johncj5

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be or what the point of it is.

joe_padavano

It effectively makes the spindle taller, which improves the camber change as the suspension moves while cornering. This is a known problem with the A-body suspension and the spacer is one way to fix it.

svnt442

I didn't know about this. I love your knowledge, and hate that I don't posses it....lol.

joe_padavano

You do realize that those of us who are subscribed to the thread get your initial post before you delete it.

joe_padavano

Hey, I'm trying to pass it on.

The spacer does essentially the same thing as the B-body spindle swap, but without the bump steer that the B-body spindles induce due to the different steering arm location.

m371961

There should be a "Can you stump Joe P. " thread. We would learn so much.

RetroRanger

never seen that before what is it called where is it available from and is it a bolt on to stock suspension ? I assume an alignment is required as well ?

svnt442

I do, but that's not the point.

johncj5

I guess it's a good thing then. I was just had safety concerns since I never saw something like that before.

joe_padavano

The only potential issue you might run into is insufficient room for the shims required to properly align the front end with those spacers. Aftermarket companies sell tubular upper control arms that have been shortened to accommodate the taller spindle. There are also offset cross shafts available for the stock length arms that accomplish the same thing. The problem really comes when you have a wider BBO and especially headers, which can get in the way of the control arm when you use the correct number of alignment shims.

johncj5

Is that supposed to cheer me up? It have a 455 with headers.

android 211

Some experts advocate using taller ball joints. Howe sells them. Improved cornering is the goal. However that extender looks bigger than the tall ball joints. The other use is to allow higher lift on the front end on drag starts to load the rear tires for better traction. The tires can drop further. Once you get going the front drops down to normal height.

joe_padavano

It has been proven repeatedly that for the 64-72 A-body cars, increasing the effective height of the spindle (whether through a taller spindle or a taller ball joint or an extension) does improve the camber curve and thus the handling of these cars. This does not apply to all cars, but specifically to the 64-72 A-bodies. HO Racing was one of the first to advocate this with their B-body spindle swap on GTOs back in the 1980s. That implementation, however, suffered from bump steer due to the incorrect location of the steering arm on the B-body spindles.

Here's more info.