A and B body spindle height

[Volvo Heretic]

Greatings all.

Can anybody tell me what the total height for the A- and B-body spindles are if the B-body steering arm is used?  I have read the spindle comparison techpage, but this information is missing.

Thanks, James

[Bill_Reilly]

If I remember, I could measure one tommorow. I have some here - it's just remembering to actually do it that I have a problem with

[70 Dustpan]

From where to where do you want the measurement from?

[Volvo Heretic]

 I need the measurement from where the ball joints will attach on the spindle along the steering axis. The Cordobra I measuted buried in the dirt at the junk yard seemed to be 7 1/2", but I really don't know which spindle this would have been.

James

[Bill_Reilly]

The Cordoba is the late B spindle - which is 3/8 taller than the 73-76 A.

[70 Dustpan]

The Cordoba spindles do look like the A body spindles, but they are the same height as the other B body spindles

[Volvo Heretic]

I am trying to replace the spindles on my Volvo which has a 7 1/2" tall spindle with a 7 1/2 degree king pin inclination. According to the spindle comparison page, the A-body spindle comes in 7 1/2 degree inclination. I would want to use the B-body steering arm with the 11.75" B-body brakes, right? It all depends on what this combination spindle height winds up being.

James

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKn-LTNa4rc

[Bill_Reilly]

In your case it would depend - the late B steering arm, as you see it on the cordoba, has the tapered hole in it, so the balljoint would have to be in the lower control arm. The late A body and 72-older B's had the balljoint in the steering arm and the lower control arm just had a tapered hole - you could pick which one works with the car.

[Volvo Heretic]

My ball joints are in the control arms. I would have to purchace new ball joint sleeves from a vender such as AFCO or Stock Car Racing Products(?).

This whole issue began when I had the hubs and axles welded up and redrilled from the Volvo's 5x4.25" bolt pattern to a 5x4.5" pattern to bolt up Weld Draglite Racing wheels in 15x10" and 15x12" size. The local machine shop drilled the new pattern out of round and had to mill .10" off of the lug nut sholders to fit the wheels.

I could just replace my hubs and axles with ones I have in my left over Volvo pile and purchace Centerline convo wheels in the same size but in the Volvo's odd bolt pattern for $1300, but getting bigger brake disks than the 10" diameter won't be easy.

This thing might get a Chevy V8 someday and the stock Dana-30 rear axle w/ something like a Dana-44 R&P mignt not take the power.

I have read that Jeep offered a Dana 44 rear axle in the '86 CJ's that are the correct width of 54.5" hub to hub.

With the 10" wide front Weld wheels with 4.5" backspacing and 1" negative offset, my scrub radius is pretty extreme.  I need to draw out the suspension on my AutoCad program and see if the 8 degree inclination late model B spindle would bolt up which would help. I wonder how much a suspension software program costs.

I was trying to do all of this on the cheap, but it never seems to be that easy.

[Bill_Reilly]

I've tried every suspension program on the market just about. Like anyone else, I first tried the ones around $100 - they all had so many glitches, they would output different geometry numbers every time I used it.  I kept going up the ladder to find the cheapest accurate software - Performance Trends' Suspension Analyzer is about $600, and is the cheapest you can go and still be 100% accurate. Keep in mind, this has no solid modeling abilities, so it can not check clearances and real-life binding. Only geometry. I did find a software that does it all, but it's a cool $10K....

[Volvo Heretic]

Too expensive, and once I got all of that information, I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

[Volvo Heretic]

OK, I have determined that the late B spindle with it's steering arm/ ball joint set-up is the correct height, shape and inclination for my Volvo... But, the tie rod tapper is upside down to fit my non-adjustable steering tie rod. 

There are two choises; (1) Weld up the steering arm tapered hole and redrill it so that the tie rod mounts from the top instead of the bottom, or (2) cut my tie rod in half, rotate one end 180 degrees, weld it back together and slide a sleave over the weld and weld that up also. My tie rods are one piece and the center link is used to adjust toe-in.

Before I get a spindle out of the junk yard and try to actually bolt it to my control arms, does anybody have an opinion about issues of welding on the spindle steering arm? (like it breaking off from the stresses of welding)

The only question now is how close the steering arm angle and height is to my Volvo's spindle.

[BabyBlue383]

So if I am reading this correctly I can put B body disk brake spindleson mine A body duster? Becouse this will save me alot of money and trouble finding the A body ones.