UCA location on a 2nd gen

[79PonchoUK]

Please forgive my lameness on suspension and how tight i am with money. lol.
I live in the UK and have just started a business, so getting different upper arms etc proves a bit expensive at the moment.....Can you increase the camber to a more desirable amount by just making a larger spacer to go between the UCAs pivot bar and the frame?
I would imagine this would be much nicer than having loads of washers there and considerably cheaper than having new arms, even if the camber change through travel isnt quite optimum.

Is this viable?

The car is a 79 Trans Am 400 4spd w/WS6 - and I have just bought some Hotchkis springs and their Hotchkis tuned Bilstein shocks. Ive got a complete polybush set for the car too. I always killed the outside of the tyres before, and being England there is no shortage of corners/roundabouts/tracks. lol

Thanks in advance,
John.

[Mean 69]

Yes, you can do this, in fact, if done correctly, this is the better way to do it. Alignment shims can fall out if the setups loosens up, and that is usually a really bad thing: the arms will flop around. Doesn't happen very often, but if it does, it's not a good thing. Using washers is better, in that they are "captive" by the bolts. A spacer is just as good as using round washers, but you'll very most likely still need to use a few alignment shims to get the alignment precise, OR determine what the spacing needs to be, and machine the custom (for YOUR car) spacers. It will almost certainly need different dimensions on either side to get proper alignment.

There's a good number of fellow Camaro/Firebird owners in the UK, you should look around and find some new friends that share the hobby!!

Mark

[79PonchoUK]

OK, thanks for the reply.

Whats a realistic castor/camber setup for road use....im happy to go on the racier side, simply because of how i drive and the type of roads we have here.

What has worked for other 2nd gen users? Ballparks are good at the moment, im not looking to compete in it, just improve its cornering abilities. :D


As for talking to people in the UK, I do that quite a bit (i run a small forum (MuscleCarsUK.com) and attend all the shows etc), but unfortunately there arent many that are interested in improving handling on 2nd gens....most are just into pro-street or are just trying to fix them up to standard.

[Lawrence]

No Pro-Street here in the UK...... But my second gen suspension is under a '55 F100! :woot:

[79PonchoUK]

I presume you mean theres no pro-touring here......plenty of pro street. lol

There are a couple of nice pro-touring cars, like Paul Edwards gorgeous '70 Camaro, but i dont know how involved he was in the suspension, and i dont know if its seen any track use.
Theres also Robin Gray who drives Nev Days 77 firebird in the historic saloon car series around the UKs tracks, but i dont really know of any forums they go on much. I might have to catch up with them next time theyre at donnington.

Lawrence, I dont know if you have heard of MuscleCarsUK.com, people on there from all over the country, you're welcome to join up. :)

[Ripper]

OK, thanks for the reply.

Whats a realistic castor/camber setup for road use....im happy to go on the racier side, simply because of how i drive and the type of roads we have here.

What has worked for other 2nd gen users? Ballparks are good at the moment, im not looking to compete in it, just improve its cornering abilities. :D


As for talking to people in the UK, I do that quite a bit (i run a small forum (MuscleCarsUK.com) and attend all the shows etc), but unfortunately there arent many that are interested in improving handling on 2nd gens....most are just into pro-street or are just trying to fix them up to standard.

Hey, I live in Sweden that's not very far from you, just alot of water between us! ;)

Regarding angles; I have 1º camber, as much caster as I can get, app. 4.5º and very little toe in. This worked fine for street tires and street driving. The car understeers at the track and slightly more camber wouldn't hurt.
I'll start with 2,5º camber with my new Nitto NT01's.

Using spacers instead of shims is way better alternative. I'll consider this after I increased the camber.

[Lawrence]

Nah, I meant no pro-street in my garage! LOL

[79PonchoUK]

Ahh I see, none here either.

The idea of not being able to slam a big thundering V8 into a corner and power out of it leaving some tyre behind just scares me. :bananna2: