My 64' Lark has upper adjustable rear control arms . I've been doing a frame-off so they've been off the car and have new bushings so I'm sure they'll need to be re-set . Oh, a 455/400 Med/long (brain-fart) tail shaft . Any help ? Thanks , Steve
you won't know unil you get your engine and trans installed. the pinion should point 2-3 degrees down from being parallel to the tail-shaft of your trans.
Adam , Should the engine and tranny have some pitch too ? An' another "Q" while I'm at it ,,,,,, should this be done with the body on the chassis or can it be done while my 64's "Bare Bones" (sans-anything except suspension) ? Thanks , Steve
I'm hesitant to say that it can be done sans body, but you certainly could dial it in close. I would at least check it in final configuration and on-the-tires. The engine and trans can and usually do have pitch, what is important is that the output shaft of the trans and the differential pinion are parallel, minus the above mentioned 2-3 degrees. The idea is when the differential twists upward under load that the pinion and output shaft are parallel, thus putting the u-joints at exactly equal angles. I found that with a 12-bolt and no-hop bars that my pinion angle was way off. It gave me alot of driveline noise and vibration until last year when I added adjustable uppers. So, I think you are smart in doing it up-front and you will save some potential headaches. you might consider adding the braces (from the lower to the upper control arm mounts) while you are down there if you haven't already. I added mine later, and they hit the mufflers...
I never had a clue about 64's having factory adjustable upper control arms. i guess that explaines the cam style bolt setup.
Thanks , Yeah , I was surprised as well . They have marks on the cam and one arm . All I need to do is undercoat the body and slide it back on it's feet .Body has been off since late 05' . I need to pull the upper rears back off . I installed Poly bushings on the large ends . After reading here that all Poly bushings in the Rr uppers tends to bind the rear up so I went out and got a set of OEM rubber bushings for big ends(diff end of arms -poly) . It will most likely be a year or so before it ever see's black top under it's own power . At least I finally got a good 455/400 for it . First "GS" 350 had 5 of 8 sets of rings broken and the cyl. walls were purple . You know , I never measured the tail shaft on the 400 but it was in a 71 Riv. I want the 64' to handle nice I've boxed up the rear lowers and got them bushed and drilled for the Rr. Torsion Bar .Front end is a long way off . I'm leaning on a 4 wheel disc set-up , but i'm not sure on the front spindles whether Global West or another companiy mentioned over on a Chevelle that claim to have a better solution . Anyway a long ways off . Thanks for the help , Steve
Interesting, my car didn't have factory cam-bolts. Must have been a certain build-date or plant. I bought HR parts-n-stuff uppers (very nice, by the way). I think you'd be OK with all poly uppers, if you're using the factory differential housing. It may be worth a test-fit before changing them out. Be careful if you box the uppers that you have them installed before you tack weld the box-plates on. I boxed mine and they had to twist some to fit with the rest of my setup. That created a bind as you can imagine. Part of the reason I went with the HRParts uppers later. I think if handling is your main concern, the F-body spindles are OK. They supposedly have problems with drag racing and lots of front-end lift. The S-10 spindles (same as G-body too I think) may be an option to investigate more; there were some recent posts about that swap on the BB. Let us know what you decide on.
