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#1
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steering box and tubular uca questions
ok, so the duster wasn't aligned. the alignment guy actually refused to do it due to a slightly bent upper control arm and a severely worn out steering box. the really sad thing is, i didnt notice either in the restoration. i honestly thoght that a mopar PS box was supposed to feel like that.
so i am going to replace these parts with aftermarket pieces designed for greater driving enjoyment. i am looking at street oriented tubular upper control arms. that means bushings, factory ball joinys, and no cutting necessary. at last count, i saw like 4 different manufacturers making this style. whise should i use, and why? what benifit will i see from these particualr arms, and will they do anything funky to the front end geometry on a 73-up a body front end? also, there are two companies that i am aware of making PS boxes in a performance design, steer and gear and FFI. what is your experience with these companies, and what feel would you reccomend. i am looking for a steering feel much like that of a C5 corvette. heavy, but not qite manual, with almost no dead spot on center. are there other manufacturers i should look at as well? i dont want to go rack and pinion due to the build style of the car. so please, offer experience and advice. thanks Michael |
#2
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Good luck on the steering, if you want that , put a c5 rack in.
I made tube uppers for my valiant, no big deal, I made them with rod ends, as I thought the f body spindles might need some adj, but I set them up to stock length, just how they came off the jig I made of the orig uppers, and the cam adjuster was all I needed to get it aligned right, so hindsight I should have just used bushings, as rod ends wear out faster, oh well. better to be prepared. I think your align ment guy was on crack. How bad could your upper have been, and same with your steering box, was it running when he said it was shot? I think when it isnt running, they have a little slop in them, I have only two cars with power steering, and they are my race cars, the thing is very repsonsive when running, but when the engine isnt running, I can move the wheel a little bit with no movement of the wheels, every thing was new but the box, so who knows. I just assumed that is how it is. |
#3
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Quote:
As for control arms, they do not effect any geometry as long as they are the same length and the ball joints are not set at some angle that's off from the factory. They are however lighter than most stock A arms. With less unsprung weight handling will increase. That's about the only gain you will see with them and it will very little. If you could do more things to reduce unsprung weight, like use lighter tires, aluminum wheels and tube lowers and lighter brakes and rotors that would make more of a difference in handling over all. |
#4
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i have read that some of the uppers actually have a little more caster designed into them, and heard something else about some of them improving the factory geometry. mostly, i am looking for a little beter caster setup, as well as strong and light.
as far as the box, everyone has suggested a firm feel box, so that is who i will go with. now its just hurry up and wait till after christmas to order the thing to get the duster back together. Michael |
#5
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Quote:
For a street car, use your stock uppers and purchase the bushings if your alignment shop cannot get enough caster into it. My guy was able to get about 1 or 2 degrees on mine (stock uppers). that made all the difference in the world. I have since swapped in a firm feel stage 2 box and the car drives very well. |
#6
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Crazy as it sounds, I picked up a good rebuilt box from Auto Zone with lifetime warranty for under 2 bills for my '79 Dodge Magnum.
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#7
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Quote:
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#8
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i am really debating the UCA. the ones on the car are not bent enough to make them a safety hazard, and we should be able to tweak enugh caster with the adjustable strut rods that are on the car (assuming no tire/fender interference). that, and 300 plus for parts that are cool, but not really that great a step up just seems rediculous. if it was a drastic change for the better, i might be able to justify it.
any experience with the level 3 FFI box? im looking for pretty heavy, but not quite a fast ratio manual box. Michael |
#9
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dusterbd, I bought the magnum force adjustable uppers and only left them on the car for about a month. I pulled them off because you could feel every last pebble in the road with them on. Actually, I had a manual box rebuilt by Steer and Gear, and with the new uppers on it was quite responsive, but I worried that the aluminum spacers and the spherical rod ends on the uppers would wear down prematurely (or at least sooner than I wanted to be messing with the front end again,) so I put the stockers on with new polyurethane bushings and am quite happy now with the front end. Even after having the box rebuilt, there is a small spot of play with the steering, but only about an inch of play in the wheel when driving, and I could prolly tighten that up with the worm gear adjustment. oh and one other thing, with the magnum pieces, they require you saw off the bumpstops for the uppers, and move them about an inch or so.
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#10
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Quote:
http://stockcarproducts.com/susp10.htm |
#11
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Quote:
http://stockcarproducts.com/susp10.htm |
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