Raising the rack

I have installed a Mustang II front end under my 53 chevy 210 with air bags
heres the problem, at full drop ( lowest position) my tie rod ends of the M2 rack are binding and not letting the suspension fully drop. I have come up with 2 options,

1. get a set of drop spindles 2 inches
2. raise the rack by cutting off and raising the mounting tabs for the rack.

Has anyone else ran into this if so how did you get around it. The main reason I'm doing this is to be able to run a taller tire.

I have installed a stock rack and Paul Hortons front cross member the factor M2 uppers and lowers.

Thanks
MrC

 

Drop spindles way less engineering there.

All you have to do is write the check.

 

There is an ideal position for the rack where roll steer and bump steer are the lowest possible. Depending on what you have now, moving the rack could make things better or worse, but odds are, its's going to be worse. Beyond that it's hard to say whether the change will be livable, or make the car a choir to drive.

 

c notch the rails to clear the tie rods.....

 

I did not think of steering geometry issues, a C notch in the rails wont fix the binding. The tie rods are binding at the spindels not at the rack.
thanks for the feed back so far.
MrC

 

"dropped" spindles actually raise the spindle in relation to the car.
steering arms will stay the same.

The only difference is that "full drop" will put your wheels 2" higher. . . and your car 2" lower. It will only solve your problem if you hit ground/bump stops before the steering arms bottom out again.

don't move the rack. . . or better yet read all of El polacko's threads and verify that your rack is in the right spot. . . then out it in the right spot if it isn't.

 

Here was a few pics of the mock up of parts you can see the relationship of the crossmember and the spindle.

Raising the rack shoudn't change any of the steering geometry other than the angle of the tie rod ( no different than hitting a bump or riding at a other than stock height) now moving the rack forward or backwards would change alot.

Yes drop spindles will only lower the car by raising the spindle height the reason I mentioned it was because it would keep the tie rod at it same location, im about 2 inches from the ground now. so it would sit on the ground without changing any of the other suspension pieces.

I have know way to verify I put the crossmember in at the right height.
can you tell from a pic?

Thanks, again
MrC

 

Awwwww WTF? ... here I am thinking I'm gonna be seeing before and after pics of a "**** lift".

 

Rework the steering arms.

 

The rack position is decided by the geometry of the control arms. If its in the right place already you can't simply raise or lower it without bumpsteer issues.
Don't mess with it if its correct now.

Just buy the spindles and add some bumpstops anyway to prevent even lightly binding the tierods.

 

Option 3 - get rid of the air bags and put proper springs and shocks on the car....

 

Any one else run into this problem or just me?

 

I have seen this problem before. If you want the thing all the way on the ground you have to zee the frame before and after the control arm mounts.

I have lost the pictures of the last one I did, and the next one in not coming in until next month, but here is Alex Gambino's F%%k You (yeah, that's the name of the car), showing the zee:

 

The only way to know if it is correct now, since the car doesn't appear to be driving, would be to mount all the suspension less the bags and then cycle the suspension while measuring the toe change. If it is correct there will next to zero toe change as the suspension goes through its travel. If it is wrong it will toe in and out and the suspension goes up and down.
If it is right and you move the rack, you will induce bump steer and make it undriveable.

 

If you happen to know any guys who race, one of them might be able to loan you a set of bump steer gauges. These facilitate just what Hotroddon mentioned above. It can be done without, but if you happen to have a buddy with a set, grab 'em.

 

The MII system is designed to have the steering arms parallel to the ground at ride height. If you raise the rack the arms will go down hill.

Wheel rise during ride bumps will make the steering arms longer creating bump steer.

Charlie

 

Oh, one other thing. I see that you are running factory upper and lower control arms. If you keep the factory lower as-is, you will be running the factory strut rod. These can be a travel limiter on a bagged car. They may be the next obstacle that you run into.

Running aftermarket lower A-Arms, or an strut rod conversion will eliminate this.

 

Thanks for all the advise last night I removed the shocks and that wasn't the limiter then I removed the tie rod and gained almost 2 inches so it looks like dropped spindels are the way to go I don't see how I can rework t
he rod ends without causing other issues
The problem arose when I swithed tires ( larger wheel and tie) I just wantted a second opinon on the problem
Thanks
MrC