SAVE MY VEGA!!!!

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SAVE MY VEGA!!!!

Postby 71LS1Vega » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:52 pm

I WANT TO MAKE MY CAR HANDLE AND STOP BETTER!!!

Well my car is a H/C LS2, i was debating on selling it for a newerish corvette or camaro/GTO but if i can get this thing to handle and stop better i would be willing to keep it. as for suspension all i know is that it has 3 way adjustable shocks in the front and rear, i have drag bags in the rear and poly UCA bushings i know tire selection would help alot as well but i dont have much more options (other than a little wider front tire) i will try to do everything to try to get it to handle alot better, ill even send the car to a shop to have the work done if i have to! but here is the car:
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=529099

any information would be great. im not all that good on custom making my own parts so that would probably be out of the question. stock steering and such. there are alot of pics.

i dont think i can add a brake booster because of the design of the front support bars the M/C would hit it. i also was looking at a Flaming river steering shaft relocation kit. unless there is a better way. Thanks in advance guys!
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Postby gerbsinmd » Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:12 am

Does your car still have the stock type front end or is it something else built on a tube chassis? I can't quite tell with the pics you have?

Darrel
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Postby Bacchus » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:48 pm

Sell it. How much you want?
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Postby cosvega76 » Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:01 am

Great looking Vega! I have been considering an LSx conversion myself. That looks like a tighter fit than I was expecting.

I see you have what looks like a Monza front sway bar on the front. 1-1/8"? I would recommend a matching Monza rear bar, I think it is 13/16". Or you could go with the matching pair of Addco bars. Mine are 1" front and rear. I, personally, would shy away from the 1-1/8" Addco front bar, as it would promote too much understeer. The LS2 is all aluminum, so it should be lighter that an iron SBC, so I'm not sure how that will impact things. My Vega with the 383 or the 350 would tend to understeer when pushed hard.

Tires are THE most important thing. Get the stickiest tire you can live with. I have Kumho Ecsta 712s on the Vega, which work okay. I put Kumho MXs on the Corvette, and gained 4 seconds at Blackhawk Farms Raceway over the old OE-style Goodyears. The top-rated tire that Grassroots Motorsports tested is the Falken Azenis RT-615 Z-rated.

If you're really serious, I would recommend the Kumho Ectsa V700, but I don't think they come in 16-inch sizes.

Shocks will enter the picture later. For now, experiment with the stiffer setting of your shocks. Performance shocks are hard to come by for the Vega.

Another thing to consider is to change the front suspension so you can dial in some positive caster. It will make the car feel much more stable at speed. I had some tubular upper control arms made for the front that moved the upper ball joint back. Now, my Vega has 3* positive caster instead of the 1* negative. I really didn't completely understand the difference until I got my Cosworth. Driving one, then the other, the difference is amazing. (And, yes, as soon as I get the new rod ends for my new tubular arms I will post photos. Then I will try to pursuade the builder to make some more.)

Now I'm adapting some Corvette front brakes to the Vega. I'll update when I get all the details worked out.

HTH

Chuck
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Postby Fastmax32168 » Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:02 am

I think Bacchus is right, you need to sell that car. But dont sell it to him, he is a vewy vewy baaaaad man. :evil:
Sell it to me :D , im a good guy. :lol:
Roy
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Postby 71LS1Vega » Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:50 am

ill sell it if i get what i want for it to buy a new car. but i would like to keep it since some people are talking S*** about it a little and i would like to show them that mustangs arent king of the streets lol.

i have it on ls1tech for 12k or trades.

i was thinking of jurastically(sp?) changing the whole suspension of the car. and possibly using The cobra Independant Rear Suspension or maybe RX7 IRS. and have everything in thf ront custom made but i wouldnt want to do the work. id rather have a professional shop do it.
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Postby 71LS1Vega » Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:51 am

oh, its stock front suspension. the car had a rear swap bar but i got newer boxed LCA's that didnt have the holes for the sway bar so i just left it off.
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Postby gerbsinmd » Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:54 pm

I have a magazine article that tells how to get the Monza to handle. Let me scan it and I'll post it. It uses a combination of urethane and rubber bushings.

