1971 Chevelle tubular arms ((Way too Low)))

[Jcmolina]

I purchased a set of tubular upper and lower control arms on ebay, also purchased a new disk brake conversion kit witha 2" drop spindle. the problem i have now is that the car is sitting way too low. I used my old springs and bought new shocks from Auto Zone. not sure what to do because i can actuallly raise the car up by grabbing the bumper and pulling and then it sits to the height that i need but then it just drops to where i am not able to even turn the wheels because it hits the fender.

[CliffsBlueCamaro]

Ouch. Well, chances are your ebay control arms have a built in drop of about 2" in the spring pocket, and the drop spindle's 2" drop is just compounding the problem.

So, you've got to pick between the drop spindles or the lower control arms. I'd put the stock spindles back on, keep the same stock springs, and get my drop from the lower control arms.

Best of luck, and let us know how it turns out!

[Jcmolina]

The only issue is that my stock spindles are for drum brakes and I converted to disk. And I will check on my control arms to see if they have a 2" drop I do not think so though

[Rod]

I purchased a set of tubular upper and lower control arms on ebay,

the ebay arms I have seen(cut up for re-bracing) have a 1.5 to 2.0 drop built in for both chevels and camaros (there resold by procomp, speedway and a few others)

[chevelletiger]

Id sell those drop spindles,use the drum hub spindle with kore3 c5brackets,or have the top thread boss,machined down to use stock discs. dropped spindles are not a great choice for our abodys talk to mark@scandc he'll educate you on what combos work.phil

[1360]

.....as was said above, have the drum spindles machined to run the discs you already have. Selling the drop spindles should more than cover the spindle machine work.

[Jcmolina]

I checked again and what it weird that I can lift the car by pulling on the bumper and then it sits we're I want it but then I can push it back down, looks like the spring and shocks are not expanding

[UMI Tech]

Have you tried loosening the cross shaft nuts and lower control arm mounting bolts? That wouldn't solve your height problem but might help the movement problem.

ramey

[Jcmolina]

What if I use adjustable spring shims will that my case

[MyFriendScott]

Spring isolators or shims will bring back some of that ride height. Energy suspension makes a 3/8" poly isolator, P/N 9.6107 that would raise the car 3/4" - 7/8". The height gained will be double the height of the isolator or shim. If your tubular LCA's have a stamped coil spring pocket that is not flat all the way around, then you can't use shims and will have to use a poly isolator and cut it so it follows the contour of the coil spring pocket.

I recently installed a set of tubular lowers that dropped my car 1.5" and it was too low as well. Here's a link to my post with pics of before/after shots and how I resolved it...

https://www.pro-touring.com/showthread.php?87508-67-Camaro-Coil-springs-tubular-lower-C-A-s-and-spring-isolators

[looter]

I have disc spindles and am looking for 2" lower spindles on my 71 Monte.

[Jcmolina]

I have some isolaters in there already but i actually have a couple of 1/4" flat aluminum shims that will actually fit in between the isolater and the bottom of the control arm plus just purchased some 1/2" spacer that will fit between the isolater and the actual spring. It looks like I will gain about 1 1/2" and that might be good enough and should solve my problem (I Hope).

(Looter) if this does not work I will sell you the 2" drop spindles will give you a good deal for them,

[Jcmolina]

Hey guys thanks for all the advise and got the car raised to a good height now. What I did is added a 1/2" and a 1/4" spacer to each side which raised the car 1 1/2" and now I can drive still need to take the car in for an alignment. But now I have another small issue since I converted to disk brake I am leaking brake fluid thru the copper washer and can not get it to stop. Any recommendations out there I bought a couple new ones from Auto Zone and they still leaked

[MonzaRacer]

get some new ones, heat them with propane torch and let them air cool down, this should soften them a bit. ALSO dont forget to have good banjo bolts and dont be afraid to give them a good torque. most people are afraid to actually put a good pull on them.
Also make sure the washers are seating all the way up and not catching on a shoulder.

[Jcmolina]

Ok got the Chevelle in for an alignment this past Saturday and everything worked out fine and now I would recommend the control arms from eBay. I still have a small leak on the copper washers and will heat the new ones up next weekend and see what happens. What a difference as far as the ride is concern the old stock control arms were really bad and now with new tubular arms I can actually drive the car with one hand on the wheel

[Jcmolina]

Now my steering is a little hard to keep straight on the road, I have tightend the steering box but still have the issue. Any help out there

[andrewb70]

Now my steering is a little hard to keep straight on the road, I have tightend the steering box but still have the issue. Any help out there

This could be an alignment issue. Did they align with some toe in?

Andrew

[Jcmolina]

Not sure but they did say that they got the alignment as close to spec as possible. Do I need to tell them to change it to toe in

[chuckd71]

Original spec? I doubt original spec would be anything close to accurate just based on talks with Mark about my own car.

[Jcmolina]

So what do you recommend? It is kind of scary when driving down the highway