MONTE CARLO "COPO" Monte Carlo SS - Turbosaurus Build (Swinging Dick Racing's c*ck got bent... she bounced a little too high & hard, & came down awkwardly)

[motorheadmike]

-1 is not bad for something that will get driven a ton. Mike's setup should make for some crazy cornering improvements. Both yours and his will need an alignment that has no concern for the factory settings. My son's Cutlass was at -1 degree with 10" of tire contact pattern and it made a humongous difference cornering at speed. But it needed man size sway bars in the front and rear. It took several whacks at the alignment to get it working though. He was getting well over 15K miles out of a set of fronts. And he drove the car as a daily driver if there wasn't salt on the roads. Of course the rear tires would last for 2 burnout contests lol.

I'm very curious of Mike's final settings for camber and caster, and awaiting to see what he has to do to get a to full turning radius. The tires he's referencing to put on the front are going to be challenging to not rub and wear reasonably. Of course I can't believe that he'll get 10K miles in two years unless he parks everything else. Personally, I don't know how he lets the wagon sit for much more than a day - I'd be cruisin' that beetch every chance I had.

The final figures were basically -2.5* camber and 5* caster and about 1/8" toe-in. Same settings as my wagon and my old Buick. Good for street driving and autocross. Turning radius isn't horrible, but I already added larger steering stops to keep the tires off the fenderliners, and based on the differences in the new spindles I have to add a little again to get it to touch lock-to-lock. Of course I can just power the car over with the loud pedal if I need to do a quick 180. 😉 Eventually I will put a small splined sway bar on the front of this car... but for now it should be a marked improvement over stock.

The wagon sits, as does the Kitty, because I am always stupid busy creating new work/projects for myself. Rocks. Polishing. Polishing rocks.

On the topic of alignments... interestingly enough popped up in my feed this morning:

The principles are the same, but this is definitely more comprehensive than my approach - but I ain't going 200mph. Yet.

 

[motorheadmike]

Thanks for the ideas I want thinking of doing longer bolts. I’m at neg1* and at the limit now. Kinda wanna just wanna wait and get the taller ball joints before I keep putting more time into it. Thinking of the 1” upper and 1/2” lowers. Want more lows but don’t want to cut the 5660 anymore.
Edit: I should mention I’m on UMI arms and mostly going by their spec but more camber

In a stock application you can also use the offset cross shaft to minimize the length of the bolts and the number of shims you need. This is just a comfort level thing.

On the wagon I have UMI's adjustable uppers and have very few shims with stock length bolts. Different ways to skin a cat. But there are impacts on where the pivot points are and how the car will respond.

 

[scoti]

In a stock application you can also use the offset cross shaft to minimize the length of the bolts and the number of shims you need. This is just a comfort level thing.

On the wagon I have UMI's adjustable uppers and have very few shims with stock length bolts. Different ways to skin a cat. But there are impacts on where the pivot points are and how the car will respond.

There's also the option of using the SPC adjustable upper arms. They also allow dialing in a better Camber w/o having to do longer bolts & excessive shims.

 

[scoti]

Test drive eta?

 

[motorheadmike]

Test drive eta?

Sure.

I just need to seal up the tubs to keep the dust and debris out of the quarters. Might be able to solve that today.

 

[Tony1968]

In a stock application you can also use the offset cross shaft to minimize the length of the bolts and the number of shims you need. This is just a comfort level thing.

On the wagon I have UMI's adjustable uppers and have very few shims with stock length bolts. Different ways to skin a cat. But there are impacts on where the pivot points are and how the car will respond.

I have UMI's adjustable uppers also. Do you have the same ones? I was under the impression I can go really negative without using shims.

 

[motorheadmike]

I have UMI's adjustable uppers also. Do you have the same ones? I was under the impression I can go really negative without using shims. View attachment 200012

Yes, same ones. On car adjustment is a PITA, so a few shims makes fine tuning far easier. I broke down the basic settings for the arms in my wagon thread.

 

[Northernregal]

Yes, same ones. On car adjustment is a PITA, so a few shims makes fine tuning far easier. I broke down the basic settings for the arms in my wagon thread.

If you put a jack stand or block up the lower balljoint and take the tire off, you can adjust them in seconds. I measured spindle center to gound to set ride height and adjusted them with tires off. Did both sides in about 30 minutes.

 

[motorheadmike]

I thought this was interesting, but not exactly educational.

 

[Tony1968]

If you put a jack stand or block up the lower balljoint and take the tire off, you can adjust them in seconds. I measured spindle center to gound to set ride height and adjusted them with tires off. Did both sides in about 30 minutes.

Can you expand this explanation?
Sorry for hijack. You can pm me if needed