Tru Turn System with Stock Control Arms

[JEFFTATE]

PART ONE :The Kit and The Spindles
When ridetech came out with the Tru Turn Steering System , I was very interested in getting one for three reasons :
#1 - My car still had the stock , 42 year old front spindles and I was worried that one of them was going to break under the punishment of track use.
#2 - I wanted to get rid of the bumpsteer from my stock / modified / lowered suspension .
#3 - I wanted to get some real negative camber gain on the front suspension , thus improving my tire contact patch .
The Tru Turn , with it's tough G-Force Spindles , improved geometry , and new steering linkage looked to be an economical way to improve my car .

My '69 Camaro is kinda low tech , low budget , Old School . It's basically modified stock ,with a stock frame , stock control arms , the Guldstrand Mod , stock 10" brakes on the front , stock drums on the back , 175# rear leaf springs , 700# front coil springs . It's lowered about 3" up front and 2" in back . It has 245 tires up front on 17"X8" wheels with 275 tires in back on a 17"X9.5" wheel .. and a 300 hp/350ci engine .
The funny thing is , it's actually pretty fast , for what it is .
I always seem to be in the top 1/3 of the field at most of the pro-touring events ..

I've been told that , " your car is a lot faster than it looks like it ought to be " . and I'm proud of that comment .

To get a good idea of just what the Tru Turn would do for me , I wanted to put it on and leave the rest of my car as-is . To see what the improvement would be ..

A big question was , would it work with stock 1969 Camaro control arms , stock brakes , my 17" wheels , etc. ?

The Tru Turn System , of course , came meticulously packaged with complete instructions .
( ridetech always does a great job at presentation and professionalism )
( One correction on the Instructions : The bent inner tie-rod end goes on the PASSENGER SIDE to clear the IDLER ARM , not the pitman arm like it says in the instructions ..)

[JEFFTATE]

Here's a pic of the comparison between the stock , 43 year old spindle and the new G-Force spindle .


Notice the beefy reinforcement of the ridetech Spindle .. This is gonna give me piece of mind , I'm not so worried about a spindle breaking ..

Here's a comparison on the car . Notice the difference in height of the center pin . The ridetech G-Force Spindle has a 2" drop , so that will give me suspension travel without the front suspension bottoming out ..

[JEFFTATE]

Stay tuned for part two !!

[GeoffP]

Great job on part one - you've got me wishing I'd bought the whole kit instead of just the spindles already!

[JEFFTATE]

Part Two :Outer Tie Rod Clearance
The next thing I did was some test fitting/mock-up to make sure the outer tie rod ends would clear with the 17" wheels .
That's a common problem with a drop spindle because you're moving the outer rim of the wheel up .. It runs into the outer tie rod end .
But , because or the compact , flat design of the ridetech outer tie-rod end , they cleared with plenty of room to spare !

[Nothingface5384]

this sounds cool and all, but I thought in ridetech description it stated the truturn setup wont work with stock control amrs ..only their strongARM??

[JEFFTATE]

this sounds cool and all, but I thought in ridetech description it stated the truturn setup wont work with stock control amrs ..only their strongARM??

That's a question I am researching ...
I am testing to see if the Tru Turn Steering System will work with stock arms , and what improvements will be made ..
I know the Tru Turn System will bolt up to the stock arms , but the questions are : Will there be ball-joint bind , and will there be any clearance issues , and will the suspension geometry be correct ?

ridetech recommends that The Tru Turn system be used in conjunction with their StrongArms because the suspension geometry has been worked out for optimum results , plus the StongArms give the opportunity to use the RideTech Musclebar front swaybar , and the ball joints in the StrongArms have larger working angles ...among other things .

[BuzzKillian]

this sounds cool and all, but I thought in ridetech description it stated the truturn setup wont work with stock control amrs ..only their strongARM??

I have Tru Turn Installed with stock control arms and stock brakes. That being said, I don't have my car running and have not aligned it yet.

[BuzzKillian]

PART ONE :

My '69 Camaro is kinda low tech , low budget , Old School . It's basically modified stock ,with a stock frame , stock control arms , the Guldstrand Mod , stock 10" brakes on the front , stock drums on the back , 175# rear leaf springs , 700# front coil springs . It's lowered about 3" up front and 2" in back . It has 245 tires up front on 17"X8" wheels with 275 tires in back on a 17"X9.5" wheel .. and a 300 hp/350ci engine .
The funny thing is , it's actually pretty fast , for what it is .
I always seem to be in the top 1/3 of the field at most of the pro-touring events ..

I've been told that , " your car is a lot faster than it looks like it ought to be " . and I'm proud of that comment .

