I was browsing a site or two this morning on grinding HSS(high speed steel) lathe tools...proper technique that is...and came across another decent site that describes the kind of accessories needed by the new mill owner.

So here you go...

http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/news/may98/may98.html

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

I'm heading back to Portland from SF tomorrow night...starting Thursday I will jump into trying to finish the suspension parts for the few days I will be there before returning to NC.

I need to put the car back together for more reasons than just wanting too...so it is high on priority list while there.

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Hey guys, I'm back in NC. Had a really good last visit with my Mom before she passes, and went to Portland to take care of some business.

I was hoping to work on the Valiant, and I did...but only a little, I was so darn busy I barely made my plane to leave.

I only got about an hour into machining the Dutra disks portion of the assembly. That is really all there is left, but I just had no time.

I did bring my digital camera back with me, so I can post future interesting stuff I come up with...but spring will be the likely finish date for the project.

I was offered a really interesting job while in Portland...but I decided to stick with the sure thing I have here, since my father announced I must buy out the contract on my home with a mortgage, and the money here in Charlotte is really good!!!

So I'm sorry there was not any real movement on the suspension front other than a couple turned down diameters and a thru hole...

I will be building what I think is a killer cylinder head while I'm in Charlotte, so keep an eye on the engine section when I start.

Karl aka Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Thanks for the update Karl.

Sorry about your Ma though.

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Hey Guys...

Sorry to disappear like that. I've only just arrived home from Charlotte about a 2 months ago, and it has taken quite a bit more work than I thought it would to get the home and shop back into productive shape. And for quite some time, I had no computer or internet while in Charlotte.

I have just started working on the Valiant again, and did a mockup of the drivers side last night.

I have finished making all the parts except for a couple of lathe and mill cuts on the bushings for grease channels. I finished both LCA pins and gun drilled them for the grease channels.

Unfortunately, I found last night that both lower front ball joints sold to me are wrong. I bought them two years ago and have painted them already. So now I am out another $140 or so...

Anyway, I was able to meet up with Lou (Dart 270) a couple times while on the East coast. Also got to meet some other great slant six people and even find a set of 198 rods for my engine buildup. I'll tell more later and post some pics of the progress on the suspension.

I should be driving it by next weekend.

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Welcome back!

_________________
"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

Good to see your head above e-water, Gearhead. Keep us posted.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

OK, its time to get back into the swing of things.

I got out the trusty old digi camera, tried to remember the passwords to my ftp programs and online storage space...and finally sorted out how to uplaod stuff again, and set up my photos in a realistic time interval.

So here it goes. I missed getting shots from some machining work I did to the bushing and pin, namely, the grease channels. But I still have to do the second Delrin bushings channels, so I will post pics at that time.

I installed my upper control arms and set them for max caster (ball joint rearward).

Then I installed the lower control arm to get a feel for how its all coming together. I was going to modify the LCA because of some play in the pivot around the Tbar receptor. (I tried to discuss this before, and I will post pictures describing in further detail my thoughts on this soon)

That said, it turns out I need a little play in the assembly because the strut arm does not line up when bolted securely in place on the LCA. The rod end side is an inch or more outboard of the Strut rod mount location. The play in the rear of the LCA is just enough to be able to semi-force the control arm into position and get the strut rod into place. It still moves smoothly but distresses me that I have to force it into location.

With a stock or urethane bushing the control arm will flex quite a bit as you assemble everything and it might never be noticed. But with a bearing action for the LCA, the arc the strut rod forms during LCA travel is not quite right for the suspension geometry as it exists on my frame.

And I have checked to see if anything is bent.

Here is a picture of the mock Assembly.



All things being equal, it still moves freely and with precision, and I am certain can be adjusted for proper alignment without issue...but I now know that there is a twisting force pushing the LCA off center of its pivot on the LCA pin, which will put pressure on two specific points on the Delrin bearing. So the grease channels are probably quite important, and I plan to grease regularly.

Here is a close-up of the LCA fit into the Kmember...



As can be seen, the LCA is now significantly further forward than a stock setup, and especially a worn stock setup. Having not made any measurements yet, I can't say for sure...but my visual inspection of the geometry suggests no problem getting all the castor I want.

There is an issue that had not occurred to me, but fortunately will be easy to remedy. In the next picture you can see that since I have moved the LCA forward, the Tbar no longer pushes all the way into the LCA when it has cleared the retaining ring on the rear mount. Take a look...



I don't think this would create an issue, it is still inserted far enough for good engagement with the HEX socket...however, better safe than sorry. I will machine two spacers for behind the Tbars, so that when pushed all the way into the LCA, the spacers will take up the endplay to the retaining ring, preventing the Tbar from trying to wiggle out.

I'm out of time for today, and need to run off...I will work on the grease channels of the second Delrin bearing tonight and take pictures. Hopefully, final assembly can start Thursday.

Karl aka Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Hi Again Guys...

