Quote:
Originally Posted by RedHawk
I know your not saying this but on the surface they look easy, but it actually took quite a bit of brain damage to find them. I guess I underestimated how incompetent they really were and didnt think they would screw up such a simple thing. I mean what the heck.
Anyway drove the car 40 mins to Denver and back with no issues with overheating or electrical except the suspension needs to be examined further. Basically as mentioned earlier the tie rods need to be dealt with so I can dial in proper alignment specs. Noticing bump stear.
More.to come....
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Redhawk,
Just getting ready to weld in my supports for my new Heidts front upper and lower A-Arms for coil overs.
I decided to ditch the strut bars and go with full lower A-Arms.
Anyway, I took numerous measurements with the stock Ford Arms and Strut rods and then mocked up the new Heidts arms. Since the Heidt arms use 5/8 inch bolts and the factory uses 1/2 in bolts for the lower arms, I used a 12 in long piece of threaded rod to temporarily attach and make all the necessary measurements with the new Heidts arms.
Long and the short of it, even though the new Heidts arms are straight at the ball joint while the factory Ford arms angle up about 7 degrees at the upper and lower ball joints, the actual spindle face measurements are EXACTLY correct to the stock Ford stamped arms. I even kept my tie rod settings EXACTLY the way they were with the stock Ford arms and the spindle tracking (toe-in) is exactly the same from factory to Heidts.
I have two sheets of measurements from the before and after measurements, please let me know if you would like me to forward them to you so you can measure yourself or have a shop do it.
I measured the following before and after, these are critical:
Front of Spindle face at spindle center side to side (Ford 50 15/16", Heidts 50 15/16")
Rear of Spindle face at spindle center side to side (Ford 50 7/8", Heidts 50 7/8")
(This is basically Toe-In as the spindle face aligns with the wheels/tires) Above is approximately 1/16+ of toe in at the rim.
Rear axle center to spindle center (measured at the face/base of the spindle where the spindle meets the "flat" portion) (Ford 94 7/16, Heidts 94 1/2") the 1/16 difference may be due to the upper arm in a very slight different position than the Ford OEM or just a variance in tram measurements. This is close enough and can be adjusted during alignment with the position of the upper arms on the T bolts.
Length from rear side pipe hole on the frame to spindle face center (similar to above, just an additional point) (Ford 77 1/4", Heidts 77 1/4")
Diagonal length from side pipe mount to opposite spindle center. (Ford 92 3/8", Heidts 92 1/2") 1/8 difference same as above, definitely within adjustment range) This measurement is critical and should be EXACTLY the same to ensure the car doesn't "dog track", meaning the tires do not track in the same horizontal plane when driving. Another way to spot this is to wet a portion of the road near your house and slowly drive from a wet road to dry surface with the steering wheel straight. If correct, the tire patches should have even overlap when you look at the wet tire contact patch on the street, however this is a rough measurement only.
Side to side face of spindle center to face of spindle center. Ford 50 29/32 +/- 1/32, Heidts 50 29/32 +/- 1/32) exactly the same.
Side to side Spindle Tie Rod hole to spindle tie rod hole. (Ford 47 7/8", Heidts 47 7/8") This measurement was done AFTER spindle faces on both sides were set to 1/16"+ toe in again)
A couple of questions/ suggestions to check:
1. I'm supporting/welding the new Heidts Lower A-Arms in different method than what your shop did. The Heidts lower arms require that you drill out the lower a-arms holes to 5/8 of an inch, weld on support tubes and gusset appropriately. I'm not sure how the previous shop would screw this up, but you may want to check if this was done "off center" from the factory holes. I can provide this measurement (from lower a-arm attachment bolt side to side, front of A-Arm and rear of A-Arm) to you if you need it, it will just be a few hours before I can measure this on my car.
2. Check your measurement from tie rod end to tie rod end. This can be done with a tape measure fairly easily. Measure at the top of the spindle tie rod knuckle where the tie rod attaches to the spindle arm. Most accurate is on the top of the steering knuckle right where the tie rod comes out of the knuckle from the bottom at the tie rod nut. This should be close(+/- 1/4") to 47 7/8" from center of tie rod ball joint to center of tie rod ball joint!!!!
3. Did your shop make any alterations to the front of each Spring/Perch tower? If not, take a very close look at this! The new Heidts Lower arms will contact the front of each spring tower, just above where the boot of the steering rack is during suspension travel. If there is any contact from the lower a-arm with the spring tower during fully compressed suspension travel, this is very dangerous! I'm personally going to cut a 1.5" slit in the front of the angled portion of the spring tower, bend the 1/8" steel inward to provide clearance and the re-weld the tower. If you shop simply beat this area in with a hammer, the strength of the steel may have changed your lower geometry, doubtful, but something to check anyway. Take a look at the front portion of your spring towers and see if this area looks like it was beat on with a BFH.
I wish you the best of luck and please let me know if you need any additional measurements or photos.
BTW, my car is a CR1 and based on your car if it is a CR2, some of the measurements may be different because I understand that Don Scott made some modifications to the frames from the original CR1.