How did you go about moving the LCA’s forward? Thinner spacer on the front and thicker on the back? My tires are a little farther back than I’d like as well.
12:05 Garage- ’70 Duster build
- Thread starter racerjoe
- Start date
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racerjoe
Well-Known Member
Yes, and then some. I started a while back by cutting the tube that extended out the K flush and still ran a spacer. I mostly did this to bring the wheel center while running almost 7 degrees of caster. I just took the spacer out and put a thin machine washer next to the bushing.
Thanks! I’ll definitely have to add this to the list of frontend upgrades. Currently planning on installing dennys latest version of UCA’s, the taller balljoints and switch out my springs from 400lb to 450lb.
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
I'm using Peter's SPC arms and I think I have 450lb springs. Are you getting the 2" ball joints? They actually make a difference you can feel. Try and get 7+ degrees of caster and 1.5 degrees of camber. I was watching your car at Moparty and it looked like it could use more aggressive alignment.
Next on my list of improvements is a custom sway bar. In typical fashion, I over thought it to come up with a "cheap" solution. I think everyone that follows along here will like it.
JBrian
Well-Known Member
My last runs with the Michelin SS tires before the Falken RT660 in 245/40-18x9 & 275/35-18x9.5, one size small than the old tires
DionR
Well-Known Member
Speaking of new wheels, Forgeline just dropped a set of Demon 170 wheels in CF in 18x8 front and 17x11 rear. I guess the Demon 170 had an option for CF wheels? Those could actually work on an A-Body depending on offset which they don't list. Put a 245/40R18 and a 315/35R17 on it and it would be sweet. Not a corner burner so much as a drag (and drive?) setup, but the front would still fit over the Scat Pack 14.2" brakes I will have. Now to come up with $15.5K to buy a set. 
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/f...ze&utm_medium=emaileditorial&utm_campaign=HRN
Note that a set from Mopar is $20K, so pretty good savings.
I would redesign my fabricated spindle and rear floater idea so the bolt pattern matched to run something like this. If I had the money. Which I don't.
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/f...ze&utm_medium=emaileditorial&utm_campaign=HRN
Note that a set from Mopar is $20K, so pretty good savings.
I would redesign my fabricated spindle and rear floater idea so the bolt pattern matched to run something like this. If I had the money. Which I don't.
I sorta came to the conclusion that I could use the 450lb springs since MoParty. The car has always had a good ride, but for MoParty I always set my single adjustable shocks to full stiff. Well, after we were done with the 3S, I forgot to loosen my shocks up again and it’s definitely not too stiff. It actually feels much more even with how the rear leafs ride, so my thinking is I can bump up to the 450’s then adjust my shocks softer again.
Yeah, planning to go ahead and do the 2” extended balljoints. I have the rebuildable QA1’s now and I saw awhile back that Denny was checking in to having some 2” studs made to work with the QA1’s, I’ll have to check with him to see if those are available.
It definitely needs an improvement in the alignment. I didn’t get as much caster last time as I would’ve liked, and it’s pulling to the left now as well.
My machinist has had both 1-1/2" and 2" studs on his back burner for quite....time to turn up the heat. I have the 1-1/2 " sealed ball joint assemblies in my car and especially after cutting one apart, (IMHO) they are nowhere near the quality of the QA1 stud / housing assembly.
He’s still got a little time, as far as when I’ll be needing them. I’m refraining from tearing into my Duster til my shop is finished.
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
Obligatory post autocross update...
While the rest of the country is shutting down autocross season, we are entering prime season for it. I didn't pay to have my new tire heat cycled so I knew the first few runs would be throw-aways. The car feels much different with this wheel and tire combo and its hard to describe. With the other tires, I was waiting for either over steer or understeer- that never happened. This course was a weird short one for us, and I didn't particularly care for it. It had a complete circle, into a long and fast slalom, then into a long sweeper. That was it. My fastest run was 31.2. We usually have 40-45 second courses. This also wasn't a good course for me to get a handle on my tire pressures. The hottest the tire got was 109 degrees. The interesting thing is I was just over 1.5 seconds to the FTD. Historically, I'm usually 3.5-4 seconds from FTD. Perhaps because it was a short course and less turns for me to screw up. Oh well, I'll take it. I'll need more time to learn the new tire setup. Next up, sway bar. Stay tuned.
Oh, right rear was scrubbing some undercoat off the inner wheel well. I've since knocked all of it off and added a 3mm spacer. All is good. Also, the front tire fits perfectly. At full lock it doesn't even touch the frame rail. As a refresher, the wheel openings are untouched, the support rod on the front is not extended, and the factory hex head bolt is still on the rear splash shield. This is with 8* plus of caster. Say what you want about the coil over kits, you won't get near the amount of adjustment in every direction with the factory setup. I honestly think I could get a 9.5" wheel on the front with stock sheet metal. And a 10" if you want to notch the frame rail slightly.
This sweet Nova showed up. It was a young guy. He and his dad restored it, but his dad lost interest, so he took over and added all Ride Tech suspension. This was his first autocross. He was all smiles and said he would be back. I told him people mistake my car for a nova all the time, so I told him he had a nice Duster. Pumped to see a young man interested in old iron and out having fun with it.
