We Build a Perfect Union (Page 246/309)
troyboy DEC 12, 03:54 PM
Time to start cleaning the garage. It's become a storage room in the cars absence.
troyboy DEC 17, 03:24 PM
Archie any pic's of the door lock modification.
Archie DEC 17, 10:08 PM

quote
Originally posted by troyboy:

Archie any pic's of the door lock modification.



I just have one pic of that



And a few pics before & after the lowering ball joints.







Archie
FieroWannaBe DEC 18, 01:07 PM
Just a question, not a flame.
Why were lowering ball-joints installed, since the car is equipped with coil-overs shocks and springs?
Archie DEC 18, 03:32 PM

quote
Originally posted by FieroWannaBe:

Just a question, not a flame.
Why were lowering ball-joints installed, since the car is equipped with coil-overs shocks and springs?



I'm glad someone asked that because it gives me a chance to air one of my pet peeves.

With front coil overs, people think they can crank the front of their car up & down on a whim. In fact it's very difficult to get the spanner wrench in place to turn the adjuster collars. And when you can you can only turn the collar maybe 1/6th of a turn at a time at best. That's a lot of cranking just to go up or down an inch or so.

I've installed a lot of the RCC tubular suspension parts over the years & I like them. However, If you lower them down to where we had this one lowered, almost all of the travel on the shock is gone. When you drive it like that & hit a bump just right the shock will bottom out with a thump. I've found that if you install a set of rodney's lowering ball joints, you can get a lower ride height & still have some travel left in the front shocks.

Thinking that I could get him to supply the suspension system with Rodney's ball joints, I've tried explaining this to Darrell at RCC but he's had very little complaints from his other customers. So, i just do it here.

Archie

[This message has been edited by Archie (edited 12-18-2009).]

johnyrottin DEC 18, 06:50 PM
Arch, what does something like this car cost to build minus the donor car?
FieroBobo DEC 18, 09:35 PM

quote
Originally posted by Archie:
I'm glad someone asked that because it gives me a chance to air one of my pet peeves.

With front coil overs, people think they can crank the front of their car up & down on a whim. In fact it's very difficult to get the spanner wrench in place to turn the adjuster collars. And when you can you can only turn the collar maybe 1/6th of a turn at a time at best. That's a lot of cranking just to go up or down an inch or so.

I've installed a lot of the RCC tubular suspension parts over the years & I like them. However, If you lower them down to where we had this one lowered, almost all of the travel on the shock is gone. When you drive it like that & hit a bump just right the shock will bottom out with a thump. I've found that if you install a set of rodney's lowering ball joints, you can get a lower ride height & still have some travel left in the front shocks.

Thinking that I could get him to supply the suspension system with Rodney's ball joints, I've tried explaining this to Darrell at RCC but he's had very little complaints from his other customers. So, i just do it here.

Archie



Hi Archie.
I found the above info interesting.
I'd like to get a little more suspension travel into my car since the roads in my part of NJ are not the best.
1) Could I apply the above solution to my car?
2) Could you give me an idea as to how much front suspension travel my car has right now with the coilovers that are on the car?
3) Roughly how much more suspension travel will I be able to pick up using Rodney's ball joints?
4) Do you have any suggestion as to any mods that could be made to get a softer/smoother ride?

As far as a status report on my car:
The LS3, (LS376/480), runs pretty good, its still a little rich at startup expecially in cold weather though. I have noticed that I have to be a little careful when I get on the gas pedal when the roads are wet and/or slippery. For some strange reason the rear end of the car just seems to break loose and go sideways when I hit the gas pedal. Come to think of it that happens sometimes even on dry pavement. (Very strange! ) The gas mileage around town is roughly 10mpg ,but the acceleration is so addictive that its hard not to put your foot into it on a regualr basis. I use the car daily on my ride back and forth to work. The ride to and from work is usually the best part of my day. Most of the kids at the high school have a hard time believing that my car older than they are, 21years for the car 14-19 for the kids. I kind of wish I could get better gas mileage, but I don't put on more than 100 miles a week on the car so I just gas it up once a week and I'm good.

Hope you and the crew are OK. Stay well, and Enjoy the holidays.

Bob :-)
Archie DEC 18, 10:03 PM

quote
Originally posted by FieroBobo:


Hi Archie.
I found the above info interesting.
I'd like to get a little more suspension travel into my car since the roads in my part of NJ are not the best.
1) Could I apply the above solution to my car?
2) Could you give me an idea as to how much front suspension travel my car has right now with the coilovers that are on the car?
3) Roughly how much more suspension travel will I be able to pick up using Rodney's ball joints?
4) Do you have any suggestion as to any mods that could be made to get a softer/smoother ride?

As far as a status report on my car:
The LS3, (LS376/480), runs pretty good, its still a little rich at startup expecially in cold weather though. I have noticed that I have to be a little careful when I get on the gas pedal when the roads are wet and/or slippery. For some strange reason the rear end of the car just seems to break loose and go sideways when I hit the gas pedal. Come to think of it that happens sometimes even on dry pavement. (Very strange! ) The gas mileage around town is roughly 10mpg ,but the acceleration is so addictive that its hard not to put your foot into it on a regualr basis. I use the car daily on my ride back and forth to work. The ride to and from work is usually the best part of my day. Most of the kids at the high school have a hard time believing that my car older than they are, 21years for the car 14-19 for the kids. I kind of wish I could get better gas mileage, but I don't put on more than 100 miles a week on the car so I just gas it up once a week and I'm good.

Hope you and the crew are OK. Stay well, and Enjoy the holidays.

Bob :-)



Hey Bob,

Good to hear from you.

I have another customer about 20 miles from you who had an '88 with a LS3 5 speed who would like to get ahold of you if you're interested.

1) Yes, Rodney has lowering ball joints for the '88
2) About an inch or less, I can't recall exactly.
3) 1"
4) You can go to a lighter spring. Just call Darrell at RCC 817-536-3380 & he can fix you up. I think you have 350's in there now.

BTW, I now have a new instruction video for the LSx engines. I don't know how to make it a DVD but I can put it on a 4 gig flash drive if you want one.

Archie
Jefrysuko JAN 04, 12:41 PM
Someone at work sent me this link today. I replied back with the link to this 62 page build thread
troyboy JAN 05, 05:43 PM

quote
Originally posted by Jefrysuko:

Someone at work sent me this link today. I replied back with the link to this 62 page build thread



Thanks for the link to the nice write up.