Suspension help, What do I have here?

[daveybtv]

I just bought a 79 Malibu, that was built about 7-10 years ago, the guy that built the car was a GM teck so looks like the work was done right, it has Hotckis tubular upper control arms with second gen Camaro spindles and breaks, the rear is also Hotckis boxed control arms upper and lower with Hotchkis lowering springs on all 4 corners and KBY shocks, it also was up graded to MCSS front and rear sway bars.

The question I have is the Camaro spindles, I have heard of B body spindle swaps in G body’s but not from a Camaro? He said that with the control arms this spindle allows for better camber settings?

So far just every day driving it seems to be tight?

[SLO_Z28]

There would be several concerns with a spindle swap, camber gains, bump steer, scrub radius, and ackerman. All of those have changed with the new spindle and theyre all important.

Anyone here have the measurements for the stock spindle so we could compare?

[novaderrik]

what year Camaro are the spindles from?
the 70-81 Camaro spindle is identical to the 73-77 A body spindle, which is mostly the same as any 77-96 B body spindle- with the only differences being in the B bodies with the HD suspension that got the 12" brakes (77-89 wagons and cop cars, every 90-96 B body). the 94-96 B body spindles used a bigger lower balljoint and were lighter and strong than the earlier ones, but are otherwise identical.
any of these spindles would be the "tall spindle" swap that is so popular for older Chevelles and newer "metric" g bodies..
i have heard of people using the spindles from 64-72 A bodies, 67-69 F bodies, and 68-74 X bodies in the later "metric" G bodies, but i don't what the benefit of that would be.

[daveybtv]

yes 70-81 Camaro is what he said, sounds like what your saying is it would be equilivant to a B body swap then, thanks.

[daveybtv]

Thanks for the help guys, I did some more checking and found what I was looking for on the Hotchkis site:
" Note: Arms do not work with factory spindles! Spindles required are 70-76 GM F-Body, or 78+ GM B-Body. Spindles will lower vehicle 3/4" and widen track width 3/8" per side." it also required the master cylinder to be changed to f body and a proportioning valve installed. I checked the car and all was done correctly, this upgraded the breaks to 11" rotors also.

[SLO_Z28]

Im pretty sure that the only difference between the 70-81 spindles and b body (besides bearings) is the tie rod location. This will affect ackerman.