Darrel
1999 Saturn SL2
2017 Cruze Hatchback
2008 Town & Country - Family transport
2018 Cruze - 35mpg - avg, 49.7mpg - best so far.
2011 Impala - commuter
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Postby monzamess » Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:39 pm

Well, if you're comparing to Mustangs, you're better off right out of the gate. The h-body has a double wishbone (two A-arm) front suspension compared to the struts on the Mustang.

If your rear suspension is stock it's a quad-arm setup just like the Mustang, but you can potentially put in newer h-body pieces to get the panhard rod/torque arm setup, or like you mentioned, "just" put in an IRS if you're up for it.

Erik Askjem in Norway has done to his Vega pretty much what you propose in terms of drivetrain and suspension. I hope he gets some time to put more information on his project page:
http://forums.h-body.org/about1369.html

His website is gone (at least the link I had) but I know he had more information on his car posted somewhere. Maybe if you PM him or email him he'll come spill the beans--not to belittle anyone else here, just saying why reinvent the wheel...
Dennis
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Postby NixVegaGT » Sat Feb 03, 2007 4:20 pm

The early Vega suspension is totally pussy. IMO. It was just supposed to be disposable after all. It was never intended to go fast. Just be easy to drive with all manual interfaces. Hence the positive caster, near zero caster. It came with disc brakes though I guess.

That said there is a number of ways to upgrade it: S10 spindle swap. With S10 ball joints. Lots of brake upgrades for the S10 spindles. Drill and install the sway bar. I know what you're saying about getting an IRS but they can be finicky to setup and tune. I think you can get a lot of corner performance with the good old straight axle set up. The 8.2" isn't a bad axle. It could use a 3-link IMO though. Chevy never got the 4-link right IMO. A nicely fabbed torque arm setup with the rear swaybar. Maybe cut your springs to lower the CG. Same for the front.

NOt a really huge influx of capital either. That never hurts. I don't care how rich you are...

On the IRS again: I had a Jag rear for years with plans to install it in the Vega... Lot's of engineering... It also weighed about 3X as much as the 7.5".

DUDE there is a tone of stuff you can do to make this suspension better!
- Nic '73 Vega GT "DogBoxx" Batwing LS1
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2357894
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suspension

Postby 71LS1Vega » Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:27 pm

Well i can put the sway bar back on the car, thats not a big deal but, im also hurt by the tire size that can be fit underneath the car as well. i barely fit the 275/40/17's that i got, on it now. they run a little on the inner part of the inside of the tire. also im having issues with wheel hop but i never adjust air pressure in the tires either....its a long story. thats why iv got the drag bags and such to try to stop it but it seemed not to work at all. the only thing i can think with that is to change my LCA bushings to the ES ones i got here.
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Postby NixVegaGT » Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:24 pm

That wheel hop is indemic to the 4-link rear suspension. It's complete CRAP. IMO it was never a good design. Even the finest LS-6 Chevelle jumps all over the street. It needs some type of torque member to stabilize vibration. The developement on the Hbody with the Torque arm suspension is fantastic...

Someone can chime in with a convincing arguement why the 4-link is good... Tall order though. The stock 4-link in mine couldn't handle the extra torque from my little 215 and it caused the left side unibody support to buckle. It's going to do the same to yours.

Sorry, man. I was just really frustrated by the stock rear suspension.
- Nic '73 Vega GT "DogBoxx" Batwing LS1
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2357894
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.

Postby 71LS1Vega » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:09 am

Well thats why im debating on everything with the car. maybe i should post it in the F/S section. not sure tho. i love the looks of the car. the sound of it with the 231/237 roller so i dont know. we'll see soon enough.
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Postby cosvega76 » Sun Feb 04, 2007 8:21 am

This is what I did to control wheelhop. I fabbed up a spacer to raise the rear attachment point of the upper control arm 2 inches, then made up a tubular arm with rod ends. It will only wheelhop now on marginal tracks.

I use 3rd Gen Z28 rubber lower control arm bushings. They're identical to the Vega bushings, press right into the arms, except that a spacer is needed for the front.

Chuck
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Postby 71LS1Vega » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:57 pm

cool good pics, where did you get the rod ends? summit? any certain size? also i see you lowered your rear swaybar and mounted it somewhere else? what was the purpose of this?
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