Im a little confused....suspension gurus step inside!

[A-Guy]

Well I have a 1972 Chevelle that I want to lower about 3" and Im a little confused about how to make it happen. Would just drop springs do it and how do drop spindles factor into the setup. What are the purpose of drop spindles and are they needed? I would also be upgrading the arms and bars as well. Basically I want her to be ready for anything, autocross, track etc. I have not purchased them yet, but i will be running 19x8.5/9 up front and 20x10/11 out back. Any help/knowledge would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!

Chris

[65_LS1_T56]

Chris, 3" springs in my opinion is too far. You wont' have any travel left from the lower control arm bump stop to the frame (talking about the front). Drop spindles are a better solution as they physically move the wheel centerline up whatever the drop amount is without affecting travel. This doesn't mean you won't have other clearance issues though. Other things to be concerned with dropping the front is bump steer and clearance between the tierods and the frame at full compression.

Most of the aftermarket arms have dropped spring pockets in them also. This allows you to use springs that are closer to stock in height as well as shocks. Otherwise if you just drop with springs, you are also collapsing the shock at ride height, so you are that much closer to bottoming something out.

The back pretty much has to be done with springs, but you get into similar issues with shock length so be careful. Obviously the next step in both front and rear is coilovers.

Talk to some vendors about what you want. They will make recommendations to get you where you want. Lot's of choices out there for A bodies now, Ridetech, Detroit Speed, Hotchkis, SC&C, ABC, UMI, BMR, Global West...plenty to choose from.

Good luck

[A-Guy]

Originally Posted by 65_LS1_T56

Chris, 3" springs in my opinion is too far. You wont' have any travel left from the lower control arm bump stop to the frame (talking about the front). Drop spindles are a better solution as they physically move the wheel centerline up whatever the drop amount is without affecting travel. This doesn't mean you won't have other clearance issues though. Other things to be concerned with dropping the front is bump steer and clearance between the tierods and the frame at full compression.

Most of the aftermarket arms have dropped spring pockets in them also. This allows you to use springs that are closer to stock in height as well as shocks. Otherwise if you just drop with springs, you are also collapsing the shock at ride height, so you are that much closer to bottoming something out.

The back pretty much has to be done with springs, but you get into similar issues with shock length so be careful. Obviously the next step in both front and rear is coilovers.

Talk to some vendors about what you want. They will make recommendations to get you where you want. Lot's of choices out there for A bodies now, Ridetech, Detroit Speed, Hotchkis, SC&C, ABC, UMI, BMR, Global West...plenty to choose from.

Good luck

Thank you for ur time, it is greatly appreciated!

[Blake Foster]

Lots of different options here.
http://www.speedtechperformance.com/...=cat/cat17.htm

We have the AFX spindle which has 1" of drop, they are "tall" between the ball joint mounting surfaces which fixes the Camber curve in the A body as well as a revised Steering Arm to fix the bump steer and ackerman. they use Corvette Brakes and sealed bearing hubs.

AFX SPINDLE

For the front Speedtech can do a coil over conversion with our Chicane Weld in upper bracket. coupled with out tubular control arms and double adjustable shocks.

Chicane conversion

Speedtech also has a rear Coil Over conversion to allow ride height adjustment ant that comes with double adjustable shocks.

Rear suspension

Or you can just order everything in one package.

Track Time Package

if this doesn't give you enough info feel free to call us 435-628-4300

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Hey Chris, welcome to the forum! That looks like a good looking Malibu to start with!

A couple more quick thoughts-

I agree with the height not needing to be extreme. My first round of the build on my wagon saw about a 3" drop by simply cutting springs. Over time it sagged down to 4". It looked killer, like it was on bags or something, but as a driver it rode terribly and bump steer was out of control. Then I went to school and used the wagon as my class project. Part of the build included redesigning the whole suspension for better handling. I bought 2" spindles thinking that was the thing to do but found they created clearance issues. The steering arm put the tie rod right next to the wheel rim, like there wasn't even enough room for a clip on wheel weight. Not sure what to do, I made some phone calls to some experts and was educated on some dynamics of suspension. A couple things I learned was that a car doesn't need to be slammed to handle well, and changing geometry weighed more heavily than lowering the car. I decided on some good parts and although still a little skeptical I went with only a 2" drop through shorter springs and stock spindles. Lots of folks saw my car and I often heard "It's not low enough, you gotta put that thing in the weeds to handle well." Truth is, once I got all the good parts on the car, drove it for a few months and did some tuning on sway bars and shock valving, the car corners like a roller coaster, and not being slammed still rode pretty nice. Unfortunately over time the bargain springs I bought are starting to sag and I can feel some handling changing for the worse.

I've changed a lot of springs over the years to lower a car, and if anyone asks my opinion now, I always suggest looking seriously at coilovers. All the trouble to install springs only to find that they're not the right height, or spring rate, or "Whoops! I cut too much spring off and now the car is lower than I wanted!", added to money wasted to go out and buy a different set of springs when things weren't right, well, I could've had coilovers and had an easy task of changing ride height and shock dampening. Not saying springs are a bad idea, just suggesting if it's in the budget coilovers are better. With your intentions of flogging the car a bit, you may want to seriously consider this as an option. Combine that with the right parts like Blake suggested that put your geometry in a useable and well performing range and you'll have a decent handling car rather than a 15 mph fairgrounds cruiser.