reaming 76-80 spindles to accept larger balljoints

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reaming 76-80 spindles to accept larger balljoints

Postby gonecheenin » Sun Jan 11, 2015 1:34 pm

I'm not looking to move away from my 4 lug bolt pattern just yet but I'm about to pull the front suspension apart for a rebuild and after reading about the H-Body's tendency to push the camber heavily positive in a corner I was considering installing .75-1" taller upper balljoints to help with this.

http://www.howeracing.com/c-575-4-bolt-gm-uppers.aspx


I have 14"x6" aluminum slots on the front which I hope will clear the upper arm being higher than stock, but my concern is reaming the spindle out too far. Is there enough meat in the 76-80 H-body spindle to accomplish this safely? Do I just go get a S-10/G-body taller balljoint from HOWE and go to town or am I missing something?
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'75 Monza Coupe V8 4.3 "Work in progress"
'78 Monza Coupe V6 3.8 "Parts car"
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Re: reaming 76-80 spindles to accept larger balljoints

Postby Monza Harry » Sun Jan 11, 2015 8:48 pm

Hey Gone' here is a page from a search I did for you, on NixVegaGT project journal he explored this with a couple of good books and some others on here with suspension software, and they seemed pretty convinced that raising the upper (spindle/ball joint) was detrimental to handling on an H-Body suspension. There maybe more on Nix Project Pages but it is 37 pages long so Happy reading. He did lots of measuring with Speedphreake and calculating, definitely worth the time if you are looking for the max out of your H-Body Harry search.php?keywords=Camber+&t=19422&sf=msgonly
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Re: reaming 76-80 spindles to accept larger balljoints

Postby cjbiagi » Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:40 pm

Some cars do indeed benefit from raising the upper A arm by using a taller spindle or extending the upper balljoint. However, you need to look at your individual car and look at the angle of the upper arm. Generally speaking, the lower arm should be pretty much parallel to the ground. If the upper A arm is angled down at normal ride height then raising the arm would be beneficial. I looked at my car and my upper arm is level which is pretty good as is. Ideally it should be level or pointing up slightly to promote a good camber curve.
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