Corvair front suspension

Well said...


The right way ( seems to me, anyway ) of swapping a R&P onto a front suspension that didnt come with one is to first find out where the inner pivot point of the steering arm needs to be.

To determine the height and its distance from the cars centerline.

So with that information you can work out the placement and width of the rack.

The fore/aft location affects the Ackerman ( I've seen that word used a couple of times in this Thread as well...)


I have done this a couple of times.
And if you start with a car with ( massive ) bumpsteer, and you are able to cure it, it completely transforms that car for the better.

 

So's mine. Rebuild it.

 

I do not want 1930 suspension on the front of a 500 horsepower car.
Corvair suspension with V8 vega springs and disc brakes will make the car safe at highway speeds. I was asking the question about the Corvair front end as more of a "Any tips to installing it?" not as a "Should I throw it away?"
I get that in Hot Rodding there are opinions. in my opinion, "Rat Rods" are a fad that cannot go away fast enough for me....That does not make me right,it makes me different.

 

scroll down to post 10, and tell me a straight axle isn't up to the challenge. Humor me.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=499649&highlight=hellzapoppin

 

The way I made mine work as I cut and welded to make my own tie rod. I did this to get the inner pivots right next to the pivots on the lower control arms. Works fine,Just look at a 55 chevy to see what it should look like.
Advantages of a Corvair over a MII, The Corvair adjusts with shims instead of sliding. Much easier. The Corvair has anti-dive geometry. Notice the angled back upper arms? The A arms are not parallel as in a MII. I have run a camber deviation test on both and the MII sucks. The Corvair is much better with very little camber change where as the MII starts negative,goes positive and the negative again.
The Corvair is vastly supperior in limit control with both upper and lower rubber cushions.

 

Look,I am new here and was hoping to make friends but this is just getting wierd. I want a car that handles. I want it to ride nice.
I do NOT want a freaking straight axle.
PLEASE,if you want to talk about putting a Corvair axle under a car,I am all ears. If you want to talk about Nostagic straight axles (Which are cool...I JUST DO NOT WANT ONE ON THIS CAR) then by all means talk about it in a different thread. Want my old straight axle? You can have it,come get it. Put it under whatever you want. I do not want it under THIS car.

 

ANDY,thanks. That is the exact type of answer I was looking for. Did you go rear steer?

 

Betcha a straight axle is better! Just sayin'...LOL

(I'm messin' with ya...in case its missed!)

 

Betcha a straight axle is better! Just sayin'...LOL

Tradition!

(These damn fiddler-on-the-roof types!)

Hi Bill!

 

Remember, the Pontiac Tempest and Buick Skylark, and others, from 1960-63 used the same front suspension, and they had V8s and such. The Tempest had a limited edition 421 that did high speed work. So the basic design is good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Tempest

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0905phr_1963_pontiac_tempest_super_duty/index.html

Now, a bad steering swap can screw any suspension up.

 

Yes. It is rear steer. I used a full size 60 Chevy box and idler arm. All the rest was mix and match to get the lengths right. I did this in 69 so could not use a Vega!

 

Who said anything about rat rods?

I have been over 200 at B'Ville, with over 650 hp, in a straight axle, leaf sprung car. Rode just fine for me.

 

Great.Wonderful.What's that have to do with installing a Corvair suspension on MY car? Want to pick out what color I paint it? Blue with black fenders ok?

 

How's that working out for ya?

Why ask a question here then argue with the guys who've made the same mistakes you're about to make?

"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it"

 

Ban me then. I did not ask IF I should install the Corvair stuff. I asked for some opinions. I got some great information. I did make some friends. I simply do not want a straight axle front end. I am new here but I am no novice. Block me,ban me..whatever. I tried several times to get the point accross that I do not want the stock front end...some folks had to keep pounding the issue.

 

At the end of life's journey, none of any of this matters

If you are set on the corvair, then do it. If you knew the backround of the hambers who said they did it, and their car DID work great, it should be enough to know it can be done well.

There will always be others who have installed something on a car incorrectly, and then tell the world it won't work.....

