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Anything I might say is probably worth what you paid for it, so treat it accordingly!

Dave

www.ltlfrari.com

From your pictures, the spindles are installed properly.

Here is a stock 88 spindle - notice the caliper position is nearly parallel with the center-line of the ball joints and vertical. When installed, the upright is rotated back so the caliper ends up below the center-line of the wheel bearing due to running 5 or more degrees of caster.


Here is the stock caliper position with the 5+ degrees of caster. The front brake caliper in the 3:30 position on the driver side (8:30 on the passenger side).


Now there is a poorly designed brake kit for the 88 that uses 12" rotors and rotates the calipers up. This would place them in the 2:30 and 9:30 positions. This brake kit placed the caliper in a position where it would interfere with the upper a-arm. So the perception that the 88 front brakes should have the calipers in the 2:00 or 10:00 position is just plain wrong.

The dropped spindle does the same thing where the caliper and bearing positions all shift up relative to the ball joints and a-arms, so if they left the caliper in the stock 3:30/8:30 position, it too would have likely hit the upper a-arm. So to avoid this interference, they rotated the caliper position further down and away from the upper a-arm.
Here is known good 88 dropped spindle where you can see the caliper position is closed to 4:00. If you imagine the caliper at 3:00 in this picture, you can see the upper a-arm would be right behind it vs. above it and likely have interference issues.


The other major challenge with the concept of installing a spindle upside down is the kingpin angle is built into the spindle. The picture below isn't a scale drawing, but is close to what an 88 spindle looks like. The the centerline between the upper and lower ball joints is the kingpin angle. Flipping this over will cause a major camber issue with the front suspension.


The last issue with installing them upside down is the upper and lower ball joints shafts and holes are different sizes. The lower ball joint won't pass through the hole for the upper ball joint, and the upper won't tighten up in the lower hole.

I suspect what the real issue here is that these are not dropped spindles of the center tube with the scallops was flipped during the assembly process and before any welding. These were marketed as a bearing upgrade as well as various levels of dropped spindles solution. If someone wanted a 1/2" or a 0" drop spindle (more focused on the bearing upgrade than the stances), then they could have made a set. With the lack of quality control that AMS was known for, they could have had a set of 0-1/2" drop spindles on the shelf and when quality issues required replacement, someone could have easily grabbed the wrong set.

As for the size and length of the scallops. If their size was based on the amount of drop, then 1" dropped spindle would have different size scallops top and bottom than a 1 1/2". Also, the scallops are just in a tube that can easily be flipped before the ball joint pucks are installed. When I look at the picture on your car, it looks to me that the material between the two scallops is about 1/2" below the bearing centerline, which would happen if the scallop tube was flipped prior to assembly and welding. It is very clear that AMS assembled these w/o good fixtures ensure proper placement of every part, so it is highly likely the center tube with the scallops could have been flipped during the assembly process.

Measure the distance from the bottom of the spindle at the lower ball joint to the center of the wheel bearing. I can compare this measurement later tonight to my actual drawing.

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 05-09-2020).]

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, P-log Manifold, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, Champion Radiator, S10 Brake Booster, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
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[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 05-12-2020).]