Suspension woes

[Oldrust]

"Are you keeping the 15" wheels? If so there's no need to go all out on the suspension, you'll run out of tire before you need any kind of serious suspension tricks."

I'm definitely changing the wheels out, 18" or possibly 20", undecided on that. Looking at maybe some Detroit Smoothies.


"Your rear suspension looks pretty good already, but I think you'd benefit from relocating the shocks outward. Link to the shock relocation how to-

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...postid=4730005"

Awesome, thanks for the link. Yes, the rear looks pretty good. Someone got overzealous up front trying to drop it as much as possible without really knowing how... It needs to be corrected.


"My truck rode as good as dad's all-stock '66 without the truck pitching excessively over larger bumps due to the lower center of gravity and the shocks and sway bars controling the body movement better. It cruised dead steady on the interstate even over 90 mph and had less body roll than my autocross car. The tires were the limiting factor of how hard I could push the truck around corners, it would have done much better on 18's with shorter sidewalls."

Thanks for the info and pics. I'm on the fence now with the idea of fixing whats there or going whole hog and doing either Porterbuilt front and rear with airbags or coils or doing a Roadster Shop Spec chassis. Roadster Shop claims it will drive like a modern car with a new chassis. Its a slippery slope... Its also hard to get info and one can't test drive the new chassis...

[The Rocknrod]

Looking at the roadster shop website it's a wonder you found out about their chassis for our trucks.

[Oldrust]

The website is a bit lacking...

[theastronaut]

It wouldn't cost much to relocate the rear shocks and throw a set of stock control arms (with the castor mod) to see how much that helps. The castor mod will help get the wheels closer to the center of the fender opening too. I think you'll be surprised at how much better it'll be just with properly installed stock-ish components. If you're happy with those results then you could finish off the upgrades with front/rear sway bars and a CPP 500 steering box to help quicken the steering ratio and improve steering feel/feedback. We used one on a '68 Chevelle and liked it.

Stock front springs with 1 coil cut off with be about a 2" drop to keep your current stance and not be too low. It's fine to cut stock springs as they're not progressive rate springs. A lot of guys complain about cutting springs but the instructions with the springs I bought from Speedway for a '51 GMC I'm building said that the springs would have to be cut to fit.

[Oldrust]

“It wouldn't cost much to relocate the rear shocks and throw a set of stock control arms (with the castor mod) to see how much that helps. The castor mod will help get the wheels closer to the center of the fender opening too. I think you'll be surprised at how much better it'll be just with properly installed stock-ish components. If you're happy with those results then you could finish off the upgrades with front/rear sway bars and a CPP 500 steering box to help quicken the steering ratio and improve steering feel/feedback. We used one on a '68 Chevelle and liked it.”

I have a set of stock style CPP lower control arms in my basket at Summit: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/clp-6372scal
I assume these are a good choice? I also have CPP 2” drop springs and rear shock relocation brackets in the cart.

Improving caster and clearance should make a huge improvement over where it is now, I’m sure. Sway bars and shock relocation seems like a good way to go. I need to check what steering box it has now, I have no access to the truck for the next 3 weeks, sadly.

[theastronaut]

The CPP arms are good, I believe they improve castor over stock arms.

The CPP shock relocators are better than stock, but FrizzyFry's relocation method gets the shock outboard of the frame, closer to the wheel so the shock sees more of the wheel travel vs the stock location inside the frame. Look at No Limit Engineering's rear suspension kits and notice where they put the shocks. FrizzleFry's method is pretty much free other than the cost of a pair of front-fitment shocks, probably easier too since you don't have to remove the rivets holding the stock upper shock mounts.

[Oldrust]

Thanks, Frizzlefry it is. Can’t wait to get going on this. This is all very helpful, I appreciate everyone’s replies and suggestions! Its been a long tine since I did much wrenching, it will be fun to bust some knuckles again.
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