Quote:
Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy
When I first saw the picture showing the view from the top down, I thought the same thing about the arms being swapped. What caught me was the noticeable offset between the upper balljoint and the lower balljoint. But then my brain started thinking................
We are always trying to gain caster to make the trucks go down the road better and to also help in the handling department. That picture sure looked like the swap moved the balljoint to the rear, thus gaining caster. Now, I'm just commenting from my computer, but COULD the arms be safely swapped from side to side to gain caster, or is this idea not physically possible because of other elements like balljoint angle, possible ackerman issues, or A-arm forward-to-aft angle? Just food for thought, and I would love to hear any comments on this idea.
Also, the picture from Classic Trucks showing the balljoint bolted on from the bottom seems wrong to me. Unless there's no physical way to bolt them in from the top, it seems to me that every factory balljoint I have ever seen was installed from the top side, not from the bottom. Maybe CCP designed their arms with the balljoint to be installed from the bottom side only? Just seems weird to me.
You are doing a GREAT job on this build! I really like your "no fear" attitude and the ability to tackle anything head-on!!!! I'll be watching this one, for sure.
|
chevyrestoguy,
Thanks! This is my first build and I have learned a lot plus I’m hooked. I really enjoy the Fabrication part of building.
With the a-arm flipped around you would gain too much caster (way to much). When the a-arms where switch around (the wrong way)the spindles where laid back so far that the steering stops would hit the a-arms, stopping it from making a complete turn. After I reversed the arms this problem was gone and you could see the amount of caster was way less. I’m shooting for 8-9 deg. of caster when done. The Cpp arms have 4 deg caster build in and I’m hopping for another 4-5 deg. by moving the a-arm mounts on the X-member back .5'.
About the ball joints I’m not sure. I will just mount them like the stock arms. I will drop Jeff at cpp a message about this and see what he says.
Later