young guns needs advice on alterkion

[mopardude318]

hi, id like some advice on the alterkion. i own a 1970 dart that im building for street and some strip. it orig. came w/ a /6 and manual everything. b-4 i purchase the kit, would u recommend power or manual rack? also what brake kit would be best suited for street use, baer or wilwood and if it should be power or manual brakes. tks. id really like the car to handle.  i have a 500 hp 360 with alum. heads & an a833 4 speed. im lookin forward to smokin my friends BB chevelle & all other chebbys

[Lars]

Wel, most of that depends on your personal preferences. I like manual steering, but I like power brakes, can't advise on the Wilwoods or Baers since I don't have anything other then factory disks or drums. One thing for sure though, manual steering is a lot lighter then the power setup (stock for stock), I yanked the power steering off my 70 and cut about 50-75lbs off the front end. Bill's setup saves a ton of weight also, add that together with a SB with aluminum heads and your car will be super light. Get a fiberglass hood to go along with it, and you'll eat those chebbies up all day.

[Bill_Reilly]

For a smallblock A-body, I'd definitely stick with manual steering and brakes. Baer would be better for bad weather driving, as they're more corrosion resistant - if you can afford them. The Wilwoods are cheaper, and hold up fine on the street because these cars just don't see snowy, muddy winter type of driving.
   A sway bar would be a good idea for handling - and for strip use, it only takes 5 minutes to take the bar off. It's out in front, easy to access. If you want, there's also a cheap power steering upgrade - it uses a reman. Mustang rack, rubber style lines, and we have a revalve kit to change the pressures of a Mopar PS pump.

If money is no object, there's LOTS of serious parts we can do, which we could talk about on the phone. But I assume there's a budget, so I'll recommmend the following -

Call us and order the $3495 kit and get the sway bar option with it.

This kit is the complete suspension with big or small block mounts(your choice), the complete suspension with manual steering, an 11" iron disc brake kit, the shock wrench, and braided flexible brake lines - everything between your column and the lugnuts. The brake kit uses auto parts, so the stuff can be replaced locally, which is a bonus for street cars. We can include the reman power rack for the same price, and then it's just $69 for the lines and $20 for the revalve kit for your pump.
The sway bar option is $249, which includes the welded brackets on the frame and a-arms.

So for $3833 you'll have the complete unit with 360 mounts, power steering and a sway bar, plus the 11" disc brakes. These disc brakes aren't anything massive, but they work as well as the stock Mopar discs. If you want to upgrade later, we can get Wilwood calipers that will bolt right onto this kit, or you can trash them when you have another wad of cash to get the big Bear brakes....

...Or we can delete the brakes altogether and you can get whatever you want right away. I'm easy
Obviously the online store doesn't give you this many choices, so you'll have to give me a call to get it ordered up.

[Dave_n_68_383S]

Depending on the type of driving you are doing is the basis behind what kind of power assist..
If you are going to be driving the streets aggresivly ( going around corners, powersliding, fishtailing etc... ) I seriously recomend power steering..
Before I had power assist I got my car out of hand more than once.. I dont care how strong you are, it is very difficult to react quickly enough and with enough control
to finiesse a power slide with manual.. With power you just palm your way around.. with the rack the power part is very negligible in terms of weight.

[CFster]

I have the AlterK with manual steering. I just ordered the parts (including an adjustable proportioning) to convert it to power.

Part of my problem I think is that my car is bigger and heavier than an A-body. I also am running 245s on the front. I also want to run more caster (which is desirable for straight line stability, and also increases toe while turning for better handling), but the drawback to that is it stiffens up the steering considerably. I tried it, and it became a real bear to drive with the manual setup. As the last poster put it, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to save it if I got crossed up on the highway or something.

So I'm switching to power. Bill's got a pretty trick setup for that.

I also have the Wilwood 12.19" brakes. They work well, and look sharp, but you've got to make sure you pick out the correct master to match the rest of your brake system - manual or power, rear disc or drum (and size).