Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Beach Cruiser
Steve,
I have to take a minute to tell you that your car is the reason mine no longer is a driver! after seeing it in one of the magazines, the bell went off in my head saying "hey, I can do that" now it's three years later and the car is completly apart.... Thanks... No worries, just poking fun......Mills
|
Mills,
Your welcome and I'm sorry.
I know how the project thing goes. Hang in there and thanks for the kind words. Both C4 and C5 clips work awesome. The biggest concern with the C4 stuff is the available clearance for coil-overs to pass thru the upper a-arms. In order to get the camber curve right, the UCA inner pivot points must be moved inwards towards the vehicle centerline. But doing so consumes clearance for the top of the coil-overs. Correcting this issue requires notching the framerails unless you have the ability to narrow the distance between the rails. It's a compund problem: Your first instinct is to set framerail width such that it is convenient to body bushing placement. You then build from there. LCA placement is next. That is dictated by ball joint position and scrub raduis numbers. By the time you get to UCA placement you realize that you have run out of room for coil over packaging. Bummer.
To avoid this problem, consider sucking in the framerails a bit and leave the suspension where it needs to be. This will help to make rook for the coil-overs. Consider running less backspacing than might seem ideal. That sounds like a compromise until you look at the big picture. LCA placement will move out some relative to the rails and then all is good for UCA and coil-over placement. On the stock ARDF clip they did not leave enough room for the coil-overs so they moved the UCA's out to try and compensate which, in turn, killed the camber curve. And they were stuck running a short 10" spring coil-over. Which was useless since the ride height was 13-7/8" eye to eye and the extended length of the coilover was 14". It's like an Abbott and Costello who's on first skit. In my case, to fix this w/o starting from scratch, I switched to shorter AFCO uppers
AND relocated the upper mounts.
As you package your front suspension, try to make room for a coil over with a 12" spring and raise the upper mount. The longer the better. That should help the ride quality. The C5 car accomplishes the same handling and stability with much better ride characterisitics because the geometry is less aggressive. Be warned that you still might need to notch the framerails for coil-over clearance.
Also note that the rack and harmonic damper need to occupy the same space so the engine will need to go back and up. The rack/bumpsteer has been discussed before. But the coil-over concern is more obscure.
I suggest that you purchase wheels, tires and coil-overs as well as hanging sheetmetal before doing any final welding. In addition to the coil-over clearance issue, you might need to "roll" the front suspension forward to compensate for static caster. I run only 3 positive degrees static caster. You might want more.
Good luck and fel free to call me if you need any measurements.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
Linear Mode
