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CadVetteStang

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Everything posted by CadVetteStang

  1. Changing front coil springs: I had to cut the front coils two more times to get the front ride height down far enough. I liked the look until I added the strut tower brace plates, because they picked the front back up a little. I could live with the look, but the ride was VERY, VERY firm. I could not cut the springs any more, because I already didn't have to use a spring compressor to install them and they were almost too short... Well, they settled just a bit and that was enough to allow slack up top when the suspension fully extended.... The result was trashed upper strut bearings. I ordered some DNA Motorsport racing springs for a Grand Prix. They are advertised at 450 lbs./inch but I measured them and they are actually 355 lbs./inch which is what I wanted to start with. I measured my current springs after I pulled them off. Wow! I did not realize how stiff the last two cuts had made them. They calculated at 890 lbs./inch! Here is a picture of them as removed along with the DNA springs.
  2. I put 2,000 miles on the car and after evaluating the suspension, I'm fixing a few bugs and making an improvement including: 1. Changing front springs 2. Changing front sway bar end links 3. Changing the front lower control arms's vertical bushings I'll cover each in its own post with more details.
  3. Alignment: CASTER: I decided to go with the maximum amount of positive caster possible. CAMBER: I decided that one degree negative on all four wheels was the best starting point for testing and may be the best compromise on handling VS. tire wear. Toe: with these custom settings, I would take the recommendation of the alignmen specialist who has 25 years of experience and has aligned race cars. Knowing that I was going to have to drive 50 miles from the engine shop to the alignment shop, I spent many hours with a tape measure and a level to get the initial eyeball alignment as close as possible. As you can see from the picture, the front and rear toe was the only thing that the specialist recommended changing. He was impressed with my backyard alignment. ?
  4. I'm basically at a stopping point for the re-design and rebuild of the front and rear racing suspension as well as the wheel and tire package. There are some minor things to do later like adapt a flat ball joint-style bushing to replace the front LCA polyurethane bushings and in the rear, replace all bushings with polyurethane units. But I am far enough along to test and race it. I'll post pictures and videos as they become available. This has been a very long adventure. I now have the world's only last generation Eldorado that has been tuned for racing.
  5. Is this the same Bobby Fisher who is a Facebook friend? I have explained indetail the components of the braking system and the clearace issues on previous pages, but this is a 9 page thread, so I will summarize: 1. The Corvette calipers will work on your stock 12" rotors if you use 98-02 F-body abutment brackets. And they MIGHT fit the stock wheels. However, the hole size is 14MM on the Cadillac spendles and 12MM on the F-body brackets so a minor modification has to be made where either a 1MM walled piece of tubing 1/2" long is used as an adapter or the brackets need to be re-tapped for a 14MM bolt. 2. The Corvette calipers - if used with the stock JL9 option Corvette abutment brackets will work with the 12.75" (AKA 13") rotors from the C5 Vette or late model DTS rotor (heavy duty brakes option). They SHOULD fit under 17" wheels, but I have not yet tried. 3. I am using the calipers andbrackets above with the KORE3 industries bracket adapter kit designed to put C5 Vette calipers on 14" C6 Vette rotors onto Grand Ams (bolt-on) or Grand Prixs (14MM bolt modification required.) 4. Through my research, I discovered that the 14" Shelby GT500 Mustang front rotors and the 14"CTS-V rotors have almost identical specs and will bolt up. The bolt pattern differences are no issue because the lug holes are large enough to work with no modifications. The hub center of the Mustang rotor is only .3MM larger... That's point three mm, so it will work as well. 5. I used the Mustang rotors because they were 1/2 price of the Vette rotors and less than 10% of the CTS-V rotors. Also there are no holes drilled into the Mustang rotors. Drilled rotors do not perform as well as solid rotors when you use semi-metalic or ceramic pads and they cause cracking during autocross use. 6. You MUST use 18" or larger wheels when C5 Vette calipers are placed on 14" rotors, but not all 18" wheels will work. The issue is the inside diameter where the caliper is.
  6. The hammering of that area caused the undercoating to flake off at the impact area. You can see where cleancing was done because when I painted the area, it was left glossy whereas the paint over undercoat remained flat. The Pontiac endlinks were 1/4" too long causing the swaybar to bottom out against the frame when the suspension is fully extended. However, the bar angle was good. Raising the strut assembly with a jack under the rotor to hook it up created a 1/4" suspension limiter . I'm okay with that. I still had to rotate the grease fittings 90 degrees so that the poited sideways in order to clear the frame. The upper endlinks now fit well within the pocket of the strut towers and all clearance issues with them have been resolved.
