Anyone ever narrowed a front suspension on a "clip"? What would be the effect of narrowing the a-arms? I mean, if you shortened each one an inch... would it screw things up? I know you can narrow the sub frame right down the middle... but then it wouldn't line up with the frame I'm grafting it to... Thanks guys! Sam.
How much are they narrowed? an inch? I'm just thinking about putting some wide rims on the front of my F-100 that will have the Chevy C-10 clip... and wanted to know if this was possible. No biggie, really... I can keep the steelies and live with them... Sam.
I have a 1950 ford with a '78 camaro front clip (I as young, didn't know any better...) anyway, I too am looking to move my front wheels in a bit by buying shorter arms. I was looking at places like fat man fab, etc... pretty much any place that has a one page or bigger ad in Rod and Custom... but I have told that with shorter arms it will completely change the camber angles, etc.. and that it will ride like ****. Not helpful I guess.. but I too am wondering if there is a 'good' way to tuck the front wheels just an inch on each side. Jake
Jaker, I'm telling you something that I heard second-hand from someone's uncle who heard it from his dentist's girlfriend. So take it at that. Story goes that you can shave a little off each side by switching over to metric calipers and rotors. Unfortunately, that's all I know about this story. If you want to know more, PM chopolds and ask him what he had to do to Kenny's Plymouth to make the wheels fit. Ed
It shouldn't make that much difference, it'll change your camber change in roll, probably not anything noticable on a street car. It'll also change your wheel rates so it'll ride a little stiffer with the same springs. by moving your wheels in you'll also change ackerman. As long as you make sure you set your static camber right you should be fine.
I'm running a 74 Nova sub on my 41 and we narrowed the stock a-arms 1 1/2", alinement wasn't problem at all, it rides fine, I've got about 34,000 mi. on it now. The downside of shortened a-arms is the increase in turning circle. I can't make a u-turn on a 3 lane road, have to back up once, but it doesn't create any problem in normal driving. As someone already said you can narrow it down by using metric rotors, that wasn't known when I was building my car.
i think one of the disk brake companies....maybe eci ...anyway ...they make a different hub ***embly with a removable rotor......look in street rodder ....seems like they had a ad in there......as for cutting and narrowing ....my buddy just did his 37 dodge truck with a nova sub.....but he hasn't driven it yet .....hahah seems that if you shorted the outer tie rod end area the geometry shouldn't change.....but.........ya never know......brandon
You should just make some tubular control arms & run coilovers. That way you can narrow the track & get the spring rate you need. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Get a new car for you spouse - it'll be a great trade!
.. a friend of mine put a disc brake Nova sub in a 40 Ford coupe, which is a pretty narrow car. He ended up installing S-10 spindles/rotors, etc to pull the wheels in enuf. Don't know all the details but mite be able to find out. His coupe sits real low.
Find another clip.... you can't simply shorten both the upper and lower arms and retain the same wheel geometry. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for.....by that I mean that even if the geometry is a little whacky and you get a lot of camber change through the travel, with such a short amount of travel does it matter to you? The ride will also be effected because of the change in effective spring rate as mentioned earlier. Turn circle radius will change, but only slightly with that small change in track width, and on the same note, ackermann will also only change slightly with the small change in track width. Ackermann is most effected by the steering arm length and angle (inward- on a rear steer). Also, depending on the resulting geometry, you could create some bumpsteer. If you are really interested, there are a couple of books that go in-depth into suspension design. One is Race Car Engineering by Millikin and Millikin, the other is fundamentals of ground vehicle dynamics by thomas gillespie. They are the books pretty much all engineering schools use for teaching ground vehicle dynamics.
You guys all missed the part where he said it is a C-10 front clip, meaning full sized Chevy truck. Like the man said, get a new clip those things are too wide, and there are no shorter arms around. Yes you can shorten them, and yes you will have turning problems. Thats just not a good choice for a clip.
You can narrow it by sectioning it down the middle of the crossmember. Take out 1" or 3" what ever you need then weld it back together and you dont have to worry about messing around w/ the arms
As Sam said, he does not want to narrow the center because he needs the frame width as is to mate up with the stock frame.
in theory, if you shorten the upper and lower arms, and tierods the same amount, there shouldn't be any issues with bumpsteer. You'll just have an slightly exagerated camber curve, but really, so what? I've got a ***load of bump-steer in my old mustang, it's not a big deal, you just know to correct your steering a little when going over a hump in the road or off-camber corner. I'd do it, it's only metal, it's not like these are rare parts or something. Besides, there's much worse factory designed geometry out there, such as vintage mustangs, and 80's plymouth caravans... those things drive like they are broken somewhere...
bumpsteer comes from the steering link position in relation to the kingpin (upright) axis. So if you move the position of the kingpin (inward when shortening the arms) the bumpsteer is (probably) going to be affected. Each different suspension is different so it is possible that the geometry could work out with a minimal bumpsteer change, but not always. Most cars have bumpsteer because of packaging. You simply can't place the links in the exact position because of space, so they place the links close where the bumpsteer is minimal.
Again, I wouldn't change it unless you spend the time to do it right and figure out the geometry. You can do it in a few hours with Mitchell (computer program). Chances are that you will have to cut them different amounts and change the steering a little to get "correct" tire movement.
Sam I did exactly what your wanting to do.. on my 48 f1.. http://public.fotki.com/sawzallshop/sawzalls_shop_-_projects/for_sale/page2.html c10 frame was too wide.. and I didnt want to narrow the frame because it would mess with all the motor/ trans mounts.. so I narrowed the control arms. resulting suspension rode fairly well (it was a truck) this mod would result in some "scrub issues" because you'll ultimately change the ackerman angle.. btw I narrowed each side about 2 inches..
I know nothing but.... couldn't you narrow your X member and do a bleed style sweep (but to bring the rails in rather then up) in the ch***is forward of where you are joining to the existing ch***is to meet the new narrower X member...... would keep all your original geometry etc and give you the swap you want/have.....like I say I know nothing but it sounds like a good idea and cheap/easyish
At ease gentlemen... I think I may just go with a Camaro front clip... I got a line on one... and I just picked up some American Racing wheels... they are quite a bit deeper than my stock wheels... and the camaro is quite a bit narrower than the stock pickup... My idea to narrow it was because I have some 6" Americans with the big Chevy pattern... they are 2" further out than my stock wheels... so with the Chevy p-u clip, that would put them 2 1/2" out from where the wheels are now. So, at the swap meet, I picked up some 6" Americans with the small Chevy pattern... the Camaro clip is 1 1/4" narrower per side than the original front end, so then that puts my wheels only 3/4" out from where they are now! Now, if I was going to keep the steel wheels... I'd just keep the Chevy pickup clip... But now, with these wheels... I'll go with the Camaro clip, and then use the 5 on 5 6" wheels on the back! Win-win situation! Sam.
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