Andrew,

I noticed you mounted your ball joint on the bottom of the plate. Was that for more clearance??? Also, looks like you are still using the stock upper control arm attaching studs. Are you using any kind of shims (sleeves) between the studs and the control arms to take up the clearance???

I have the same upper control arms on my 1972 Formula...Robert

I put the ball joint on the bottom because that makes the spindle seem a little taller. The instructions said either way is acceptable.

I am not using any sleeves, but I probably should.

Andrew

I measured the distance from the ground to the headers and right now it is 5". While the car would look a little better lowered, I think it is important to keep the car as practical as possible, without the danger of hurting parts. So for now, it will stay where it is.

Today I did a little project that I have been neglecting to do. Many of you have asked me what I am doing to retain the axle in rebound. To recap, I am using short 9.5" springs in the rear. The problem is that when the axle drops, the springs get unloaded. This is not a good situation. And while the odds of getting the car air borne are fairly slim, if it were to happen it might be catastrophic. The other issue is that the single pigtail springs do not seat really well in the upper spring pocket.

I picked these up on eBay for $20 shipped:

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo130.jpg

They are rubber spring isolators from a 4th gen F-body. They fit the single pigtail springs perfectly:

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo131.jpg

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo132.jpg

The rubber spring isolators fit perfectly into the upper spring pocket on the a-bodies.

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo133.jpg

Here is what I did to keep the axle from dropping too far. I took a 2" nylon axle strap. It used these to loop over the rear axle when I was towing the car. At the top I attached one end to the T-bar of the upper shock mount:

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo134.jpg

At the bottom I looped the loop around the shock mount stud:

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo135.jpg

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo136.jpg

When the axle drops and hangs by the straps, the springs are still compressed about 1". This will keep them safely in place in case I want to do some Dukes of Hazzard maneuvers. :screwy:

Andrew

Yesterday I took the car to get the corner weight set and to make sure that my front sway bar was installed in such a way that it was not pre-loading the suspension. I took my car to Nashville, to Earl Owens Chassis. If anyone in that area needs any kind of fabrication or setup help, Earl knows his stuff.

Here are the new corner weights:

--LF------------------RF
1094-----------------1044



--LR-----------------RR
968-----------------913

This is with driver of similar weight to me.

Total: 4019 lbs
Distribution: 53.2 Front / 46.8% rear

Cross weight 50%

This was done with the front sway bar disconnected. Minor adjustments were needed on the drivers side rear spring jack to get the cross weight to 50%. Once the weights were adjusted I installed the sway bar in such a way that it did not alter any of the corner weights. I know that the sway bar was preloading the suspension fairly heavily before. This was evident by the fact that when I made right turns, the car would handle very neutral. There was just a hint of understeer that was easily controlled with the throttle. When making left turns the car would push much harder and the understeer was less controllable with the throttle.
Now the car handles the same way whether I am making left or right turns.

After installing the AFX spindles, I had to get the car aligned again. I decided to add just a hair more negative camber.

-.7* camber
5.5* caster ( little more on the right)
0 toe

The handling is very neutral. There is just a hint of understeer that is easily modulated with the throttle. The biggest difference is going over bumps, especially when just one wheel hits a bump. Before, the car would dart and wander. I have no doubt that this was cause by the bump steer due to the b-body spindle swap. With the AFX spindles all of that is gone. The car tracks straight as an arrow when going over bumps. There is a slight tendency to track along the grooves in the road, but I attribute that to the shorter sidewall on the new tires.

Andrew

Tonight I decided to take the car to the drag strip to see how my new tires worked. I got to the track, did my burn out. The car pulled hard out of the hole. I was able to launch it from about 3000 RPM, slipping the clutch a little, no tire spin. On the 1-2 shift, it felt like I missed second. No big deal. I aborted the run. Stepped on the clutch and got nothing. No pressure at all. Straight to the floor. I matched the RPM and got the car into 3rd gear and drove back to the pits. Looked under the car and saw a nice little stream of fluid coming from the bellhousing. So the hydraulic TOB puked.

I now have less than 9 days until RTTH IV. I need to order a rebuild kit. I may even order a new TOB. I am not looking forward to spending the weekend on my back, but it's better that this happened now and now a week from now.

Andrew

No mystery here:

http://www.pro-touring.com/~andrewb/gtov2/photo137.jpg

Based on the cut in the o-ring the problem was over traveling the bearing. I guess the excitement of drag racing made me press on the clutch pedal just a little bit more than when I drive around town. I will do some more investigating and see if I can limit the movement of the pedal and still get enough travel at the bearing to release the clutch.

Stay tuned for more.

Andrew

All fixed. It's raining so no test drive but I am sure its fine. I shortened the rod that connects the pedal to the MC. This reduced the stroke of the MC thus reducing the stroke of the TOB. I was still able to turn the output shaft easily by hand when the clutch was pressed. So I was definitely overtraveling the TOB before. Back on track for RTTH IV!

Andrew

Here is a link to some pictures from last weekend's Run Through The Hills IV event. Good times!

Run Through the Hills pictures

Andrew

That looks like a blast! Some nice rides there. Were those all your pics?

It was definitely a blast, Mike. All of those pictures were taken by my friend, Tony.

Andrew

I took the car to the track this Saturday. The weather was awesome. Clear skies, dry, and high 60s. I only made 3 passes because my time was limited and there were a ton of people at the track. All passes were made without fooling around with tire pressure or shock settings. Drove it right off the street, into the staging lanes. My first pass netted the best MPH to date; 112.31 MPH. The second pass netted a my best ET to date:

60' 2.064
1/4 12.602
MPH 110.97

This is my last trip to the track for this year and I am very pleased.

Andrew

Totally Ingenious build and results. Thanks for sharing it all.

Josh

Thanks Josh.

The pictures are fixed. Sorry for the troubles.

Andrew

Here is a video clip that was made by Brian Finch. Thanks Brian!

RTTH Video

Please right click and save to your local drive.

Andrew

Here is another video that was put together by Kevin Oeste from V8 TV. Thanks Kevin!

V8 TV Video

Andrew

Good bit of driving there :)

Thanks! I did OK. By the time I figured out what I was doing, I was done with my runs. :-/

Andrew

I really haven't had much to report up until now. Yesterday I was looking around on www.chevelles.com, a member posted that he just had his Doug Nash 4+1 converted to dog-ring engagement by Liberty. This got me thinking. The old Doug Nash is very similar to my Richmond 6 spd. I have never been very pleased with the way my transmission shifts. I have dealt with Liberty before on a dog-rign T56 transmission for my RX7, and I was very pleased with the results. So after talking it over with Paul, I decided to get my Richmond done. Gears 1-4 will get faceplated and 5th and 6th will remain synchronized. No need to have dog-rings on cruising gears. Total price will be about $800. I am pretty excited!

Andrew

I'm having trouble finding a PS hose for my 68 Lemans/LS3 conversion. What did you use in yours?

I converted the fittings in the steering box and in the power steering pump to AN style fittings. Then I had custom hose made at my local, industrial hose supplier.

Andrew