A bit of a delay as life gets in the way of my fun again. But a couple good things did happen this week...one, I got to use my buddy's body shop to block out my GTO in final prep for fresh paint...Second, a guy by the name of Tim Werner called me to get some parts off my 69 Valiant parts car.

Tim is one of the star autocross/road racers of the area, and does it with a really cool 69 Valiant with a 360" and 4 speed.

He liked my project so much, that he offered me a sweet deal on a trade. So now I have a set of .990" T-bars instead of the .875"s I scavenged to replace my stock .830"s.

.990"s are larger than I would have chose, but he runs 1.2"s with success, and the trade was too good to pass on.

Anyway...Drove the GTO to Tims house, and took him for a ride...he now wants alot more HP for his Valiant. He took me for a squirley awesome ride on twisty mountain roads in his car...and now I can't wait to finish the Valiant...which is my plan for tonight.

Here is a picture of Tims Car...



As for my Valiant, well, I have had little time to work on it, and I had to wait 5 days for the correct parts to finally arrive...but I have them now and have completed all but two small machining operations.

As soon as I finish posting this I will start work and try to asseble it all by tonight.

I drilled the cross channels so that grease can flow from the center of the LCA pins to both side of the bushing. Here is a picture of the simple drilling operation...



The next step will be to turn the outside channel around the circumference, then and internal channel. Then use an endmill to create lengthwise channels towards the rear and front of the bearing.

Very easy no precision task that will take no longer than a half hour.

I will snap pictures and post. The driver side is assembled as per previous posted pics. I am going to grease it up good and then disassemble the LCA to see how well the grease migrates throughout the assembly.

Enough for now...back to work...

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Karl,

Glad you got to meet Tim Werner and hang out with him. Great guy from what I know of him through the "Mopax" group.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Sorry guys bout how slow this is going...

Its been nothing but trouble...even trying to do things right the first time has caused me nothing but despair and disgust. Turns out my upper ball joints were for a larger car. So two years ago when I cleaned and painted the UCA's and installed the bushings and ball joints...the ball joints installed fine so I don't quite understand whats happening...but I installed the ball joints without issue...and they don't fit my spindles.

So I ordered new correct ball joints but found out this morning that the threads destroyed any possibility of istalling them. Maybe my clean arms are later, large ball joint versions...if so...where the heck did I get them...

I spent hours today cleaning and dressing a new set of "used" uppers, only to find the one I spent the most time on was bent!

So now it looks as if the smart solution is to re-taper the spindles to except the larger ball joint because it would be both stronger...and raise the upper control arm, placing the roll center firmly above ground.

I spoke with Tim Werner about this, and he suggested it might also give a better camber curve as well. I am the kind of person who would prefer to be looking at a spreadsheet of measurement data to decide this issue...but I don't have time and wouldn't have good data until the first alignment is done anyway. After an initial alignment done on a computer setup at a local shop, I plan to bring the car home and measure it myself with my own tools. This should allow me to at least try to calibrate my stuff.

Once the car is setup and driving well, then it would be worth the time to take measurements of the specific locations of my suspension key points, and compare them to movement available in the factory adjustments for the UCA's, as well as the positions of my two new strut rods.

It would be better to do all this first of course, but I haven't time since this Valiant is my usual daily driver, and it is time to retrieve the equity from the truck I bought it Charlotte, NC.

I assembled the passenger side tonight, except of course, for the spindle. I was very careful to adjust the length of the Strut Rod and the position of the front mount, so that the movement of the entire assembly, by hand, had the least friction and best overall movement, or "feel"...

What I mean by assembly, is the LCA and strut rod. This must be installed first. This sets the position of the lower ball joint when it installs in the spindle. I must be able to see and feel any binding in the rod end used for the solid strut rods. When everything is just right, you can easily move the LCA up and down, and see that the rod end has clearance at both extremes, from below the lowermost LCA position, to the bumper stop of the main suspension upward travel limiter.

I am slightly scared there is some bent stuff in my sub frame somewhere. The passenger side assembled quite nicely and the strut rod aligned well with the K-member mount for the front, rod end side of the strut. The Driver side LCA was bent, as was the tie rod assembly...(see previous pages for pics). When I mock assembled the Driver side, I noted the alignment of the strut rod didn't seem right.

I will double check tomorrow when I pull the T-bar for the driver side. Then I can set the strut rod properly, and compare its positon to the passenger side. I can't see any previous or current damage to the sub frame and body, so maybe a bad pot hole caused the damage to the LCA, Tie rod assembly, and UCA...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the UCA I was cleaning tonight that turned out to be bent, is the original for my car, and is the driver side, where the bent LCA and tie rod was...

So anyhow, I have snapped alot of pictures of the final machining of the suspension components, and various other stuff...but I haven't had time to get them out of the camera, and proccess them for inclusion in a post..so it will have to wait.

