'66 Front Suspension

[hivewax]

i'd like to get the front suspension done before purchasing wheels. i heard eliminating the shims provides more room for wider tires. here is what i was thinking: TCP adjustable strut rods, vario-centric camber kit, TCP straight pivot UCA's, and doing a 1.75" UCA drop (opentracker has the template). is this OK for the street? i have TCP LCA's. i'll have to call TCP to see if their UCA is adequate for the 1.75" drop. TCP details has only 1" UCA drop.

and, is the coil-over suspension better compared to the above setup w/roller spring perches? TIA

 

[dodgestang]

How wide a tire do you want on the front?
Seems like an awful expense simply to put tires on....especially since I run 245 40 17 on an 8 inch wheel with 4.75 BS on the front of my 65 with simply the Shelby drop, adjustable struts, opentracker boxed uppers, Moog lowers, and roller perches. -2.5 camber tucks them in just fine. Been that way for years now. Handles well for a old car.

I ran 235 45 17 with the same basic front end setup for years before that with just shy of -1 camber

 

[Psydwaze]

You didn't say what size tires you were trying to fit. Shortening the TCP arms using the adjustment couplers and the vario-centric kit will give you some more room though.

What is your goal in lowering the pivot shaft to 1-3/4"?

And, a coil-over system mounted to the lower arm is better than a stock-style suspension even with a roller-bearing spring perch.

 

[hivewax]

Well, I'm still undecided between 15" + 17", but leaning
towards 17" PSE Trans Am style. I read that at 1.75" drop,
you have the most negative camber if I'm not mistaken. I
might not see the track, but that might change in the future.
How wide? Enough to handle 347ci (approx. 450hp) and more.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Rusty67]

If you have too much camber on the street aren't you just going wear your tires out really fast ? Just do the 1" drop and if its not enough you can drop more later.

As far as coil overs are concerned, is the extra expense worth the benifit ?

 

[Psydwaze]

As Dodgestang pointed out, you can get away with running a 235 or 245 section width but on a 245 you'll need to roll the inner fender lip if you haven't done so already.

The majority of benefit to lowering the pivot shaft happens at 1". Anything beyond that only gives minimal gains and also increases lateral shift in the roll center position as the vehicle rolls. Yes, a 1.75" drop will give you more negative camber but there are some possible downsides to lowering it this much. Ball-joint misalignment, bump-stop contact, spring perch misalignment, correcting rearward shift of the bolt pattern. Normally they are lowered 1" and moved rearward 1/8".

I've seen the TCP arms mounted at 1.5" down without any balljoint issues. If you do go to 1.75", you must verify that you have adequate suspension and steering travel without binding.

 

[bnickel]

lowering the control arm will allow the car to have more negative camber during turning so the tires stay straighter instead of trying to lean out at the top. the 1" drop helps tremendously with that but the 1.5" or 1.75" drop works even better. is the lower drop worth it on the street? that's debatable but on the track it is definitely worth it.

you could do just the 1" drop for now and later on change to the 1.75" drop but the problem with doing that is you are adding more holes to the shock tower, creating more potential failure points. however you could do the the 1" drop now and later add the TCP control with the offset shafts or do the TCP control arms with the offset shafts now and later on drop them more, which would probably be the best way to accomplish that, since doing a 1" drop now and adding the TCP offset shafts later would give you a 2" control arm drop which is really too much.
by using the TCP arms with the offset shafts now for an effective 1" drop would allow you to drill new mounting holes 3/4" lower later on giving you the 1.75" drop you're ultimately looking for without being too low or having a mess of extra holes in the shock towers.

by only lowering the mounting points by 3/4" you aren't going to hurt anything, though i would recommend weldiing up the original holes, and by using the offset TCP shafts you won't have any worries about ball joint bind either, plus by only drilling 3/4" down and 1/8" back you have no worries about geting outside of the inner tower reinforcement and weakening the mounting points.

my advice is to use the offset shafts and only drill 3/4" down and 1/8" back. using coilovers or roller perches is up to you but i've been using the roller perches on my car for a while now and i really like them, that said when i get ready to the suspension work on my cougar i'm probably going to get John at Opentracker to build me a custom coilover conversion using his roller upper and lower control arms and possibly (probably?) TCP strut rods.

 

[dodgestang]

If you have too much camber on the street aren't you just going wear your tires out really fast ? Just do the 1" drop and if its not enough you can drop more later.

As far as coil overs are concerned, is the extra expense worth the benifit ?

Define fast. I have at least 10k on my 65 with the -2.5 to -3 camber and my tires are not showing any signs of unusual wear yet. Since I don't daily drive it the tires will get old and need to be replaced before they wear out IMO. I also didn't roll my front lips

 

[dodgestang]

Enough to handle 347ci (approx. 450hp) and more.
Posted via Mobile Device

Planning on converting to front wheel drive

 

[Rusty67]

If I don't get at least 30,000 miles out of my tires, thats too fast for me.

 

[2bav8]

If I get 10,000 miles out a set of tires, I didn't drive very hard and dry rot is probably setting in.

 

[hivewax]

Planning on converting to front wheel drive

. Rear suspension next. I don't like multi-tasking on the car!

 

[rickcdewitt]

Define fast. I have at least 10k on my 65 with the -2.5 to -3 camber and my tires are not showing any signs of unusual wear yet. Since I don't daily drive it the tires will get old and need to be replaced before they wear out IMO. I also didn't roll my front lips

is that -2.5 to 3 negative gain from the 1.75 drop or are you talking about your static height camber as measured ?