 

The members of this board can be pretty tough on you at times.
I know I have been hit quite hard in the past. Thick Skin

Back in 1967 my buddy Rusty put Corvair under the front of his 40 Ford Convertible he also put a 327 and a 57 Chevy rear end with parallel leafs. It was a great car as memory serves and handled pretty good. But then again that was 43 years ago.

The best part was I got all the running gear including the flathead for my metal T-bucket project.

My thought is Go For It! You have the parts and it almost bolts in so why not. And if it works great or not let us know.
I for one would like to know how it works out.

Just my thoughts

Cadman

 

I have a 35 Ford pickup, with the Corvair suspension and a Pinto rack. This setup works great but is ugly as hell, Im running fenders so...

 

I have nothing to contribute, I just wanted to say that this was the best thing I've read on the Hamb today:

 

Now that this has been beat to death for a few days, I will try to bring some new and relavent information to the questions posed in post #1.

My rod has had a late ('65-69) Corvair front suspension installed since 1976. The car has over 130,000 miles. It rides and handles nice for a Model A (high center of gravity, short wheel base).

The suspension has been rebuilt once since issued by GM. It had over 100k in the rod and who know how many in a 5 to 8 year old Corvair when that was done.

I have used up two sets of tires and a couple sets of front shocks in the 35 years the car has been on the road.

I didn't do the installation, but it looks like the Model A crossmember was put on top of the Corvair crossmember and it was welded up.

For many years it had a Pinto front steer rack with no noticeable bump steer, as experienced by others. About 10 years ago I decided that the rack in front of the radiator was too unsightly and I converted it to rear steer. I swapped the steering arms from left to right and installed a mopar rear steer rack, the one used by Total Cost Involved at that time. After the conversion, I swapped the steering arms for the high performance (shorter) arms to reduce the turning radius.

I must admit that the turning radius is somewhat large, but not dangerous, and probably not a lot different from other full fendered Model A's.

This car was finished before the first MII was built and serves very well for the 8 - 10,000 miles I put on it each year.

See you down the road,
Phil

 

Phil,Mind sending me a couple pictures?

 

I installed the Corvair front end with Scarebird disc brakes and quicksteer arms. The car has a very small turning radius and no measurable bump steer. This front end is a very easy one to work with and is cheap,easy to find and easy to work the bugs out of. I think if people take a new look at old stuff they might just like it. The only thing I will readily agree on is looks. I am going with full fenders/hood and front frame skirts to hide this thing because even when all the welds are ground and the paint is on...this is not as cool looking as a drop axle....but I would recomend this front end to any low-buck builder who is more concerned with driveability than with looks.

 

BUT , have you actually driven the car with the Corvair front suspension? i'm waiting the road test report.

 

It's all comes to what you like and the car it's on. True, it all depends on
whether the car has fenders or not. My car is full fendered so you don't
see it, which is a big plus. That Corvair front end has been great for me.
Drove it everywhere, nearly half way across the country a couple of times. had it up to 110 M.P.H. just cruising on the highway and it was
easy and stable. Remember, the only thing that is Corvair is the
crossmember once you added all the different parts, as long as you
have the right rack on it it. Mine rack is 59 MGA but I've been told that
Chevette is even better. I don't regret it one bit. Just my two cents.

 

Nice to see a complete disregard for Ackerman.

 

too bad he didn`t do it right, no ackerman and looks like it`ll bumpsteer like a beast, oh well, i live far away, won`t be crashin into me....lol....and by the time he bought that kit from scarebird and that rack, probably blew any kinda "budget" he was talkin about....lol

 

This whole thread smells like disregard.

 

have one in my 29 chevy rides and handles good for the last 48000 miles i put a mustang 11 rack in front turned the arms around used the corvair tie rod ends cut the ends off the rack to shorten it and welded the chevy adjuster sleeves onto the rack has good turning raidus

 

I believe Fatman suggested a VW rack for a rear mount on my buddy's Corvair front end in a 34 Ford.
There is a thread on Cavalier racks on independent front ends. I think with some planning a Cavalier rack would eliminate ackerman and turning radius problems.

 

The Scarebird brakes and the rack cost me under 200 bucks.
Thats a grand less than the IFS alternatives.
Ummm ....."LOL"