Gm Metric
Moderator: Team
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rbabula
Gm Metric
Hey Mike, I bought your book. Well worth it I got a lot of good info we're experimenting with something new every week. I run a chev Malibu (metric). I used to run dropped spindle(till I got caught). I put the stock ones back on but the ride heights as you can imagine are alot higher to prevent the car from binding. I was wondering if there is anything more I can do to drop the car and maintain decent control arm angles. Different stock spindles, ball joints, ball joint locations whatever. I have tried the books recommendations but I did not gain that much. The ride hts used to be 4"LF 5.5"RF LR-5.5"RR"7" with drops. Now they are much higher alomst 2" all the way around and I'm slower than I was. Most of the cars I race against are camaros and they are fast and sit low. I'm a solid top 4, but I'm not satisfied finishing 4th. Any suggestions. Thanks Ron Babula #37
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MikeLeone
- Author & Show Guest
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:09 am
- Location: Connecticut
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Lowering the nose
There aren't many legal things that your going to be able to do to get the LF down to 4" and not have the suspension bottom out. There are a few little things that will help:
Get the biggest tallest ball joint that your allowed to run, figure out a way to get it to install higher than stock and figure out a way to get the spindle to ride as high as possible on the ball joint. These things are covered in the book. If the ball joint has more than 3/8" of it's thread poking out of the spindle (where the nut goes) try laying some weld in the taper hole and re-reaming it, not so deep this time. You run the risk of breaking ball joints, but I never had a problem with it.
There are older impalla and camero spindles that will "drop" the car a bit. You'll need to go to the junk yard with a tape measure and see if you can find a set that will do the job. That's an expensive proposition as you'll need new matching rotors, bearings and calipers.
I've tried lowering the frame side of the lower arms, but that didn't really cut it and was easy to catch.
Without a frame height rule in place you are going to have a hard time keeping up with the camaro's, they are just better suited to stock racing.
Get the biggest tallest ball joint that your allowed to run, figure out a way to get it to install higher than stock and figure out a way to get the spindle to ride as high as possible on the ball joint. These things are covered in the book. If the ball joint has more than 3/8" of it's thread poking out of the spindle (where the nut goes) try laying some weld in the taper hole and re-reaming it, not so deep this time. You run the risk of breaking ball joints, but I never had a problem with it.
There are older impalla and camero spindles that will "drop" the car a bit. You'll need to go to the junk yard with a tape measure and see if you can find a set that will do the job. That's an expensive proposition as you'll need new matching rotors, bearings and calipers.
I've tried lowering the frame side of the lower arms, but that didn't really cut it and was easy to catch.
Without a frame height rule in place you are going to have a hard time keeping up with the camaro's, they are just better suited to stock racing.
