68 nova suspension ideas

[F-Body International]

Listen to the last statement about drop spindles not fitting well. This is true so I would try to stay away from them. The steering arm starts getting in the way of wheels/tires.

[Emmett17]

F body international,

I’m planning to stay away from drop spindles and going with standard disk brake spindles instead. I’ve heard too many negative things about the drop spindles.

[Kenova]

I bought my Nova as a roller. Sorry to say, it also snowballed. Everything that was attached to the body was removed and cleaned up.

About the subframe. Clean it thoroughly before welding up all of those booger welds and move around a lot as you do. It is beyond me how these things held together.
I did the Guldstrand Mod while it was out of the car. Do it the same way Clint did it if you can. It gave me about 5 degrees of caster.
It was then re-installed with DSE half height solid bushings. Don't forget about the extra half inch spacers at the firewall.
Loosen all attachment points for your steering column before you install the subframe. This will prevent any binding.

I also ditched the slip-n-slide bench seat and installed some buckets with lateral support and new three point seat belts from Morris Safety.
Other than a T56 swap this is as far as I have gotten. It makes for a nice cruiser but I would have reservations about throwing it around on a autocross course. If I had read a post like Clint's before I started I think I would be much further along.
After I spend some time and money on my Vega I will turn my attention to the suspension on the Nova.
To mini tub or not, that is the question.

Ken

[Pro Touring Store]

ridetech would be my first choice; followed by UMI.

[79T/Aman]

supporting the forum you advertise on would be nice ;-)

[2yellow69]

A big thanks to Kenova for mentioning the spacers at the number 2 body mount. The car we are working on (74 Nova that looks like a 72) did not have these spacers. I thought it was interesting that the 4 main body mounts looked almost new and the radiator support bushings were completely trashed. The whole time I've been working on the front of this car I knew there was something I was trying to remember!! A long time ago I read about the Novas having that spacer. Since I have been working on my 69 Camaro for the last decade I never thought about it. Sure enough, I just went to the garage and looked under the car. The subframe is angled up from rear to front. I looked in the factory 72 Nova assembly manual and those spacers are the last part listed for assembling the subframe to the body. Part # 3920260 (1/2" thick). Even though they are listed for 68-72, I can say that looking at my daughters 74 convinces me that the 73-74's need it also. I will also have to buy longer bolts as the Global West supplied bolts will now be short ( I bought this solid bushing kit at least 10 years ago so that might have changed).

[Kenova]

I too reassembled my Nova without the spacers, so you're not alone.
I thought the sub frame was bent. Couldn't for the life of me get the sheet metal aligned once the sub was in. Then someone on PT.com mentioned the spacers
The originals had been thrown out so I made a pair from some scrap aluminum. All is good now LOL.

Sorry for the thread highjack Emmett.

Ken

[2yellow69]

I know we side stepped the original reason of this thread but I have one more thing I found out that I would like to share concerning those bushings. 67-69 Camaros don't need the extra 1/2" spacers. 68-72 Novas came with 1/2" spacers from the factory. After hours of reading on the never-ending internet, I found out that GM engineers changed the bushing itself for 73-74 Novas. They got rid of the separate space and made the bushing 1/2" taller. That is why there were no spacers on my daughters car. Classic Industries sells the correct height bushings for 73-74 in rubber.

Clint is correct that companies that make these solid mounts need to have better instructions with them.

[Emmett17]

No worries about the hijacking! I’m soaking all this up. So many things that never crossed my mind, such as the spacers.

[TheBandit]

I stand corrected and I'll defer to the subject matter expert.

Following the post above, I did some digging and found one example described here: https://www.chevydiy.com/how-to-rest...pension-guide/. This related to the control arm mounting area, and not the stitch welds along the top rails of the frame that go under the car.

The upper control arm tower and shock mount get a lot of abuse and they don’t get a lot of attention. The shock plate can be cracked where it meets the frame rail and can go undetected because it’s covered by the control arm. Hairline fractures commonly start around factory welds at the base of the control arm tower.

Another area of concern, unrelated to welding, is where the sway bar mounts to the frame. There's an example of that described here: https://www.camaros.net/forums/16-br...-sway-bar.html

I use this car for my daily driver and have driven it 115,000 miles with this 1 1/4 " sway bar on it. Also found the sway bar frame mount bolt loose, the nut had disappeared.

This car is driven gently. So you guys autocrossing your car need to keep this in your check list when inspecting your car.