Way too many bolts with Ridetech Kit
 

Is it just me or am I missing something here. I am in the process of installing my front Ridetech Strong Arm Kit along with 12.88" Wilwood brakes on the front of my 68 camaro. I seem to have a way too many bolts in the kit, and the instructions are not the clearest to understand.

The Wilwood kit comes with its own bolts, but then Ridetech supplies a bunch of extra bolts for factory disc brakes, Wilwood or Baer. The Ridetech instructions say to use the counter sinking flat head bolts supplied if you are running wilwood brakes. But my Wilwood caliper bracket does not take the countersunk bolts just a standard bolt for the bottom bolt hole.

Not sure why they would supply all these extra bolts, if knowing that Wilwood supplies all there own bolts with the kit and its a direct bolt on.

Just venting,

Erik

Myself, I'd rather have way too many bolts than not enough when it comes time to put a project together.

What is probably going on is the shocks are packaged to be installed on their own as is the brake kit, each with all of the bolts needed. Since you have both kits, some bolts are duplicated.

I found the same thing, a bunch of extra bolts with no description of what they could be for.

Also glad to hear I'm not the only one who found the directions to be "lacking" at best! Not to mention the struggle to get those lower arms in lol.:hairpullout:

My lower a-arms took me 2 hours to get it, but I was able to do it. I had to spread the front subframe apart to get them to slide in. And then I still had to use a jack to get them up into position.

I really wish the instructions were a little better for sure. I understand how to unbolt and bolt stuff back together, but with all the extra bolts, washers and such, it just gets confusing.


Erik

instructions are terrible at best and the tech support is very hit or miss. did any one else have the powder coating chip on their lower a-arms during install? I only did my front suspension so far dreading taking on the rear bolt in 4 link.

No chips for me but I was trying to super careful until I had to bring out the BFH! Still no chips though.

I respect the fact of the them supplying all the extra bolts and such, good thinking on there part, but when you do not describe where any of them go or what they might be used for is confusing. I literally used 2 bolts of the 8 supplied and those where for the steering arm to the spindle. I only have one side done, but I used the supplied wilwood bolts from the wilwood kit for everything else.

I think I might have to use shorter caliper bracket to spindle bolts, they seem long and at full turn look like they will hit the sway bar end link. But I also do not have tie rod connected yet.

I have to say that this is a very unusual comment. Most of the time we get excellent comments about our tech support...it is certainly something that we work quite hard to achieve.

I want to give you some direct contact info for any future issues that may arise.

Rodney Mason - [email protected] - Rodney is our head tech guy and has had a personal hand in developing most of our product line. He is the guy I go to for answers.

Darren Schilling - [email protected] - Darren is our National Sales Manager and a 14 year veteran here. There is little that he can't answer or have the authority to resolve.

Bret Voelkel - [email protected] - I own the place. I can fix it.

ALL of our guys are well versed on our product line, and are experienced hotrodders. But if you cannot get satisfactory answers to a question via the front door [unlikely] I absolutely guarantee that one of the contacts above can fix the problem.

To your specific problem with the powdercoating...it is tough to forsee how a component may be handled during installation, but if you believe that the coating was defective I will certainly send you a new set of arms. I want our product to look good under your car so you will be proud to show them off to future customers! That is why we powdercoat all of our fabricated components while other companies do not [or make it an extra cost option]. Feel free to email me or Darren directly about a return number.

Thank you very much Bret, you have always been very quick to help on these forums and it is much appreciated. I will also say that Josh has also been a huge help answerign questions. Some of my phone calls have not gone so good but usually I will just call back or look to these forums for help.

I installed all these parts with the front subframe off the car and took extreme care when doing it the part this is the section that chipped for me very.
easy.
https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D550/ry%3D400/

over all setup

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

I like your style. Thanks Bret.

The one call I had to make to the tech line was resolved quick and easy, just sucked having to wait till Monday as my Dad was in town working on the car for the weekend and wanted to see it completed haha.

Bret one suggestion I'd make is for the lower arms packing 2 different bushings, a "narrow" and a "wide" inner version. This would allow people who's tabs have come together significantly the option to run the narrower inner bushing to cut out hours of struggle in installing.