I am hoping to come up with a ball joint reamer in the proper 1.5"/12" ratio or 7.15 included degrees for those who care, tomorrow. I have done this kind of thing before for other projects on my GTO's, so it doesn't bother me to ream the spindle, I just need the proper tool in a timely fashion on a weekend, and that is the basic problem I am up against...

Its late...I'm off to sleep

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Sorry guys bout how slow this is going...

Its been nothing but trouble...even trying to do things right the first time has caused me nothing but despair and disgust. Turns out my upper ball joints were for a larger car. So two years ago when I cleaned and painted the UCA's and installed the bushings and ball joints...the ball joints installed fine so I don't quite understand whats happening...but I installed the ball joints without issue...and they don't fit my spindles.

So I ordered new correct ball joints but found out this morning that the threads destroyed any possibility of istalling them. Maybe my clean arms are later, large ball joint versions...if so...where the heck did I get them...

I spent hours today cleaning and dressing a new set of "used" uppers, only to find the one I spent the most time on was bent!

So now it looks as if the smart solution is to re-taper the spindles to except the larger ball joint because it would be both stronger...and raise the upper control arm, placing the roll center firmly above ground.

I spoke with Tim Werner about this, and he suggested it might also give a better camber curve as well. I am the kind of person who would prefer to be looking at a spreadsheet of measurement data to decide this issue...but I don't have time and wouldn't have good data until the first alignment is done anyway. After an initial alignment done on a computer setup at a local shop, I plan to bring the car home and measure it myself with my own tools. This should allow me to at least try to calibrate my stuff.

Once the car is setup and driving well, then it would be worth the time to take measurements of the specific locations of my suspension key points, and compare them to movement available in the factory adjustments for the UCA's, as well as the positions of my two new strut rods.

It would be better to do all this first of course, but I haven't time since this Valiant is my usual daily driver, and it is time to retrieve the equity from the truck I bought it Charlotte, NC.

I assembled the passenger side tonight, except of course, for the spindle. I was very careful to adjust the length of the Strut Rod and the position of the front mount, so that the movement of the entire assembly, by hand, had the least friction and best overall movement, or "feel"...

What I mean by assembly, is the LCA and strut rod. This must be installed first. This sets the position of the lower ball joint when it installs in the spindle. I must be able to see and feel any binding in the rod end used for the solid strut rods. When everything is just right, you can easily move the LCA up and down, and see that the rod end has clearance at both extremes, from below the lowermost LCA position, to the bumper stop of the main suspension upward travel limiter.

I am slightly scared there is some bent stuff in my sub frame somewhere. The passenger side assembled quite nicely and the strut rod aligned well with the K-member mount for the front, rod end side of the strut. The Driver side LCA was bent, as was the tie rod assembly...(see previous pages for pics). When I mock assembled the Driver side, I noted the alignment of the strut rod didn't seem right.

I will double check tomorrow when I pull the T-bar for the driver side. Then I can set the strut rod properly, and compare its positon to the passenger side. I can't see any previous or current damage to the sub frame and body, so maybe a bad pot hole caused the damage to the LCA, Tie rod assembly, and UCA...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the UCA I was cleaning tonight that turned out to be bent, is the original for my car, and is the driver side, where the bent LCA and tie rod was...

So anyhow, I have snapped alot of pictures of the final machining of the suspension components, and various other stuff...but I haven't had time to get them out of the camera, and proccess them for inclusion in a post..so it will have to wait.

I am hoping to come up with a ball joint reamer in the proper 1.5"/12" ratio or 7.15 included degrees for those who care, tomorrow. I have done this kind of thing before for other projects on my GTO's, so it doesn't bother me to ream the spindle, I just need the proper tool in a timely fashion on a weekend, and that is the basic problem I am up against...

Its late...I'm off to sleep

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

Hey Gearhead-- I can check our local aircraft surplus store for unusual items like the reamer & such-- it is where I found the tap needed to remove the lca bushing-- anyhow let me know if this helps Lawrence

Hey again guys.

I got lucky and called an old friend who has a 68 Chevelle setup for road racing. His car is unbelievable...He is the crew chief for a Winston West tour car, and after years of playing with street mods for autocross and track days, he finally just tore into the car and put a full Road Race Nascar chassis under the car...I mean all of it, including full adjustable 3 link in the rear, and home built towers for all the suspension stuff. He says the car drives around on the street better than ever, and races even better yet. He can outbrake a C6 corvette from 140mph by 400ft.

Anyhow, aside from enjoying seeing him for the first time in a few years, he had the correct reamer, and my spindles are ready to install in the morning!!!

It is over 90 here now, so I'm taking the evening off to watch Bristol, and then head down to the drag races.

Thanks for the offer VDart, but I got it handled now.

I'll post the pics and stuff soon.

Gearhead

_________________
64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"

What spindles were you trying to use that didn't fit the big ball joints?

_________________
Joshua