To get a good idea of just what the Tru Turn would do for me , I wanted to put it on and leave the rest of my car as-is . To see what the improvement would be ..

A big question was , would it work with stock 1969 Camaro control arms , stock brakes , my 17" wheels , etc. ?

The Tru Turn System , of course , came meticulously packaged with complete instructions .
( ridetech always does a great job at presentation and professionalism )
( One correction on the Instructions : The bent inner tie-rod end goes on the PASSENGER SIDE to clear the IDLER ARM , not the pitman arm like it says in the instructions ..)

I'm with you on the Improvments in stages concept. I kinda wish I put my car together stock first, so I had a baseline to compare "Bang for the Buck" improvments.
I think you're a lot better driver then you give yourself credit for.

I got one of the very first kits. It did not have a bent tie rod in the kit. Do you know if the bent inner tie rod is necessary on all applications? It looks close on mine, but I don't think it will be a problem.

[JEFFTATE]

I'm with you on the Improvments in stages concept. I kinda wish I put my car together stock first, so I had a baseline to compare "Bang for the Buck" improvments.
I think you're a lot better driver then you give yourself credit for.

I got one of the very first kits. It did not have a bent tie rod in the kit. Do you know if the bent inner tie rod is necessary on all applications? It looks close on mine, but I don't think it will be a problem.

The bent tie rod on mine is very close to the idler arm when the steering is all the way in one direction .
Every car is different , so make sure you have clearance ..

[BuzzKillian]

Good info Jeff... keeep it coming

[JEFFTATE]

Part Three : Stock 10" Brakes .

My next question was , Will the stock 10" brake rotors clear ?
With the 2" drop spindle , the center of the brake rotor moves up 2" , and there was an interference with the nut that attaches the steering arm to the spindle ..
On the stock spindle , these nuts ( or bolt heads ) tuck inside the inside diameter of the rotor. The rotor rotates around them .
But on the drop spindle , the nuts run right into the rotor .

[JEFFTATE]

The solution was shaved down nuts and shorter bolts , which the guys at ridetech supplied me with ..





Make Sure , Make Sure , Make Sure to use High Strength Locktite on these fasteners and torque them accordingly with a torque wrench ...

The shaved nuts and shorter bolts gave the clearance required between them and the rotor , but they still pushed the dust shield into the rotor , so I cut some nice holes through the dust shield to allow clearance ..











Don't laugh at my ugly dust shield , I painted it later ..

[JEFFTATE]

Part Four : Brake Caliper Mounting Bracket Modification.

Another thing to note is that the brake caliper mounting bracket will not lay flat against the spindle in the same area as it did on the stock spindle .
This is partly because of the drop spindle design and partly because of the beefiness of the ridetech spindle .


The solution is to trim a piece off the bracket ..
So , I marked on the back side of the bracket where it needed to be cut .


And here's what it looked like after the trimming .

[MrQuick]

nice work Jeff, I was hoping to do more testing on this set up but we just got crazy busy at the shop. You know what would be nice is if the lower holes were threaded so you can use a bolts or studs in that location.

[GeoffP]

I'm looking forward to see what you find out with bump steer and the stock control arms! I only bought the spindles since I figured it wouldn't help much and because I want to keep my Hotchkis front coils instead of going coil over.

[JEFFTATE]

I'm looking forward to see what you find out with bump steer and the stock control arms! I only bought the spindles since I figured it wouldn't help much and because I want to keep my Hotchkis front coils instead of going coil over.

Geoff , I am keeping my Landrum 700# coil springs , I'm not using coilovers either .
Everything on my car is staying the same , the front coil springs , stock a-arms , stock type sway bar ..

[ehummelman]

I'm not sure how I feel about shaving my nuts as you did. LOL

Seriously though, thanks for the writeup Jeff. I'm also watching to see how these setups fit with different options. It sounds like every car is going to be different unless you buy their entire package which can be pretty pricey, especially if your current brakes won't work.

[JEFFTATE]

I'm not sure how I feel about shaving my nuts as you did. LOL

Rodney at ridetech did it for me . LOL !

[carguy502]

There is another option regarding the nuts:

I originally got my G-force spindles from FatMan back in the day. Near as I can tell, they are identical to the ridetech pieces. Instead of nuts with a taper, they used Allen head bolts that had a countersunk taper on the head and conventional Nylock nuts. I recently upgraded to the True Turn and utilized the old FatMan hardware. These bolts sit flush with the spindle. Here is an example (wrong sizes listed):

http://www.mcmaster.com/#socket-head-cap-screws/=h28qfw

Best,
Don