My caster mod (with pictures)

[hairlesshobo]

Well I took a whack at this mod this past weekend and it didn't work out so well for me. We drilled the new locating holes and I grinded the lip of the cross member to clear, but my problem was that the control arm bushing sleeve hit the locating rod saddle. We are going to try again in the future when I replace my front springs and instead of 3/4" we will either try 9/16" or 5/8". I think the problem is that the outer bushing sleeve on the energy suspension poly bushings are slightly longer than what was on it previously.
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[BMERDOC]

I just stumbled across this thread. Nice work! Looks like Ive got some catching up to do. I understand your concern with bumpsteer. I remember Rob saying you either have to heat the spindle arm, heat the centerlink or build a new centerlink. I think he also mentioned redrilling the steering arm and relocating the tie rod on the bottom. Subscribed to see the results!

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by hairlesshobo

Well I took a whack at this mod this past weekend and it didn't work out so well for me. We drilled the new locating holes and I grinded the lip of the cross member to clear, but my problem was that the control arm bushing sleeve hit the locating rod saddle. We are going to try again in the future when I replace my front springs and instead of 3/4" we will either try 9/16" or 5/8". I think the problem is that the outer bushing sleeve on the energy suspension poly bushings are slightly longer than what was on it previously.
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Sorry to hear it didn't work out. I used Energy Suspension bushings as well, and mine cleared. Are you pretty certain of the measurements of the new locating holes? How much is the bushing outer body interfering with the saddle? Did you remove the saddles and replace the locating pins with a socket head cap screw or are they still secured with the factory rivets? Do you have a good, solid fit between the locating pin and the control arm crossbar? I would say to use a die grinder and grind back the edge of the saddle to get the control arm to go flush, but I wouldn't recommend having the control arm clamp on at the bushing outer shell.

Is there any way you could post up a picture so we can maybe come up with a solution? You've come so far, and hopefully, we can all get our heads together and get you back on the road.

[hairlesshobo]

I will try to get some pics of it tonight and post them.

I am fairly certain of the measurements between the existing holes and the new ones, since we measured 2 or 3 times each before drilling the new hole. I didn't want to grind the saddle in case it might weaken the mount at all. And it is still factory rivets holding it in place. It was hitting bad enough that we couldn't get it to sit in the new locating hole on the cross shaft whenever the aft part of the shaft was raised flush with the saddle. From best we could see it looks like we were about 1/16" or 1/8" off. The way I see it, I have two more times to try it before the cross shaft is ruined. We turned the shaft 90* when drilling so there is another 180* to work with

At this point the truck is fully reassembled. This is my daily driver and I needed to get it back up and running for the work week. For now we rotated the shaft back to factory specs. The truck already handles much better from all of the other suspension and steering work that we did, but I was looking forward to the added caster. I hope to pick up some lowering springs and spindles in the next few months and when we have it broke down then I will take another attempt at it.

[hairlesshobo]

The pic is a little blurry, but you can see where the saddle and sleeve are right now. When moved 3/4" forward it hits just enough that it won't bolt up in place. I think I will get under there with a caliper and see how much distance there is between the sleeve and the saddle so I can determine where I went wrong or how much I can move it without it hitting. I will post back when I find out what that is.

[hairlesshobo]

So I decided not to be lazy and went outside and measured the gap between the saddle and the sleeve. Turns out that the smallest gap is on the outside of the saddle, or the side that is closest to the side of the truck. From the closest point to the outer sleeve of the bushing is 0.63". Looks like 5/8 is gonna be the best I am able to do for caster gain on this one. That'll leave me .005" of "wiggle" room between the sleeve. I wonder why mine is so much closer than everyone else's?

[Matt R]

Nice work guys, I have a later model ('90) and plan to get more caster. I'm not sure how i'm going to do it yet, havent gotten that far. I really like the positive locating bolt very solid!

Matt

[truck farmer]

Very good info guys, keep it coming. I love all the pictures.

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by hairlesshobo

...I wonder why mine is so much closer than everyone else's?

The 73-87 crossmembers have more meat in the u-bolt area than the 63-72 due to bigger u-bolts bolts and doubled metal. Could be what you're running into...

[jayman68]

Originally Posted by KQQL IT

Just had a thought.... this mod would center my tires in the fender.
That has bothered me since i put the 6° of caster in.
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Stock the wheel is back in the fender opening, so if you get more caster by moving the uca it just makes it worse. moving the lca forward gets it pretty centered, and looks good. I haven't done the mod yet, but I plan to. Thanks for the write up chevyrestoguy.

[KQQL IT]

Thats what im hoping.
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[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

The 73-87 crossmembers have more meat in the u-bolt area than the 63-72 due to bigger u-bolts bolts and doubled metal. Could be what you're running into...

Originally, I thought the same thing, but I used a crossmember out of a '79 and mine cleared. I moved my LCA fwd .75", but I looked at my pictures again, and my Energy Suspension control arm bushings definitely don't protrude as far as the ones that Hairlesshobo used. Mine clear by at least 1/4".

[suville]

Great write up! Thanks, still following this issue on the several threads!

[KQQL IT]

I need to crawl around mine. But i have 71/72 LcA's i wonder how fat i can go before i have issues??
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[hairlesshobo]

Well the extra meat could explain it. Just a thought, I wonder if something is bent on my truck. I've only been talking about the driver side. Tomorrow I will measure the clearance of the passenger side.

I do highly recommend that you measure the clearance before taking the control arm out, and if you replace the bushings, make sure to measure how much the outer sleeve sticks out past the arm mount. If the new one sticks out more than the old one, subtract that from your available clearance.
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[Goats86]

Chevyrestoguy, any updates yet?

[chevyrestoguy]

I'm still in the fab phase, so I'm still a little bit away from getting the engine and trans installed. Right now, I'm painting the firewall, and after that, I'll have to restore all of the heater/AC stuff that bolts to it, and get the brake booster installed and all the brake lines bent up. In the meantime, I'm getting the last of the parts to finish the engine.

I did update the build thread to show the latest chassis work we did. In order to gain ground clearance between the lower control arms and the ground, we "Z'd" the chassis 2" and then moved everything forward 1" to center the wheels in the wheel openings. Still doing the last little things on that, like trimming the inner fenders and doing some finish grinding/sanding. After, that, it'll all get blown apart and painted chassis black and reassembled for (hopefully) the last time.

[INSIDIOUS '86]

I have pics of mine located 3 inches forward
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[INSIDIOUS '86]

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[jjzepplin]

Subscribed! Would also like to see what the specs turn out to be. I have also seen someone mention swapping the upper control arms?? Any thoughts on this?

[jayman68]

Originally Posted by jjzepplin

I have also seen someone mention swapping the upper control arms?? Any thoughts on this?

They talk about it on the first page of "Make it Handle" post 12-13
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=419251
But it would move the wheel back in the opening, where it needs to go forward. This mod would move it forward.

[wraprail]

Originally Posted by INSIDIOUS '86

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What Ball joints you using there bro?

[tinydb84]

I moved my forward too, a bit differently though:

[Custom 68]

This looks good, I was only able to move mine forward 3/8 inch without modifying my perches or the mount. Until I started I didn't know that there was additional mods needed to move the thing forward. I was not ready to cut into my cross member since I was ready to get back on the road so I only moved it a little. I figured anything would help.

[INSIDIOUS '86]

Originally Posted by wraprail

What Ball joints you using there bro?

Qa1 rebuildable ball joints. Very nice ball joints. Can get different stud lengths to change roll center and camber gain and all that fun stuff.
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