custom spindles?

[sinned]

Originally Posted by KAA

Ah ha. Now it's getting clearer. And raises another concern. With the balljoint going in the steering arm and the steering arm being bolted to the upright vs. cast or forged in, is that really safe for a street driven car? Seems like an awful lot of load on the steering arm to me.

PLENTY strong, you need to see these arms. The bolts that attach the steering arm to the upright are 7/16 fine thread and attach on either side of the ball joint. A majority of the loading is between the LBJ and steering linkage which makes this arrangement better anyways (all the loading is in a one-piece solid link). These links hold up fine after banging against concrete retaining walls and other cars for 500 miles at 190MPH, they should be fine for a few potholes on the street.

[KAA]

Hmmm. I wonder how often they change them out. Are you getting aluminum or steel steering arms?

[sinned]

Aluminum

[KAA]

Originally Posted by dennis68

I am running the Impala 9" version. It uses a full size ball joint taper and full size wheel bearings/seals. For a budget hub I am going to cut off the rotor hat from a pair of full size rotors and machine the hub OD to fit a generic rotor hat.

Make sure you get the correct ones. Not all Full size hubs used the same inner bearings. You'll need ones that use the larger BR5 inner bearing found on the 69-76 Impala/Caprice. 78-93 used the smaller BR6 bearing. The '85 Caprice hubs that I'm using will not work with the Coleman spindle.

[sinned]

Already have the rotors and the bearings, they work great. 1975 Impala parts for those interested.

[KAA]

How are you going to adapt your steering linkage to those steering arms?

[sinned]

I use rod ends for outer tie rods and washers for height spacers with steel tubing for an adjusting link...no problems

[68-GTO]

Dennis, i've been reading all the post about this coleman spindle swap here and on PT.com, it definitly sounds like a swap i want to do rather than "so-so" ATS spindles. Once you work out all the snafus of the swap could you please make a complete parts list for everyone interested. BTW, who far along are you with the swap, i remember seeing you start talking about it in what, november??? Just wondering on the progress...

[sinned]

Originally Posted by 68-GTO

Dennis, I’ve been reading all the post about this Coleman spindle swap here and on PT.com, it definitely sounds like a swap I want to do rather than "so-so" ATS spindles To be fair, the ATS stuff is a little better than so-so, just not the geometry I’m looking for.

Once you work out all the snafus of the swap could you please make a complete parts list for everyone interested? That is the plan

BTW, who far along are you with the swap; I remember seeing you start talking about it in what, November??? Just wondering on the progress Some of the items are fairly pricey...waiting for funds. I'm about 90% confident the parts I have mapped out will all work together. The spindles, steering arms, brake brackets, bearings, etc... are on my bench. I also have the ball joints ready and new UCA's on the way. The hubs I have not fully decided on and even as of yesterday I was contemplating returning the spindles and starting over with GN hubs, so until it's on the chassis nothing is final

.Stay tuned to this station

[Marcus SC&C]

68-GTO,as Denny pointed out there`s nothing so-so about the ATS spindles. The geometry may be less aggressive than Denny`s franken setup he`s working on but we`re not building race cars here. What works great on the track can also be miserable to drive,wear tires fast (note how often they change them on race cars),or require non off the shelf swaybars,shock rates or spring rates to get the car balanced and both ends working together properly. Ask me how I know? I`ve done more than one custom suspension over the years that looked awesome on paper(or the computer) but required a huge amount of tweaking and tuning on it and the rest of the car to get it to all work well together.
Now don`t get me wrong I`m NOT saying that Denny`s setup won`t work well and I`m not saying it`ll have any of those problems. What I am saying is that more radical systems cause more development and tuning issues. Really if you want to build a street legal race car why not just cut the frame off at the firewall,replace it with a Howe or Coleman front stub frame that the race parts are intended to work with and gain a R&P,coilovers with a better motion ratio,mounts for adj. swaybars,room for bigger tires and save a bunch of weight? Mark SC&C