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Another little update. Things are a little slow going waiting on some parts I wound up needing.
Changing all 4 tie rod end bearings for the Steeroids kit, I wound up ordering new pins as well. When I went to change the tie rod ends 3 came out with no problem....the 4th (driver side outer) was completely frozen, that's after having been soaked days in advance with PB blaster. I heated it up and was finally able to get it free, but the threads in the tie rod sleeve were pretty badly galled, so I ended up ordering a new sleeve, which I'm waiting on now.
Meanwhile, I got to looking more into what's causing my dead spot in the steering wheel. The up-down movement in the tie rod bracket was causing the wheels/tires to feel loose if you shook them with the car in the air (checking the front end). Not a big deal, but I wanted to try to correct it which is what the rack slide from SpeedDirect is supposed to do. But the play in the steering wheel was still there with the tie rod bracket out of the car, so that eliminated that as the source of the play in the steering wheel. Looking closer I noticed play in the support bearing and intermediate shaft (see video above). I sent it to Tim at SpeedDirect and talked to him after (I can't overstate how great he's been helping me get everything I need to get this squared away). He pointed out that the shaft was turning independently of the bearing (the shaft is turning inside the bearing) when it's supposed to be a snug fit in the bearing and turn as one unit, so there's definitely play there. While inspecting that, I also found my lower steering column bearing is pretty loose (see video above). So, I ordered a new intermediate shaft and support bearing, as well as a new lower steering column bearing! The steering column bearing will be in tomorrow, I'll update the install of that when I get to it. The new tie rod sleeve, intermediate shaft and support bearing will be in Friday, and I'll hopefully finally be done!
In the meantime I've reinstalled the tie rod bracket with the new rack slide, and new tie rods on the passenger side.
When I ordered the tie rod pins, I also ordered a spreader bar.
Install is straight forward, but I actually ran into an issue. They offer two spreader bar kits, one with brackets to work with "factory/non-SpeedDirect aftermarket upper arms", and one with brackets to work with "SpeedDirect upper arms". I got the factory style ones to go with my Vansteel arms, but the brackets didn't quite fit. They are just a little bit too long to fit in the machined flat on the upper arm cross bars. Not a huge deal, I'll just have to cut about 1/8" off each end.
Yesterday I installed the lower steering column bearing, new support bearing and intermediate shaft from SpeedDirect, and the new tie rod sleeve. I got everything put back together and torqued down. The steering feels tighter, but there's still a little dead spot, although definitely less. Having an assistant (the wife) move the wheel in the dead spot I found that the movement is all the way down in the rack pinion. The pinion rotates a little bit in both directions before moving the wheels. Not much, but enough that to me the steering feels a little vague in the center. I tried adjusting the lash on the rack, but only got 3/4 of a turn before bottoming out and it made no difference. I'm thinking I may need to replace the rack? I looked and SpeedDirect sells them for $500+ dollars. I'm not sure why they're so expensive through them... I was under the impression they just use 82-92 Grand Am racks, and I don't think they do anything special to them? I can get a reman'd 92 Grand Am rack through my shop for like $65. Is there anything special with the Steeroids rack? I'm no sure what they could possibly do to it to make it worth another $500....
Lower bearing installed. I used the "plastic fingers" disc on my angle grinder to clean up the column shaft.
New support bearing, intermediate shaft, and everything back together.
I had to grind a good amount off both ends of both spreader bar brackets, but now they fit great.
Got the car back on the ground and out for a road test today.
Like I said somewhere above, I started the coilover ride height at 8 threads from the bottom. With the car back on the ground and settled overnight this put the ground to fender lip center height in the front 28 3/8". I dropped it down to 7 threads and only got down to 28 1/4" I then dropped down to 5 threads and got to 28 1/16". Finally, I went to 3 threads up from the bottom and got 27 3/4". After going for a drive it settled in at 27 1/8", which looks like a pretty good height, but I'll let it settle some more and see what I think.
After that I set up the bump steer on the tie rods, and set the length for the sway bar end links. I really need to bring it in and line it up, for now I did the best I could by eye haha
28 3/8" up front
Down to 27 1/8"
Next up is ordering my 18's and some Continental ExtremeContacts, finalizing the ride height after it settles, and lining it all up. I plan on spending a good amount of time at the shop really dialing in the front AND rear alignment.
I haven't aligned the car yet, I'm waiting to get my new wheels and tires. But this picture shows the significant increase in positive caster from the Vansteel arms. The wheel is noticeably further back in the wheel well opening. Almost looks a little odd, but I don't think anyone will notice, and it's worth the increased handling!
I hate to bring this up now, but since you noted you were putting sticky tires on the car, now is better than later.
The spot where the lower swing arm pivot bolts to the frame is a weak point. It may be worth your time to add more weld to this weak point.
This part had a old stress crack, an the new conti tires were able to take it to the next level.
I hate to bring this up now, but since you noted you were putting sticky tires on the car, now is better than later.
The spot where the lower swing arm pivot bolts to the frame is a weak point. It may be worth your time to add more weld to this weak point.
This part had a old stress crack, an the new conti tires were able to take it to the next level.
Wow that's impressive. What makes you think the tires caused it though?
I have been upgrading the brakes and tires on the car, and finally got it to stop with authority.
The old 15" tires did not have the grip that the 18" conti's do.
Apparently this is a weak point in the design, and only made worse with time.
The fact that the original welds through the six slots were either non existent or mere tacks, did not help matters.
