C5/C6 Upright upper ball joint flip

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy,

In the quest for improving the front suspension of my '64 Riviera without going through the process of a complete frame stub replacement, I've settled on the use of the C5/6 upright though in an effort to get more camber gain out of the design I need a taller spindle. From looking at the ZIP Corvette listing for the C5/6 upper ball joint, it looks to be a simple non tapered press fit into the upper control arm. Does anyone see a problem or more critically know of a problem with flipping the ball joint over to run it over the top of the spindle? I have to build custom control arms anyway so inverting the tapered hole is no big deal. Will the ball joint function properly upside down?

Thanks,

[BADDRIDE II]

I am thinking that depending on wheel offset....you would need to run a very large diameter wheel to clear this?

[astroracer]

Besides the large diameter wheel, flipping the ball stud moves the articulation point upward about 4" (maybe a bit more). Not a good idea unless you redesign the entire suspension.

[Samckitt]

Way back before ATS came up with the AFX spindles, a company called SC&C made something similar to this spindle. I don't know for sure, but I believe they used a stock Vette spindle & flipped the upper ball joint to the top side. How they did that I don't know.

The AFX spindle is a new forging, so I don't know how much of it is the same as a stock Vette spindle. Here is an exploded view of it:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/12/AFX_SPINDLE-1.jpg

Part 3: Upper Ball Joint Insert (Stock 7deg taper)
Part 4: Spiral Lock Retaining Ring

I doubt the only thing holding the insert in is the lock ring, it is probably pressed in too. My point is the ball joint for it is on the top side, so should be able to do it.

Try and let us know.

[CTX-SLPR]

I also figured something out, since the ball joint is actually centered in the upright upper arm, flipping it over gains me nothing but lost clearance over the top of the upright. Now if I sleeved the hole for a ball joint that was 1.5in above the spindle I'd actually gain something but still be having to to a much larger rim to fit since by my math a Corvette spindle has nearly a 9in radius from the centerline to the top of the ball joint anyway. I'm trying to preserve the C5 scrub radius (is the C6 preffered/different and something better to try to duplicate?) with an 18x8in wheel since that's all that I can be sure will fit, so I'm pretty sure the wheel fittment will be an issue.

Thanks for those who contributed and hopefully this will be a refference point for those who might look into this later (don't mind seeing answers on the C6 scrub radius though).