Replaced most of the front suspension in my 1970 GS455 over the weekend. I used Raybestos Professional parts across the board. Rock auto screwed up and shpped me one generic outer tie rod along with one Raybestos. So I though I would show everyone the difference. The Raybestos items are all made in USA. Traditionally I would have only used Moog but reading over on the Chevelle board there were people having some hit and miss luck with Moog stuff coming from Mexico and not holding up. Anyway as soon as I get the other Raybestos tie rod I'll put the assembly on the car to finish the job then get an alignment and share my results. In addition I also installed a set of the UMI tubular upper control arms with the longer balljoint. These are supposed to give you a bunch more caster for better highway manners and better geometry through the travel of the suspension in general. It's been about 13 years and 25K miles (car has nearly 80K currently) since I put the car back together and I don't remember looking too closely at the upper control arm retaining bolts back then. Well after reading about people with wheels tilted up in the fender I thought this would be an excuse to look them over. I had 3 bolts out of 4 that had an obvious (slight but obvious) amount of bend and all of them had more corrosion than I would like. The moral to this story is I think EVERYONE should take a look at these bolts. I realize it's a pain to do but the potential for a catastrophic failure and subsequent accident is huge. The purists won't like spinning these bolts out (they are kind of swaged in and once you spin them out I don't see them going back like original again). Forty years of stress and corrosion are nothing to laugh at though. regards (BTW the Raybestos tie rod is on the left)
Looking forward to the "results" post. Thanks for sharing the info. And one question - why not the lower control arms too?
Reading over at the protouring.com discussion board (and speaking with people at Global West, Hotchkiss and UMI) it seems the lowers have a very small bang for your buck value compared to the uppers. The upper arm swap with the longer balljoint cleans up the suspension geometry issues in the A/F Body cars by about 75% of what you are going to get. There are some other benefits if you go with dropped spindles and other things that give you better clearance for big wheels and big brakes (calipers) but I'm not planning on doing any of that so I just went with the uppers. Besides I offset the cost of the uppers by not having to put new balljoints in the old arms. Other benefits of the lower arms are that the deeper spring pockets available on some arms give more flexibility with spring selection or coil over setups. As a lot of people have noted the tubular arms are often no lighter than their stamped steel brothers so no real improvement there. The cheap knock off arms (ebay) are of questionable quality and usually maintain the same geometry problems the stock arms had they just look sexy doing it. This longer ball joint solution is something that all 3 vendors mentioned above are selling and the UMI had the best price. Besides that the UMI stuff is made right here in the USA (PA) and everything I've read about UMI says they stand behind their products. I am by NO MEANS an expert on this subject, I'm sure someone will chime in here with their corrections/opinions. regards
There was actually an inner and outer tie rod in a beat up Raybestos Professional box that I received. I'm guessing someone did a swap and return or Rock Auto has someone at the warehouse that's a bit shady (or just an idiot). As you can see from the pic there it's visibly obvious there is a BIG difference between the parts. The parts in the beat up box have the same dimensions (more or less) and the same size thread on the end but technically I am "assuming" they are the equivalent generic tie rod end. With any luck I'll have the other tie rod assembly tomorrow and get the front end aligned Friday so I can test it out over the weekend. Weatherman is calling for BEAUTIFUL weather all weekend! regards
So, I got the tie rods installed but ran out of time so I just had the alignment shop install the lower ball joints while they were doing the alignment Friday. Camber and Toe settings came in where we wanted. However to keep camber numbers happy and not get too crazy with the shim stacks we ended up with +6 deg of Caster. A bit more than I was hoping for(was shooting for 4) but I have to say the car does drive nicer. I started out thinking there was no way I would spend the money on the upper control arms again. But as I drove around the last couple of days I noticed some things. Turns in parking lots used to give front tire squeel unless I was doing anything above a crawl. That noise is gone. Highway driving is solid and straight as an arrow (road crown allowing). Some little noises I just assumed had to do with the age of the car are now gone too (litle creaks and pops). The Raybestos parts all installed and worked great. They are beefier than the original stuff and with the 1.25" sway bar on the front end it's a bit close with the tie rods at lock. I forgot to mention before that along with the bent upper control arm bolts I noticed that one of my upper control arm bumpers had obviously jumped ship. Luckliy the new control arms came with new bolt in stops. For the record getting your fingers up in the frame with the spring in the way makes starting those bolts tough!. Anyway in all honesty if I had to do it over again spending the money on the arms for a cruiser like myself, I'm on the fence.... I have noticed an improvement in several aspects of the way the car drives so it's not a waste by any means. The peace of mind with from new parts, bolts and stop bumpers was certainly worth the price and effort. regards
Ken,again I thank you for posting the kind of feedback that this board is well known for. I'm a big fan of sway bars and strong suspension components,anything that adds strength to the original designs,that's worth peace of mind.Good luck with the car.
Its funny I was just debating buying those UMI upper arms as well and here is your post Generally I don't like to mod my cars from stock but the handling does leave something to be desired on these cars, was thinking of upper UMI arms with the taller ball joint and that is it. Might paint the shafts up to try and conceal them a little bit, but wondering if you have done any harder cornering and if you noticed a difference at all with that? Did you happene ot weight the arms? Just curious. Also debating some 17" aluminum*stock looking* wheels to put more rubber on the road, what are you using? Thanks
As I mentioned I'm a cruiser so I don't push the limits on the cars handling. Besides with these 70s vintage astro buckets you would end up in the passenger seat during hard lefts. I'm running 225-60-15s on the front and 275-60-15 on the rear. As for concealing them, WHY? Get the black powder coat finish and they are nearly invisible anyway.
I like to keep the cars as stock looking as possible, that's all. My buckets are worn out and you sit deep, they actually grip pretty good..:laugh: Thanks
Ken I couldn't agree more. Good idea to check the front end components. I actually had one of those upper control arm shaft bolt break and had to be towed. Lucky it was leaving my driveway. I was curious about your tire sizes you posted do you have any pictures? I'd like to change the stance of mine currently running 235 70 15s all around.
Here is a fresh picture of the car with the 15in polished Centerlines and 275-60-15 rear and 225-60-15 front tires.
