Will be finishing my second round of College in December, but I couldn't wait. Time to drop another $500.00 into my rear suspension. I believe that total investment is past $1,000 now. People think I'm nuts! Global West lower arms with Wolfe Racecraft spherical bushings and new (softer) Gabriel gas shocks.
Older Stuff Herb Adams 1.5" (!) rear sway bar, Edelbrock upper control arms and braces. Sorry for the pic quality.
How does that monster sway bar work and where can you get one? Your rear end setup is almost identical to mine, the exception is I used a Currie lower but I think those are just about the same as the GW's. Will be interested to know if the results when you add the spherical joint at the axle to the Edelbrock uppers. Keep us informed.
What bar are you running in front? How wide are your rear tires? And, is it more prone to understeer, oversteer, or very neutral?
Hey! It's great that you remember me. I recall years ago that we were rapping about Wheel sizes & offsetts. "I'm on a mission" to remove all poly bushings from my suspension. When you looked at the pic of the edelbrock upper control arm - you can see that I have a lot of that special grease in the upper bushing, but man, it still frikin squeaks! I'll let you know how this project goes.
It is a Herb Adams bar that I bought new in the late 1980's (!) Currie lowers are close. With the exception that the Johnny Joint is shperical and encased in Polyurethane. GW's are more like a bearing. The center part pivots on steel - like the Edelbrock uppers do. On the rear end (the rear facing bushing), the bushing is actually Delrin (a hard plastic) riding on aluminum shells, hence the (funny?) name - Del-Alum. With these parts, I expect to free up the suspension bind that I'm experiencing right now. Right now, the rear suspension barely moves. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd expect P285-40-17's so have better traction than I have had!!
The front bar is chrome moly 1 5/16" Herb Adams. It uses rod ends, not bushings. I'll take and post a pic. The car is incredibly easy to drive. NEUTRAL balance, no doubt about it
Front Bar Ok, here is the Herb Adams front bar spherical rod end deal. The bar is pretty fat chrome moly steel, and the rod ends allow for suspension movement, but the sway bar has a solid, direct connection to the chassis. Steering response is unreal for such an old car.
Thanks. It measures 1 5/16" or 1.31" depending on how you like your specs The rod end arrangement makes a huge difference, though.
I have that type of arrangement on my daily, but Subaru decided to put one of the only chinzy non-race parts when all of the other parts are race quality, and if you jack up the car one corner at a time it'll twist those things like prezles and the sway bar flips. Beefier ones are all of 35 dollars and cure that. I like that setup, too bad Im not closer to FL because I'd love to feel that 5 spd 350 with that kind of suspension.
I'd definately give you a ride. If I get some reasonable traction out of this deal, I'll eventually put a 100 to 125 HP blast of N2O through it. Look out!
Andrew, Don't let go of the HA bars. I have looked for a set and have had no luck. I am thinking of one from HRparts.... You now have me thinking about the front sway bar link setup. I think there may be some improvement there. Anyone have rack and pinion steering setup for our cars?
Steeroids has kits for 1st generation F bodies, but not our cars - yet. I think it will happen, but it might be a couple of years. I'd be interested in seeing the performance differences!
