Project BLUEprint, 1965 Falcon

[blade]

Hey Bryce, Won't that long of a bolt put a lot of stress on the spindle arm in single shear?

[Bryce]

Hey Bryce,
I apologize in advance for my posts length. I must say that you have done some fabulous work and this has been very eye opening for me in my own project. I myself have a 64 Falcon, though it is a four door. This brings me to my main point; in regards to your front suspension build (I understand it was done quite a while ago.) When you built it, did you maintain roughly the same positioning of the ball joints in the LCA and UCA in relation to factory specs? Also I remember somewhere in the previous 88 pages you mentioned which type of ball joint fit the application (screw in with proper taper for factory spindles) but which one is it?

Thank you so much in advance.
~Willis

Willis, thank you for the compliments and good luck with your falcon project.

I moved things around to fit the tires and get the camber curves where I wanted them. I also clocked the angle of the ball joints so they were at zero angle to the spindle at ride height. I used a chrysler screw in ball joint from AFCO, they were k722 or k727. I will look through my reciepts and post that up here.

Your ideas totally make sense, Bryce--thanks for the response. You constantly demonstrate how so many of us need this site, because without it, people would just stare at us like crazy aliens whenever we choose to verbalize (our thoughts on) any of this stuff.

On the topic of a toe-out alignment, I did experiment with this myself when I first put my Falcon together with the stock stuff. It got down the road okay (for an antique), but something was always off; I'd initially set toe this way, as I'd remembered it from an SVT Focus I had. Then, I realized that front-drive cars usually address toe in opposition to a rear-driver, given the torque applied through the front-driving wheels. Granted, we can look at Indy cars and whatnot, and presume to detect a toe-out set up in their front wheels. Here's where I have no idea what I'm talking about...

At any rate, the toe-out may work for the auto-x, but it may give you some difficulty/unpredictability in normal driving. Granted, you're probably not going to cruise up to Hollywood all that often with 4.11 gears...

My latest shoot-myself-in-the-foot idea is electric power steering...

Thanks!

I have about 100 miles on the car with this toe out setting. It tracks pretty good but does find the ruts/expansion joints in the road. It doesnt bother me though.

I dont typically cruise this car. I drive to autocross and thats it. And to work once a year.

I like the idea of eletric power steering. Expensive and I havent seen a kit that can handle the loads I put into it.

Hey Bryce, Won't that long of a bolt put a lot of stress on the spindle arm in single shear?

THe shoulder bolt itself has no issues with that load. It can handle 18,000 pounds in single shear. I assume a front end weight of 1500 pounds with me and at a 2G load all on one tire thats only 3000lbs on one bolt. To counter the high stresses that the bolt does see I went to a large OD spacer to help spread the load into the spindle and react the moment. The inner tierod attach point has a 1.5" lever arm to the centerpoint of the rod end. The outer tierod has a 1.85" lever arm. The weakest link in the system is the aluminum thread sleeve. I might replace that with steel to increase the stiffness.