wow that looks in nice shape 2 . does he have an engine for this? Wish my SD was as nice as this one. I am keeping an eye open for a counsel on here but as many are saying they are rare as hens teeth.I am thinking Ill have to fab one of those 2....
wow that looks in nice shape 2 . does he have an engine for this? Wish my SD was as nice as this one. I am keeping an eye open for a counsel on here but as many are saying they are rare as hens teeth.I am thinking Ill have to fab one of those 2....
He has a built 350 and B.W. S -T10 4 speed to go in it.
nice job,, how did you go about correcting the bumpsteer??
Made the inner tie rods pivot even with, or almost even with, the lower control arm pivot, reducing bump steer.
I SCTV'd the picture of the front suspension. If you're familiar with these cars, the inner tie rods attach to the drag link in the wrong place, causing terrible bump steer.
The picture shows the inner tie rods attaching to the custom made drag link, at the correct location, even with the inner lower control arm pivot, basically eliminating bump steer.
I ran a welded custom drag link on my 65 Acadian for the 20 years it had a 427 in it but I don't think a welded link is legal, it would fail safety. Is that what this is Randy?
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
As I remember it was a 1968 LeSabre drag link that we shortened. A local race car chassis builder that was certified to weld suspension parts did the pencil point welding on the drag link after we figured out the length. He did such a good job you can't even tell it was welded / modified. The fact that the wheels stay straight with the engine out proves the concept, as the wheels are always cockeyed with the engine removed from 1962-1967 Acadians / Novas.
Many, many years ago I was driving beside a nice Nova/Acadian on a multiple lane roadway when it came to me, as every time his suspension moved up and down, his front wheels were continually moving in and out, as in the toe was continually changing, eg. bump steer. I was driving a junker 1966 Acadian 283 ,PG, 4 dr at the time, and as an experiment, I installed some really stiff front springs to keep the suspension from moving, and this greatly reduced bump steer but the ride was very harsh.
Some junk yard shopping brought us to the LeSabre drag link but others might also work. The main criteria is the inner tie rod must attach to the drag link in line with the lower control arm pivot point, hence the required shortening. Honestly, almost every vehicle on the road is made this way, including rack and pinion, so it wasn't like I made some great discovery, other than noticing these cars had the inner tie rod several inches from the lower control arm pivot point, thus causing the front wheels to continually toe in and out while driving. The pitman and idler remain stock, just shorter tie rods. I can't even imagine how G.M. made such a glaring miscalculation with this design.
I did this back in the late 1970's and am going from memory but the car drove so much better words can hardly describe it. The drag link was originally put on a 1962 Acadian Beaumont wagon but it got wrecked and was later installed on the 1967 shown in the pictures. Although it was a very nice Acadian, he decided to restore it some more, and its been apart for the past approx. 20 yrs!! He hopes to have it back on the road this spring/summer now that his kids are grown.
Thanks Randy
P.S. Maybe someone has a suspension picture of an original Acadian / Nova to compare the difference.
P.S. Maybe someone has a suspension picture of an aftermarket Acadian / Nova suspension.
Aftermarket styles usually relocate a fabricated lower control arm to align with the original inner tie rods.
-- Edited by GLHS60 on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 02:48:06 PM
-- Edited by GLHS60 on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 02:48:57 PM
-- Edited by GLHS60 on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 02:50:22 PM
-- Edited by GLHS60 on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 02:53:34 PM
Will post some pics later.