(Work done around Dec 2015-April 2016)
The new front suspension itself was pretty straight forward, even throwing in some clean up of the shock towers and things like that. Everything is just plain parts swap outs and nothing too exciting to go into detail about. I mentioned it in the last post, but just for good measure, here’s what I put on:
- V8 steering linkage with a roller idler arm from Opentracker
- Opentracker Street upper and lower control arms (not the fancy roller ones)
- Opentracker roller spring perches
- Scott Drake GT coil springs (I ended up cutting them a little bit but I can’t find my info on how much—I think it was 1/4 or 1/2 a coil, so just a little bit)
- CSRP Kelsey-Hayes style disc brakes and new 65 V8-style spindles (but that use the larger wheel bearings from I think 70+)
- Bilstein Sport shocks
- New strut rod bushings
- NiCopp brake hard lines throughout the whole car
The only thing I’ll specifically point out here is that I ran into issues with the CSRP spindles or rotors or something. I never figured out exactly what created the issue. The rotor is held onto the car with a large washer alongside the outer wheel bearing, then a large nut, then a nut retainer (that may be the wrong name) that has castellations. A cotter pin is supposed to fit between the castellations on the nut retainer and go through the spindle to hold everything in place and keep the nut from backing off. The problem I had was that the cotter pin went through the spindle too far out towards the edge—it only caught the very tips of the retainer castellations. So it seemed like the nut could potentially loosen up some as the cotter pin wasn’t effectively holding it in place. I tried all the different spindle nuts I could find in different thicknesses to try to push the retainer out towards the cotter pin but none of them got it to a level I felt comfortable with. CSRP sent me different rotors to try, but that didn’t help anything. Ultimately, I ended up putting an ASME grade 8 washer between the spindle washer and the nut to push it out further. I was a little uncomfortable with the idea, but it seems to be working out okay. Otherwise, the kit is very complete and seems to have decent parts and instructions.
