Posted By: tahoechallenge
Installed new control arms and other upgrades! - 08/18/14 05:40 AM
My car is a 70 Challenger, 340 powered and 5 speed. It had new rubber lower control arm bushings, offset bushing in the uppers. Also, the car has Koni shocks all around, with 1 inch torsion bars, and FirmFeel stage 3 box with fast ratio pitmen and idler arms. It has a Hellwig sway bar in the front and an Addco in the back. It has 245.45r17 tires all around. When I redid the car I welded in sub frame connectors and torque boxes.
The car has around 4k miles on it, in its current form. It had the standard +3 caster, -1 camber, and 1/8 toe alignment. The car cornered ok, but the steering had a lot of slop in it. I would routinely drive with both hands on the wheel. Another problem was tire ware. Despite the negative camber, I was still wearing the outside corners off of the tires.
I decided to go with the Hotchkis upper control arms and replace all of the bushings with poly. I also purchased the sector shaft support kit from FirmFeel. It took all of last weekend to get the parts installed and the alignment set. The Hotchkis control arms a are a real bear to get set correctly. I had to assemble each side 3 or 4 times to get the caster/camber correct. I also had to do some minor cutting and grinding on the frame rails to get the proper clearances. On the sector support, I decided to slice and re weld the bracket to get the bearing alignment with the K frame perfect.
After getting it back together, I took it for some short drives last week. The car handles amazing. The steering is completely predictable. There is still a few degrees of movement in the steering box, but the sector support works great!
Today I put 200 miles on the car. It was a mix of I80 and twisty mountain roads. The passing lanes were a blast on the mountain roads. The rutted out concrete (from winter tire chains) wasn’t nearly as scary as it had been. And the hairpin curves were complete fun. I can’t wait to drive the car again on a less busy day!
The car has around 4k miles on it, in its current form. It had the standard +3 caster, -1 camber, and 1/8 toe alignment. The car cornered ok, but the steering had a lot of slop in it. I would routinely drive with both hands on the wheel. Another problem was tire ware. Despite the negative camber, I was still wearing the outside corners off of the tires.
I decided to go with the Hotchkis upper control arms and replace all of the bushings with poly. I also purchased the sector shaft support kit from FirmFeel. It took all of last weekend to get the parts installed and the alignment set. The Hotchkis control arms a are a real bear to get set correctly. I had to assemble each side 3 or 4 times to get the caster/camber correct. I also had to do some minor cutting and grinding on the frame rails to get the proper clearances. On the sector support, I decided to slice and re weld the bracket to get the bearing alignment with the K frame perfect.
After getting it back together, I took it for some short drives last week. The car handles amazing. The steering is completely predictable. There is still a few degrees of movement in the steering box, but the sector support works great!
Today I put 200 miles on the car. It was a mix of I80 and twisty mountain roads. The passing lanes were a blast on the mountain roads. The rutted out concrete (from winter tire chains) wasn’t nearly as scary as it had been. And the hairpin curves were complete fun. I can’t wait to drive the car again on a less busy day!