While the rest of the country is shutting down autocross season, we are entering prime season for it. I didn't pay to have my new tire heat cycled so I knew the first few runs would be throw-aways. The car feels much different with this wheel and tire combo and its hard to describe. With the other tires, I was waiting for either over steer or understeer- that never happened. This course was a weird short one for us, and I didn't particularly care for it. It had a complete circle, into a long and fast slalom, then into a long sweeper. That was it. My fastest run was 31.2. We usually have 40-45 second courses. This also wasn't a good course for me to get a handle on my tire pressures. The hottest the tire got was 109 degrees. The interesting thing is I was just over 1.5 seconds to the FTD. Historically, I'm usually 3.5-4 seconds from FTD. Perhaps because it was a short course and less turns for me to screw up. Oh well, I'll take it. I'll need more time to learn the new tire setup. Next up, sway bar. Stay tuned.
Oh, right rear was scrubbing some undercoat off the inner wheel well. I've since knocked all of it off and added a 3mm spacer. All is good. Also, the front tire fits perfectly. At full lock it doesn't even touch the frame rail. As a refresher, the wheel openings are untouched, the support rod on the front is not extended, and the factory hex head bolt is still on the rear splash shield. This is with 8* plus of caster. Say what you want about the coil over kits, you won't get near the amount of adjustment in every direction with the factory setup. I honestly think I could get a 9.5" wheel on the front with stock sheet metal. And a 10" if you want to notch the frame rail slightly.
This sweet Nova showed up. It was a young guy. He and his dad restored it, but his dad lost interest, so he took over and added all Ride Tech suspension. This was his first autocross. He was all smiles and said he would be back. I told him people mistake my car for a nova all the time, so I told him he had a nice Duster. Pumped to see a young man interested in old iron and out having fun with it.
bjkadron
Well-Known Member
Very nice! The "Nice Duster" line is great.
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
Awesome! I sincerely appreciate it. If I've learned anything about podcasting, you have to market the crap out of it. No one will ever find it unless they search specifically for the name. It's unfortunate the podcast players don't have better search functions by topic. I'm sure there's a bunch of great automotive shows out there I've never heard of. Please share it with all your car friends.
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
And where all your favorite podcast you listen to your favorite shows…..
Atta boy
JBrian
Well-Known Member
Nice pictures Tim. Looks very flat and well balanced, how does it feel? I'm still waiting for pictures from December 10th!
Based on these and the static pictures you're probably pretty close to bottomed out on the outside front suspension in a couple of those corners. Larger sway bar to go with the better tires?
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
It is bottoming out and it was before I even put this setup on the car. If you look close at the second picture, my inside rear is slightly off the ground. Ths only happens on high speed sharp turns. Denny supplies a 1" solid sway bar, the Hotchkis bar I used to run was 1.5" hollow. Using the Addco online sway bar stiffness calculator, there's a significant stiffness difference between the two. A member here, @bjkadron volunteered to help me do some mathing once I get him some weights for him. I'm going to make a splined end tubing type sway bar and I want to make sure I pick the right size tubing. Had he not volunteered, I would have just gone with the same size tubing the Hotchkis bar has, 1.5" x .188" wall. I may end up with that, but at least I'll have some math behind it instead of just guessing.
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
It feels very good with the exception of the body roll. The additional tire size is a noticeable difference in grip. They have definitely given me more confidence to carry more speed. I was 2 seconds behind a mult-time national female winner who was driving a C8. She had FTD. I know 2 seconds is a lot, but I'll call that good considering I'm driving grandma's car and she's in a modern supercar.
Interesting! Are you still running the 450 lb/in springs up front? I know I bought a set of 1.18's for my Duster, even on the street once I started running the Falken Azeni 615K's I was able to bring back some body roll that wasn't there when I was running the harder KDW2's. Your wheel rate at 300 lb/in may still be a bit light.
The NASCAR style splined sway bar is probably the way to go for competition, you could even get a couple different wall thicknesses if you wanted once you get the construction figured out for the car. Some of the kit cars had a similar set up with the splined sway bar. Definitely interested in what you end up doing, I've considered going that direction myself but the Hellwig's I run are just fine for the street for now. The '73+ K frame and the bar running through the K makes a straight splined bar a little entertaining to set up. Speedway sells some splined sway bar kits, they may have something that's in the ball park to start working from
racerjoe
Well-Known Member
Yes, still have the 450lb springs. That's another thing that Benjamin will evaluate for me. I don't want to go too stiff on the spring if the bar can make up for it. After all, I still street drive this thing and I wouldn't want to make it so stiff that it becomes unpleasant. I'm going to scratch make everything for the sway bar and I'll detail it all here. I figured out a relatively "cheap" solution. The base of the design will be a larger diameter tube that spans across the current mounting points to add some rigidity. That tube will have bushings in the ends that can be swapped out to match the diameter of the actual sway bar tube. I also plant to have a few holes in the arms so I'll have some finite adjustability. I'll also ditch the poly bushings and go with heim joints. I'll have to see if those end up being too harsh for street driving. If they are, I can simply make up something with a bushing for one side and swap it out when needed.
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