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Assembling the STALKERV6 Suspension Components
The STALKERV6 front suspension consists of upper and lower control arms that carry a Chevy S-10 spindle. The control arms are secured by a combination of Delrin and steel bushings that allow sufficient adjustment to set the proper castor. Camber is set by adjusting the top ball joint on the spindle. First order of business was to assemble the bits and pieces required to set up the front suspension. Items that needed to be procured locally were brake rotors, calipers, pins, pads, bearings, dust cap, ball joints, and tie rod ends. The spindles and steering rack were delivered with the kit.
In a matter of a couple of hours, Michael and I had the front of the Stalker chassis looking somewhat like an automobile. The control arm bushing sleeves had to be chased with a 3/8" drill in order for the bolts to be inserted, and the initial setup included using washers as spacers to properly locate the control arms. Measurements were taken from datum points at the rear of the chassis to assure that the suspension on both sides had been set equally. The initial fit-up was very close, and only a few washers needed to be moved in order to get both front wheels located an equal distance from the rear suspension mounting brackets.
Important Note: The following notes and photos document the steps I took during the initial assembly of the front suspension. In retrospect, I was premature in attempting to achieve final alignment before the chassis was loaded with engine and transmission and test runs had been conducted on the road. I strongly suggest that no alterations of the control arms or other suspension components by made unless road trials dictate otherwise. The camber will go more negative when the powertrain is added to the chassis, and the setup described below will more than likely result in more negative camber than is desirable for road use.
1/31/04
It is very important that the spindles are aligned exactly in trail with the longerons of the chassis for the next step since the castor of the spindles could throw this measurement out of whack. The desired target is zero to two degrees negative camber. Once the chassis was leveled and the spindles aligned, the level was placed vertically on the calipers. A centered bubble would indicate zero degrees camber which was what I wanted. I knew this was going to be a bit tricky since the tie rod ends on the top of the spindle had a minimum amount of threads remaining for adjustment. With the outboard jam nut run all the way up the threads, the car had a couple of degrees of positive camber and no threads remaining to take out the positive camber. It seems that some brands of tie rod ends have more threads than others, but in spite of using the recommended brand, there still was not enough exposed thread to properly adjust the camber.
So, like any fabricator of handcrafted automobiles, we decided to find a way to make the camber setting correct. First step was to modify the shear nut on the outboard end of the tie rod. A few moments at the belt sander reduced the thickness of the nut substantially.
Next step was to use a round file to chamfer the ID of the nut on one side so we could run it completely out to the end of the threads. As noted above, don't do the following step unless road or track trials indicate the mod is needed. The final step was to remove the upper control arm from the car and using the belt sander, I removed about 0.060" from the outboard end of the sleeve that carries the tie rod end. This allowed the rod end to move inboard which was the direction we needed to go in order to eliminate the positive camber.
Here is the final result. As you can tell, the modified jam nut is now all the way to the ends of the threads on the tie rod; with the modified control arm sleeve, this allowed the camber to fall right at zero.
The only task remaining on the front suspension is to finish the mounting of the steering rack. The rack has been mounted to the bracket, and as soon as the adapters for the quick steering feature arrive from the Stalker factory, we can hard mount the rack bracket to the frame.
The brake calipers received a coat of engine enamel, and we just had to hang the front wheels on the car to see what we had accomplished. When the troops have had a good morning's labor, you have to let them play a bit; Michael decided to climb into the cockpit, make some Stalker sounds and take the car for a spin. The tie rod ends for the rear suspension have been ordered and should arrive in a few days; at that point we will shoehorn the rear axle into place and rig the trailing and panhard arms. In the meantime, there are plenty of other items we can tackle.
2/1/04 This afternoon I installed the front fenders. . "Momma, there's a race car in our shop!"
2/4/04 The fittings for the quick steering arrived today. Since the fittings needed to be inserted completely into the spindle arm, it was necessary to cut about 3/8" off the threaded end of the fittings to prevent them from hitting the brake rotor.
There was not enough thread on the upper ball joints to use cotter pins to secure the nuts. I drilled holes in one of the "castles" of the nuts and used safety wire to tie off the nuts.
The steering geometry worked out nicely. Notice the steering rack is located so the tie rods are level. It is important to make sure the steering rack is mounted so the tie rods are parallel with the lower control arms in order to avoid a phenomenon similar to bump steer. The control arms were jigged with a piece of square tubing supplied in the kit just for this purpose and the rack mounting adjusted as necessary.
Zero toe-in was attained with ample threads remaining in the tie rod ends. The rack bracket was marked, removed and bolt holes drilled. The front suspension is now complete! The rear suspension assembly is detailed in the Chassis section.
Continue to Assembling the Brakes
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1/30/04
