I had read somewhere that swapping the upper control arms would net some aggressive camber, somewhere in the 9 degree range. So, I measured the caster before and after swapping the upper control arms. I measured the caster on a 30 degree swing, 15 degrees in each direction of center with the car at ride height and weight on the suspension. I adjusted nothing else in the suspension and all hardware was tight. Once again, I'm putting all this stuff down so I don't forget later in addition to getting you guys to weigh in on it.
The total caster before swapping the uppers 1.6 degrees.
The total caster after swapping the uppers was 4.6 degrees.
You guys can do math, but the 3 degree gain was a bit underwhelming. So, I aligned the balljoint holes with the inboard-forward most hole to move the upper ball joint aft as much as practical. In the process it moved outboard was well but not bu more than an 1/16" or so. Total aft movement was in the 3/16ths range.
Total caster after it was all said and done was . . . a whopping 5 degrees.
Interestingly, I ended up with 4.5 degrees of positive camber. However, Both of my lower camber colts are at the maximum inboard setting. I rolled them out to the max the other way and ended up with 2 degrees negative camber. I'm at a stopping point for this weekend but I'll probably massage a couple degrees of negative camber back into the upper mount. Once again, the prevailing wisdom of not moving the upper Balljoint outboard, won.
Smiley wrote:On the lowers a 1" sleeve is too tall to let the ball joint come through enough to retain the grease boot.
I would make the hole in the lower control arm tight on the knurl of the ball joint and weld the sleeve on top.
then shorten the sleeve to the desired height.
So, I welded the balljoint sleeve in as-is. I knew before I did that I should cut the sleeve down but I think I was just in a hurry to weld something for the visual progress. Then, after reading this I pulled out the grinder and ground it back out of there. Luckily, the way I set it before welding in the before welding left me with plenty of meat to trim it to the .6" that will fit the Ball joint the best. Also, I learned my welds get pretty good penetration. So, thanks for the final push to do it the right way.
before.JPG
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Smiley wrote:TIG welding the sleeves on is recommended.
I have played with one for a couple hours and learned I don't know how to TIG weld. I wish I had a TIG or knew how to TIG.
Smiley wrote:You can get offset upper bushings if you are using Bob Gumm taper adapters or need to move the uppers out with the S10 ball joints.
I'm not using the Bob Gumm adaptors because I want to go all the way with the Blazer balljoints. I am demonstrating how to install them because Bob gave me a set to use in the video.
As for installing the lower balljoint sleeves:
I was told the smart way to do this was to put a 1.5" freeze plug in the original balljoint hole and use a piloted 2-1/16" hole saw to drill out the size needed for the sleeve and file to fit. I made an executive decision to ignore this sound advise do this the hard way. Simply because I can do it more easily on the car and I don't have to buy a hole saw and sacrificial freeze plugs. For those that may be watching the video for information the big takeaways are going to be cut it out however you can and FILE TO FIT!
After doing all the above measurements and work, I realized my suspension was nearly on the bump stops in the sense that the weight is not on the tires. So all the measurements I took were relative to where my car was on the jackstands. Jackstands are directly under the front shocks. I'll have to do all the measurements again with weight on the tires next weekend. Thoughts on the other work?
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