Hello, I just bought all the bushings I need from Global West to remove and replace my control arm bushings. Was wanting to know if it's worth it to buy the offset upper control arm shafts ? My stocks shafts will work. Just want to know the pros and cons. Anyone use them and was it worth it ? Thx, John B.
G'day John, Just fitted them to my '69 Skylark. Went in easy enough, but I had to remove the engine mount bolts & jack up the engine to get them in. Without jacking the engine, I didn't have enough clearance to get them between the exhaust manifolds & the shaft to chassis bolts. Also had to disconnect the rag joint at the steering box to get the steering shaft out of the way. Haven't given it an alignment yet but I've got neg camber, no idea on the castor. My reason for useing them was to get more neg camber & positive castor. While I was there I fitted tall upper ball joints. Are you chasing better alignment figures or trying to correct an a camber issue? FYI, its a Buick 350,stock exhaust. Big blocks & headers would make it even tighter I imagine. I can post some installed pics if you wish. Cheers, Chris
Offset cross shafts were originally designed to correct camber problems on cars that had frames sagging in the front. Because of the geometry, an added benefit was the ability to add more positive caster, because camber and caster go hand in hand. I own an auto repair shop and when we underwent a shop expansion last year, we added an alignment machine and rack. Prior to the expansion, I didn't have room for an alignment rack and had to sublet alignments. Now I can play around and try different things. On my 72 convertible, the upper control arm bushings were shot after 25 years since the last time I replaced them, so I decided to try the offset cross shafts. Unfortunately I was only able to get about 2 degrees of positive caster with the offset shafts. Maybe Global West's version is different than the Moog "problem solvers" that I used? At trap speeds of 120 MPH in the convertible, I couldn't notice any difference before or after the change as far as high speed stability is concerned. I think the caster was about 0 before I did the change. I just did this a couple of weeks ago. Unless you have a situation where you can't get zero camber and a touch positive on the caster, I wouldn't bother. The easiest way to remove the upper control arms is to remove the two bolts that hold them in. Near the bolt heads are serrations on the bolts, which can be worked with w/o ruining anything. Knock the bolts out and there is no need to do anything with the engine or steering shaft. If you think that you may ruin the bolts, Inline Tube has them.
Bob, if I do use the offset shafts what are some desirable numbers should I give the alignment guy to set the car at ? This is a street/strip car. Thanks, John.
Regardless if you use the offset shafts or not, you'll want zero camber, as much positive caster as you can get as long as it's equal on both sides, and toe 1/16" on each side for a total of 1/8". Camber should be as close to equal as you can get too. If you end up with a pull because of road crown, then you will have to decide whether you can live with it or not. No road crown at the drag strip. I doubt you'll get more than a couple of degrees of positive caster, but I think the factory specs call for a range from slightly negative to slightly positive caster. That's why you have no road feel with power steering with many old cars.
