DOES anyone know how to make this thing go around turns?Aggresive alignment specs.coilovers,swaybars,tires&wheels,WH ATS HOT????????: smash:

 

First you need to make sure all your front end and rear end bushings are in good shape. Then make sure all your steering components are in good shape. All the upgrades will do nothing unless the front end is tight. The biggest and best improvement is tires. A good set of 16 to 18 tires and rims will make it feel like a different car. The rest depends on how much you want to spend. You can start with about 500 dollars or spend well into the thousands for suspension. What re your intentions. Nice driver? Weekend warrior? AutoX champion? Drag race?

 

If you want superior handling and quick response, go with the poly suspension kits front and rear. Make sure you have the large rear sway bar too! This will make the car handle great!

You can also quicken up the steering by cutting the aluminum rivets out of the steering arm by the brake backing plate (where the tie rod connects). This will make the steering quicker.

I’ve never been a fan of the poly kits for road use, but for performance and handling you can’t beat them. Downfalls would include squeaks and wear and tear on other parts on the car. Norm that works in sales for us has some of this on his car and in driving it the car handles better than the tires he has on the car is able to handle. You might call him on Monday and ask him more about this.

IMHO! I'm sure other will have different opinions on this.

Willcox Inc.

 

willcox, it is my understanding that a large rear sway bar will cause heavy oversteering bias in a car without a correspondingly enormous front sway bar. am i wrong?

 

Can you tell me more. Never heard of these aluminum rivets.

 

when sitting in the drivers seat the big round thing tight in front of you is called the steering wheel. turning this wheel causes the car to move in the direction you turn the wheel.
When approaching a turn or curve in the road, look and see what direction the road turns and than turn the wheel to that direction. The car goes in that direction you turn it to follow the road.
Simple, basic driving / car usage instructions.

My advice, practice this on an empty road or big parking lot before attempting use of car on a road with other drivers on it.
also, try easy turns first and go slow before progressing up to more complicated turns and higher speeds.

 

I put 18 and 17 inch Toyo T1R Ultra High Performance tires on mine. Just doing that changed the handling from a dump truck to a sports car

 

tires

 

Barry I think McFast is wearing on you!

 

so that would put it like that :
1- healthy suspension components.
2- healthy steering components.
3- correct tires.

 

 

I went the direction of soft springs,and big sway bars,and guy on here told me I was wrong in my thinking.I was hardheaded,and did it the way that I read about,and coming onto a exit ramp...about 3/4s of the way up the turn/exit...the azzend came around.I saved it,but that is the EXACT condition they were warning me about.I just put the original 9/16ths back on it.
Alot depends on what you are wanting to do w/the car to.You said cornering,and to get it to turn.What Wilcox said about drilling the front steering arm...it will quicken up the steering.
There are ALOT of guys on here that are extremely knowledgeable about this.Guys that run their cars on tracks every weekend,and set this tuff up,try different things,etc.
That's why this forum is so awesome....alot of different experiences shared here.

 

It helps, but takes much more than that.

 

BACK TO THE RIVETS

I'm curious about this... Is there any negative side effects?

 

Do you feel "loose" in the front end that you ask this question? If so, I am thinking:

1. Alignment
2. Rag joint
3. Steering box
4. Bushings
5. Springs

In that order, but I am happy to be corrected/modified.

 

 

Only the inner hole will quicker steering-up (which I guess most cars will be using anyway) outer hole will reduce steering effort but effectively slow-up steering surely?

 

Here we go again...

Too much relative rear bar will yield oversteer, so whatever else you do, DO NOT arbitrarily slap on a huge bar without due cause. IMHO, bar is the last adjustment to make after everything else (ride height, springs, shocks...) is settled and you know 1) how much anti-roll augmentation is really necessary (the more stiffly you decide to spring the less this will be), and 2) if and how much F/R balance actually requires adjusting. If more bar (front and/or rear) IS called for, I suggest not straying very far off the menu of commonly offered bar/spring combinations.

As for what TO do, the best course would be to become a bit of a student of this subject before you start ordering parts, as the understanding you'd gain would help you make the right decisions for your purposes (whatever they are) the first time around.



BTW, good one BarryK.

 

All good advice! I agree that changing sway bars BEFORE you know the car's base handling dynamics is probably not a good idea. Once you know that everything is up to snuff then you may want to depart from the factory setup. I have never been a fan of making whole sale suspension changes but rather incremental changes a little over time so you know what a particular change has done. Regarding sway bars, I would stick with the factory setup and add poly mounting and end links in the front and if you have a rear OEM sway bar just the poly mounting bushings which will keep the balance but make them more effective (act slightly larger) which is what I did for years on my 78 with the 1 1/8 in front and 9/16 in rear. After a host of other changes over 25 years, I put on a 3/4 in rear OEM which allows more trailing arm movement, NOT AFTERMARKET (with end links like the front), type rear bar with the stock 1 1/8 in front bar. Prior to this change the car had a slight understeer tendency when pushed hard, and the setup created a more neutral attitude. Just my experience with my car and my setup. Remember that small block C3's have close to a 50:50 weight distribution, one of the only american cars from that era with this setup so you have to be extra careful when changing the rear suspension. The big block cars are more nose heavy.

 

Quite simple....ir you want to turn right turn your steering wheel to the right..left turn, turn the steering wheel to the left...if quicker steering response, move the tie rods to the inner holes, have the alignment set up all four to negative 1/2 degree camber....this will wear your tires out faster but you will scoot around the corners quicker....