Drop Spindles should be used!

[SPEEDSTAR]

A lot of guys say to use a shorter spring , and not use a drop spindle to lower thier cars, .This is true if you can only use one or the other. A shorter spring will place both A-arms closer to parrellel to the ground , this would lessen the outward movement of both arms while hard cornering or a big bump. With that said , A drop spindle can be made to work well by using an upper a-arm that has adj. mounting, uses a tall, bolt on ball joint, and installing a spacer of the right thickness between the tall joint and the a-arm bj mount, This would place the upper arm closer to straight out and leave the lower arm with some outward movement as it travels up, The upper arm would not move out as much as the lower one. There are alot of ways to set-up a suspension ,ie, shorter springs, taller B-spindles , taller upper ball joints, drop spindles , useing some of the these in combination . Anyway my point is that Drop Spindles can be made to work very well. JEFF

 

[bruce]

Originally posted by SPEEDSTAR
A lot of guys say to use a shorter spring , and not use a drop spindle to lower thier cars, .This is true if you can only use one or the other.

A shorter spring will place both A-arms closer to parrellel to the ground , this would lessen the outward movement of both arms while hard cornering or a big bump.

With that said , A drop spindle can be made to work well by using an upper a-arm that has adj. mounting, uses a tall, bolt on ball joint, and installing a spacer of the right thickness between the tall joint and the a-arm bj mount, This would place the upper arm closer to straight out and leave the lower arm with some outward movement as it travels up, The upper arm would not move out as much as the lower one. There are alot of ways to set-up a suspension ,ie, shorter springs, taller B-spindles , taller upper ball joints, drop spindles , useing some of the these in combination . Anyway my point is that Drop Spindles can be made to work very well. JEFF

If you want to drop the front end, 3+" then one might use both, but unless your running a tall profile tire, you wind up with very little ground clearnce.

True.

Yes, you can use dropped spindles, if you want, but the best option is to first use cut springs to get the A-Arms close to level.

If you do just spindles first, you're alot more prone to tires rubbing as the tire leans Out in bump.

You're opening statement is misleading. As you point out, first the A-Arms should be made to run more level, THEN if one wants to play with BJ spacers, etc, fine. Not to mention that depending on the A-Arm selected and what you want to do BJ wise, you might wind up with the tire interfering with the new BJ location.

Not to mention that in some areas, it's illegal to have any part of the car extend below the min height of the wheel. I believe in PA, it's actually illegal to make any suspension changes.

 

[FBSideoiler427]

Be aware of your instant center and possible modifications to your scrub radius, which is the lateral motion relative to the ground resulting from vertical motion of the wheels. The amount of scrub is a function of the absolute and relative lengths of the control arms and the position of the front view IC relative to the ground (affected by lowered spindles and resulting repositioned control arms).

Scrub is increased when the front IC is at any position other than ground level. If it is above ground, the tire will move outward as it rises, if it is below ground level, the tire will travel inward with jounce travel. THe amount it moves is a function of the swing arms and absolute heights from the ground.

On rough roads, this could laterally disturb the car, if there is scrub and the wheel path is not in a straight line.

HTH

 

[SPEEDSTAR]

Bruce, the car will be dropped 2"and will have good ground clearance, not 3" with a tall tire , there is no need to get rediculous here, and springs might be the cheapest one mod only change, the susp.still needs more done to it . It may be the best way relative to you, there are really better ways, not cheaper, but better. When you cut a spring off 2' , the stock upper still would need to come up more . You cant cut more off the spring without messing up the lower arm travel, so you susp. is still not the best. My susp. is the result of many hours of testing and developement needed to LOWER my car and IMPROVE the susp geometry where GM left off. I"m not just cutting some spring once or twice untill it has a nice stance. I am using coil-overs which will allow futher height adj. then the arms can be adjusted to do what ever I want , Bruce, I think my way of doing it is the best, and no my bj won"t be anywhere near the tire , using an 18 by 9, . People shoud use drop spindles if the know how, but I didnt want to give all the details how because I know your out there lurking ,,,,,,,,are you a susp expert or just good at cuttin springs,,,,Bruce alot of guys are using 2"drop spindles , for years with no real problems. Jeff