68` B-body

Stock K member and box is 74lbs.
This is 33lbs,but have a few things to add. Should end up at about 40lbs.

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9 Tie rod ends will need to be lowered quite a bit.
They make a kit for that ,but may fab my own.

Now time to pull the engine/trans. and sandblast the under side of the body.

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What are you going to use for spindles? Nice fab work! Are you going to use strut rods to locate the control arms?
Mike

Thanks
Yes I will be using the stock struts to the front. Have to fab that piece yet.
Planned on stock spindles.
Any suggestions on a lighter one?
Was considering A body spindles.
But wasn't sure what to do with the height difference.
Was thinking that if I could get a lighter spindle what is available to hook it up?
Any idea what it takes?

The reason I asked was now you are front steer.

I have read you can't just swap the spindles from side to side to point the steering arms to the front.

I have no experience with this to help you out. It seems all the front steer stuff uses Pinto/MII components.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

Hmm,you only have to swap the lower ball joints.
not the spindles.
I did this on my Cuda 20 years ago. Still using it,no issues.

Ok, I guess I should have went out to the shop and looked under my car. The old memory isn't as good as it used to be.

Apparently the steering arm angle with the ball joint swap from side to side doesn't change the steering geometry? I'll have to keep that in mind.

Did you use the position of the lower ball joint tie rod connection point to determine the height of the rack?

Mike

I never measured the tie-rod height before and after because I knew I would have to move it to get an acceptable bump-steer toe pattern.
On the Cuda I bent the steering arms to get a zero toe pattern. But the engine is back and not in the way on it.
The 68` Satellite the engine is in the way of getting the rack high enough.
I have 1-3/4" difference,so the outer tie-rods will be lowered a similar amount,then tweaked to a best bump steer pattern. Perfect may not be practical. If I was doing some sort of road racing then I would need to whatever it takes to get a perfect pattern.

Just swapping lower ball joints will mess with the steering geometry. I have pictures of the spindles I made/ altered for my Road Runner I will post later. Uses a modified stock lower ball joint, but not the ball joint arm.

Jeff

Steering arms/spindles 1:

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K member:

Nicely done Jeff.
Your K member is similar to the one I made for the Cuda.
Used the original ends and tube between.
For street use the fabbed steering arms may need to be stronger?
I have been busy and have a few more pictures of the nearly finished assembly coming up. ....

Pretty much finished.
Prep and paint.

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Very nice work!

Can't wait to see all painted and complete!

Mike

Looks nice Dennis. Will you have it out this summer.

Thanks Tom.
I hope so. Have a lot to do yet.

STOP NOW. The stock ball joint steering arms will not work when reversed. It has to do with Ackermann. Ackermann causes the inside tire to turn a tighter radius than the outer tire. When the arms are reversed inner tire now toes in (toward the outer tire). Serious scrubbing will result in poor handling while turning and extreme tire wear. The outer tie rod location must also form a parallelogram when viewed from the front. The 4 corners being the lower control arm pivot, inner tie rod, outer tie rod, and lower ball joint C/L.
Read about ackermann here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ackermann_steering_geometry.
Any questions,please ask.
Doug

Yes Doug I see what you are talking about.
To get Ackerman with front steer the tie-rod outer pivot needs to be outside the lower balljoint pivot.
On rear-steer its inside.
So I will probably end-up making custom steering arms like Jeff did. They are going to be kinda short compared to stock in order to get them outside the lower b-joint.
Thanks for the heads-up.

I met a guy who did a Cavalier like this once. It killed the tires. I'm sure there are few threads around about fabricating steering arms. You might want to contact Bondo Bob.Good it's caught now instead of latter. Good luck
Doug

To get proper Ackerman you need to string the car from the rear end centerline, through the lower ball joints, and then make the steering arm/Rack hiems mounting location to hit on that line.

Did some digging around and took some measurements.
I am going to use screw in Qa1 ball joints and make my own steering knuckles then I can put the tie rods where I want.
Probably not going to touch the the ground for a long time.
Might be mid summer till I get back on it.
It stinks getting old. I need more repairs than the car LOL