My whole car is just too low. I'd never get out my driveway which is a couple of ruts in the dirt.Then it's up a washboard dirt road to the highway. My driveway is probably 500 feet long and I don't have the dollars to grade and fill it.
As I look at ways to raise the car I anticipate my CTO Center Take Off rack will put the tie rods at an angle that will result in aggravated bump steer. So, I now have a chinese (heard it may be from Brazil) Vega box, pitman arm and that triangle bracket. I'm favorably impressed (so far) with the box and I was sure the pitman arm would be a casting. It looks and feels (guessing by weight) like a forging. Now it looks like I will have to radically modify or replace my front crossmember. If I were to cut the x-member out, I can just see the rest of the frame curl up into a huge ball during the night.
I have quarter elliptic front springs. The simple thing will be to replace these springs with those of a greater arch. This will likely result in the CTO rack tie rods to assume an angle not condusive to decent handling - For us older lads, think of the front wheels bouncing around looking like the eyes of Ben Turpin (silent film star of the 20's) one moment and Marty Feldman's (Young frankenstein) eyes the next moment..... LOL
Could'a, should'a, wish I would'a spent more time figuring before welding in the spring mounts and under-frame crossmember. These items would be far to difficut to mod or replace. Orininally I was going to use an Olds Quad Four aluminum motor. I now have a cast iron Chevy. To compicate things, I m working on a drive to hang my 4-71 blower off the nose to the crank like Potvins car which I think is just..... ti... oops, you know... refer to those posters in that other thread in the Lounge. This then puts more weight on the front end and sinks it further.
Additionally, I've had to narrow the CTO rack to fit between the springs which was not fun and is the subject of continuing doubt as to whether it might actually work. It's a power rack and I've given up on power steering. I'm been thinking to using the power steering piston and cylinder as an intregal steering damper by drilling a couple of holes in the piston and let the PS fluid squirt back and forth for dampening. Going to the Vega box may eliminate all kinds of ass-ache, but will undoubtdly open new and unanticipated avenues of dispair and anger.
Now it should be intuitively obviously.... even to me, a picture might serve to better explain things. I'll try to get one on later.
