factory if need be.
Last edited by JasonWW; 08-17-2022 at 07:57 PM.