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« on: January 03, 2024, 04:45:33 PM »
So a bit of an update:
I got shorter springs for my coilovers, and they are just a smidge too short at full droop (like they come off the perch by about 1/8"). I think I am going to make a perch spacer out of delrin. Though the spring is not short enough/the body is not long enough to clear the tire fully, because the coilover is angled inwards and the tire section is narrower than the wheel, it does help create a ton of extra clearance.
That said, it doesn't create enough clearance to still run the 4+ degrees up front that the car wants, which requires camber bolts, with no spacer. What I can do though is dial in positive camber with the camber bolts, and then it works with no spacer.
That means I still need to do something about extending my ball joints or still run some spacer. I called Watson Racing and their ball joints are indeed for the later cars with the .750 stud, so that plan is out. I am not crazy about trying to create a press fit with sendcutsend's tolerances, the weld-in cup was kind of a critical piece of this. In the meantime I have committed to a big Wilwood brake setup (tired of using up $150+ dollars of brake pad per event) so I am stuck with FC knuckles.
I guess I have 3 options:
1. Run PBM knuckles and make some extended ball joint brackets to use 626 ball joints, no spacers. I kind of don't want to run the PBM knuckles because I need to alter the bearing spacers to work with them (the OD of the spindle/axle past the threads is ever so slightly larger than the factory), they are heavy as shit, and they have reduced ackerman. This is a lot of work but probably not super expensive overall.
2. Run factory knuckles with whiteline ball joints and an extended ball joint bracket.
3. Run a small spacer on the PBM knuckles & factory ball joints. Definitely the lowest effort and still likely a significant improvement in bearing life. Would probably still set up the bearing spacer as well, luckily I have access to a lathe to alter them.