Lateral-g Forums - Updates to the LM7-67 Camaro

Wow, I've been slacking on keeping this up to date. I'll try to pick up where I left off.

So last May I found that the wheel bearing exploded, gouging my spindle. Due to some difficulty getting a hold of Luke at L&H, I started to look at other options, and sure enough, a smokin' deal on a set of these popped up in the classifieds.
http://imageshack.us/a/img692/8881/63927173.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img832/2227/76397570.jpg

Of course they installed with no problem, but the real issue lies in that the AFX spindles have ¾” drop built in while the old L&H spindles had none. This takes the wheel and moves it up into the outer tie rod end. Where I had barely marginal clearance before, I now had a major issue. Luckily, one of my buddies had a set of “short” first gen arms laying around which moved the outer tie rod end in approx. ½”.
http://imageshack.us/a/img51/3285/21605447.jpg

Unfortunately, this was still not enough. I decided to go with a stud and rod end arrangement to move the outer rod end up as much as possible. Also unfortunately, no one makes a stud adapter in the correct taper/size for the first gen steering arm that’s fully threaded.
http://static.speedwaymotors.com/RS/...91636055_R.jpg

After having a machine shop ream out the steering arm to match a Ford 7* tapered stud and trimming down the stud as short as possible, I found that it would just barely fit behind a set of 18” C5 wheels I had laying around. Of course, by this time, Return to the Coast is practically around the corner (beginning of October). Luckily, there was no crazed rush to finish the suspension this time; just an alignment on the day I had to leave and then off to California where the car performed great. I didn’t have any problems all weekend…
http://imageshack.us/a/img560/640/camaro2z.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img29/1803/camaro1n.jpg

…until the drive home. After the awards ceremony, I left El Toro about 6pm. Now, I know I have to get up at 5am for work the next day and it’s roughly a 6 hour drive back home. So I load up on Red Bull and snacks and hit I-10. My goal is to just stake awake. Just East of the Riverside/San Bernardino area, the car starts to act up. It’ll intermittently lose power and break up while cruising along the highway, but I decide to just press on. Where I-10 cuts through the hills, it has gotten to the point where it’ll lose all power and I have to coast off to the shoulder a couple times, but it’ll keep idling. At this point, I’m thinking I got a bad batch of gas in LA, and my one goal is to make Chiriaco Summit so I can fill up and put in some gas treatment. After nearly getting run off the road by semis as I was coasting, I finally made Chriaco where I filled up and pressed on. Still not running right. By this time, I’ve found that I can get up to cruising speed for a few minutes and when it starts to break up, I can put in the clutch and coast from 70 down to 50 and then back in gear to get up to 70 again and cruise for a few more minutes. Now I’m thinking it’s the fuel pump that’s getting weak and not keeping the carb’s bowls full. Regardless, I press on and continue this cruise and coast method all the way back to Tempe, AZ. It kept me awake no problem, but it’s now 2:30am, and I have to get up in 2 and a half hours. Blargh. At least I made it.

A couple days later, when I decide to look at the car, I jack up the rear end and find the root of my troubles.
http://imageshack.us/a/img89/904/74266865i.jpg

Then I remember bottoming out hard while getting lost trying to leave El Toro (the brake line bracket sits directly below that clamp). At least it’s an easy fix.

Of course at this point, my registration is also expired (drove to Cali and did RTTC on a temp-tag). I can pass emissions without much issue, but I had cut off my tail pipe and was running just a turn-down in front of the axle. AZ law states that the exhaust must exit at the edge of the vehicle. I wasn’t going to let such a silly rule stop me so I rigged up an exhaust to use for emissions testing which provided no shortage of amusement to everyone who saw it.
http://imageshack.us/a/img820/2520/96969036.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img687/7861/35386080.jpg

Through emissions and registered – Whew!