F-body Spindle Swap To A-Body

[SPECWARSQUID]

Were getting ready to swap in the A-Body Hotchkis Suspension kit into our 68 GTO and while cleaning out the storage unit I realized I have a pair of 75 Camaro Spindles. I thought if they would work, this is the time to try and find out.

It would be nice to change out the GTO's front drums with the Camaro's disc brakes.

Has anyone done this? Or a can better question is. Can this be done, or is the geometry all wrong with using the stock GTO control arms with these spindles?

Shay
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Semper Fortis

[Lowend]

The swap will work - but it does require a special upper a-arm and a special lower ball joint
This is the setup (http://www.globalwest.net/1964-72%20Chevelle,%20GTO,%20A-body%20Negative%20Roll%20standard%20spring.htm)you need make it work.

[MrQuick]

don't do it or Sinned will come out and mess up your lawn.

[SPECWARSQUID]

Thanks lowend. That works for me.

I don't have spindles in front of me right now. anybody know of some online images I can look at and compared the 2 types to each other out of the car.

At this point I'm curious to know where F-body Spindle's bearing hub shaft(correct name?) sits in comparison to my GTO's Stock spindles. Higher or Lower or Same?

Shay
___________
Semper Fortis

[Lowend]

The f-body spindle is 1" taller so will lower the car.

[TitoJones]

It will also double the bumpsteer and slow your turning raduis.

Tyler

[Karch]

Tyler, is that true of the F-body, or just the B-body spindles?

Shay, I did the swap years ago...around 1988..as H-O Racing Specialties used to tout them as the thing to do. I also purchased Hotchkis tubular arms, as the swap moves the arms in too far with stock arms (hit the headers with a 1" shim stack).

I recently changed out to the B-body 12" setup in my '65. I say this because I am contemplating buying some different equipment, so I may be selling my arms and 11" brake setup.

I never pushed the car hard in the turns, as the front tires are a bit skinny and the 11" bias plys in the back just make is squirrly (sp?).

Good luck.

[TitoJones]

Yeah, B body/F body are the same spindle, different brake sizes. They will royally screw up the front end from where it is now.

Tyler

[sinned]

OK, real quick overveiw. All GM tall spindle arrangements use the same basic specifications. They all also suck big time when used on an "A" body. You could probably find no less than a few dozen threads that discuss this in depth. Search is your freind.

[MonzaRacer]

Strange I have done several and especially when we did them on dirt burners it really made them hit th corners. Drasticly lowerd cars yes had problems and I believe we had one of the kits and aftermarket tie rode to flip to tid rod to the other side, I may be thinking of a different car but I think we worked the bumpsteer out pretty good, not that the Aboy has any chance of being a corner burner.
Besides you can use tall ball joints and do same thing and I dont think you have to use control arms if you dont want to.

[Steve Chryssos]

Just get a set of Tyler's spindles. They don't call 'em AFX for nuthin. A body F body X body And they rock! Probably the coolest invention since the Cragar SS. No, cooler!

[MrQuick]

Strange I have done several and especially when we did them on dirt burners it really made them hit th corners. Drasticly lowered cars yes had problems and I believe we had one of the kits and aftermarket tie rode to flip to tid rod to the other side, I may be thinking of a different car but I think we worked the bumpsteer out pretty good, not that the A-body has any chance of being a corner burner.
Besides you can use tall ball joints and do same thing and I dont think you have to use control arms if you dont want to.

They can be made to handle very well.

Also its not fair comparing a road car to a dirt runner since a majority of the turning is done with the rear.

We did a lot of tall spindle swaps in the early 90's. They seemed to work well but we also had to bend and redrill the steering arm to get better numbers...all mods I do not recommend for the street. Flipping the tie rod compounds the problem even further.

For the same amount of money and better results, the ATS tall spindle and stock a-arms is the way to go.

[keithnh]

64 GTO convertible I wanted to improve performance and handling in. Was thinking the old F-body spindle disc brake conversion. Actually have a disc brake 3.08 10-bolt from an F-body was wondering whether could be converted to A-body. Have several F-body parts cars. See mention of "Tyler's" and ATS spindles and was wondering how full conversions go using those parts. I have good a-body and f-body control arms and would prefer to keep factory pieces. Suspension is for a factory 390HP car .. +200HP for me to street drive all summer and occasionally race .. still not sure whether 2,3,or 4spd automatic. Fresh factory paint and interior, nothing added.

[vcho455]

As all the previous comments have indicated you can gain an improvement in handling but with a number of draw backs as well. This was a popular conversion 30 years ago as it was pretty much the only bolt-on upgrade available. The bump steer issue is real and a eye opener if you haven't experienced it. The problem was helped by using HO Racing's 1 3/8" front sway bar. A band aid fix you won't find with more today's well engineered upgrades.
The loss of turning radius is in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 percent. Definitely a noticeable loss for a street driven car.
Using the 79 and later spindles would allow you to gain larger brakes as the 1990-1 Capri rotors can be fitted but, they come with the big car bolt pattern.
I ran this type of conversion on my GTO back in the 90's for at least 15k miles but, I have since replaced those components with newer better engineered items. The results are a car with fewer drawbacks and an improvement in vehicle performance.

[79T/Aman]

Pro-Touring F-Body introduced new spindles based on the B-body 12" spindle a couple years ago, it allows the use of 89-92 F-body 1LE 12" rotors and has revised steering arms that are closer to matching the stock A-body and they are only $389.00 pair.