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GUS68
09-04-2005, 08:44 PM
Hey guys!!! I know this doesn't quite fit in here but I have a 62 Chevy Bel Air. I have recently boxed the upper and lower cont. arms and added poly bushings in the rear. If you guys arent familar with these cars the have 2 lower control arms with the bottom of the coil spring mounted them. One upper control arm just to the pass side of the rear end pumpkin facing straight ahead with a bolt on mount with shims for pinion angle, and a panard bar from the driverside of the frame to the pass sise of the axle housing. back in the day it was posible to get a 2nd upper cont. arm on the driverside of the axle housing so I added the arm and mounts from another car and boxed it as well. Anyway... right now I have NO posi and with street tires It wheel hops VERY VERY badly!!! And with slicks on its just ugly!!! I would think with all these mods it would be pretty solid. Any thoughts??? I have heard that some times air bags in the coils will fix this but I dont see how??? Oh and BTW, I drag race some and mostly beat on it on the street, and I run a smallblock with a 4-speed. Thanks guys!!!!

David Pozzi
09-04-2005, 10:19 PM
I'm not famillar with that suspension but in general you want the lower links level to the ground, if they are lower on the axle end, (did you lower the car?) you need to move the holes to make them level. The upper link should be inclined downward toward the front of the car about 5 to 7 degrees but that's just a very rough guess, but you want some downward angle on the top link, too much and you get wheelhop on braking.

Polly bushings usually make those suspensions worse not better because they bind the axle twisting when cornering. Boxing the links is OK if the bushings can allow axle cornering movement without bind.

If the top link runs straight forward parallel to the centerline of the car; - has no angle left or right, then the extra upper link you added is probably OK, but if it does have angle then the extra link is probably binding up the suspension in cornering.
I'm sure others here will add to this and help out.

GUS68
09-05-2005, 07:09 AM
I can see the poly bushings binding in hard corners and stuff but wouldnt you think that they would be stiffenough to prevent wheel hop? I had one guy with a car simmilar to mine tell me he had a machine shop make him some bushings out of brass and that fiked his problem but HOLLY CRAP!!! That has to bind so bad that it would break or bend some thing. I am not realy into cornering that much, I do drive on the street alot though, I just whant the hoping to STOP!!!!! :help!:

David Pozzi
09-05-2005, 10:40 AM
I believe the problem is the angles of the links, - the geometry, not the bushing material, although stiffer bushings are a good idea IF the geometry can tolerate it.

Any street driving requires going around corners, if the rear is binding while cornering you run the risk of spinning out to to terminal oversteer. Even if you are not "into" cornering, you don't want to create an unsafe condition.

Third and fourth gen Camaros can have wheelhop when lowered, due to the rear ends of the lower links getting lower than the front ends.

If you can better describe the link angles to us, you may get better advice.

GUS68
09-05-2005, 06:30 PM
Well I will describe the angles the best I can. The lower control arms, at ride hight, Angle up from the axle housing to the frame mounts (lower in the rear). The lowers also angle inward, meaning they are far apart on the axle housing and taper in on the frame, If you looked at this from above the would be wider at the rear and closer together at the front. If you are familiar with a chevelle the lower control arms are simmilar except I believe the front mounts are closer together than a chevelle and the coilsprings mount to the lower control arms. The upper control arms point straight ahead with no inward angle and it looks to me that at ride hightthey are paralel to the ground. Like I said, originally there was only one upper arm on the right, but it was posible to get another upper controll arm on the left (I think it was a heavy duty suspension option or some thing) so I added the left upper arm using the right from a donor car. there is also a panard bar running from left to right. I hope this helps!!!!!!