  7. As it turns out, the Cadillac swaybar end links were closer to the length that I needed. However, because they have longer, tapered, mounting studs, and because the Pontiac strut tower mounting tab is at the inboard side of the strut tube, and because the improved caster moves the location of the upper ball joint of the mount to the rearward edge of the strut tower, I had a clearance issue in that area when turning the wheels. The lack of taper in the Pontiac mounting stud created a lot more room, but the grease fittings on the back side still rubbed the back edge of the inner fender in a small area. I marked that area and created the needed clearance with a 5 lb. sledge. Fortunately, I didn't have to relocate the hole where the speed sensor wire exits the engine bay.
  8. I made several unsuccessful attempts to get the alignment right. In troubleshooting, I diagnosed that the engine cradle was out of alignment. This had the driver's side wheel positioned closer to the inner fender and was the cause of some steering loss. In my attempts, I slotted the lower holes of the strut the way the factory strut is slotted. I found that there was enough wheel-to-strut clearance that I didn't need the camber bolts so I opted to replace them with the stronger factory bolts..... Then the alignment process started all over. I finally have it straight enough to drive for a few miles without chewing up the new tires. Here is a shot up into the strut tower. After the shop does an alignment and I get the upper struts placed in their permanent location, I'll drill and install two bolts in each brace plate to make sure everything stays where it is supposed to. This will allow the braces to remain in the towers when I replace struts and not need to get another alignment up there.
  9. I forgot to publish the pic in this thread of the wheel-to-suspension contact in the rear suspension. Look where the upper A-Arm makes contact with the inside of the rim.. There is an unused hole on each side in the same location that I made larger for the bolts to mount my suspension limiter. There was a straight line down to the lower A-Arm and a good place to mount it down there.
  10. More details about the new wheels and tires are covered in the thread dedicated to that subject. However, for those not following that forum, here are a few pics. 1. New wheel 18X10 with 275/40ZR18 tires rated at 168 MPH pictured with the stock 16X7 wheel with 225/60R16 tire. 2. In this picture, the stock tire is not inflated and was in a depression. It is not really shorter than the new tire except for tread depth. 3. New wheel/tire pictured with the 18X8.5 Bullitt wheel and 255/45ZR18 tire.
  11. Thank you for the data, Jim. Yes, my two desired sizes are: 275/40ZR18 which is almost the same as the 225/60R16 and the 285/40ZR18 which is almost the same as the 235/60R16, and 255/45ZR16 that I had been using. I've heard that some of these cars came with the 235/60R16. I went with the 275mm wide version because of price and it would be easier to fit under the front fenders.
  12. I used SteelStick like bondo for the tower body work since it would be stronger. I then filed it down and shot some touchup paint onto the towers. It doesn't have to be perfect here. A "welded" look is fine.
  13. The brace plates will provide the strength that was lost by opening up the top of the strut towers for the camber/ caster improvement. However I can't deal with the ugly opening. I found some scrap aluminum with a beveled edgeedge, and cut & shaped it to be a trim ring.
  14. I shaved a little off of the new bumpstops with a bandsaw giving them slightly shorter height than the stock Caddy version to allow a bit more suspension travel. Then I reassembled the struts with the Cadillac billows in place. They fill up the narrower springs.
  15. Best I can tell with the car still on jackstands, the tires will not touch the inner fenders or the fender lip. I don't think the outboard sidewalls will rub against the inner fenders even on the lowered rear end. It's like the car was designed for this width and offset.
  16. The 275/40ZR18 tires arrived. Time to get them mounted and check for any possible fitment issues, then adjust the suspension accordingly.
  17. Time to finish the strut modifications: I didn't like the weak-looking 5/16" studs in the upper strut mounts and they were too short to reach through the strut tower brace plate, tower, and thick fender washers planned for the installation. I hammered out the studs and used a 3/8" bit, bought grade 8 bolts of the desired length and went to my dad's house for some tack welding.
  18. To get the rear wheels to clear the rear suspension, I made a suspension limiter from wire rope to prevent the last inch of travel. That kept the upper A-Arm from contacting the inner lip of the rear wheel. I didn't take pics because its just temporary. The permanent fix will be to buy shorter rear shocks when they need replacing.
  19. I made simple brackets for the wheel sensor wire and brake hose with some flat aluminum stock. They will blend in when painted. I also trimmed the brackets as needed.
  20. The inboard angel of the struts set by the increase in negative camber then offset by camber adjustment bolts in the upper hole helps the new wheels clear the strut without spacers.
  21. As mentioned in my wheels and tires thread, the inner beauty lip of the factory Ford Bullitt style wheels made the inner diameter too small to clear the new breaks.. My project was put on hold until I could get new 18" wheels that would clear them. I was able to get a set of four 18X10's on clearance. All future pics in this thread that show a wheel are with the new wheels that have a 7.15" backspace. Any that include tires will be of 275/40ZR18's that I also got a good deal on.
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