Crooked draglink???

[monteboy84]

Hi guys,

So here's the deal. on my 84 Monte, I swapped out my entire steering assembly (drag link, idler, tie rods) all with a Spohn kit, and all the parts seem to be great quality. The only problem is, when I got it up on the hoist today, I noticed that the draglink is not level, in relation to the control arm bolts it seems to be roughly 1/2-3/4" higher on the steering box end. Since I scrapped the stock parts immediately when they were pulled, before I noticed the issue, I have none of the stock parts to refer to.

It seems to me like the Idler arm hangs too low, but I grabbed a Moog one off the shelf and it seems to match fairly well, it's just hard to measure whether they match exactly or not. I think the parts are right, but I'm at a loss as to what else could cause this, and I would imagine it'd be a big issue if they rolled off the line this way.

Any ideas?

-matt

[wmhjr]

Be careful. About 2 yrs ago, I purchased a "GM A-Body front end kit" from Spohn to fit my pontiac. Only problem - it didn't fit my pontiac. Close, but not correct. Steve Spohn learned from me that pontiacs are not chevies. I ended up returning the parts. Not blaming Steve or anything - just that there are often misconceptions that some things "are all the same".

To be honest, I never throw away old stuff until I know for sure I'm straightened out. In the case I spoke of, I was able to directly compare all the specific measurements and know for certain that the stuff from Spohn was incorrect.

[monteboy84]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm putting a new steering box in so I'll get a new pitman arm for that and a Moog Idler at that point to see if that fixes the problem. The way it is now there's no way I'd leave it, it's bad enough that the end joint of the drag link is nearly bound up...

-matt

[David Pozzi]

Im pretty sure the idler is adjustable for height, my 85 & 89 Camaros were & adjusting height is detailed in the manual. Loosen the idler arm to frame bolts, push up on the center link until it's level & tighten.

[monteboy84]

Im pretty sure the idler is adjustable for height, my 85 & 89 Camaros were & adjusting height is detailed in the manual. Loosen the idler arm to frame bolts, push up on the center link until it's level & tighten.

That's good to know, I'll check it out this weekend and post back. Thanks for the heads-up!!

-matt

[monteboy84]

Im pretty sure the idler is adjustable for height, my 85 & 89 Camaros were & adjusting height is detailed in the manual. Loosen the idler arm to frame bolts, push up on the center link until it's level & tighten.

I just wanted to come back and give a follow-up on this, David was 100% right, I loosened the idler bolts, put an adjustable stand under the draglink and leveled it right out before tightening the bolts up again. Thanks for your help!!

-matt