I purchased that nice 88GT from Paul Vargyas a few years ago in the hopes of turning it into a part time autox and hpde vehicle, and then promptly disappeared... I have since dropped and replaced two Gen III ford explorer 4.0 V6's (same truck, painful story) and dropped, resealed, and restored a gen I mazda 6....
Well before I even got a chance to take the 88GT out to an autox or even a instructor led track day at AMS or even road Atlanta to put the slush box and boat anchor out of their 160K mile misery, I've got a groan, and play, in one of the front bearings.
So before I tear into the car and follow more or less in Steven Snyders footsteps (giving credit where credit is due) I've looked everywhere for any type of substitution/fix/etc for the 88 bearings. The 88's in junkyards around Atlanta have been picked clean due to Georgia's budding movie industry and at least one film where a request was put out across several junkyards for 88 fieros.
Anyway, on to the point. I've looked and looked for a front bearing, or even upright, replacement for the 88's and have found some candidates that I dont' think were available when Steven looked through this a few years ago.
1.) Coleman Racing Camaro/Corvette hub to spindle conversions
$500/side
I got the blueprints from their techline and it looked like a real winner with only minor modifications to the spindle flange and 1-1.5mm bored out of the 88 upright pilot bore for a slip fit around the back of the spindle. BUT 88 upright facing to hub face distance would increase by approximately 30-35mm if I remember correctly... maybe, but we already have a hard enough time finding high offset wheels for the front of the 88's already.
2.) Put the 20-25k jbody bearing in front 88 upright. This would require about 3mm to be bored out of the upright pilot bore with only about 5mm there to play with... additional offset is manageable but the pilot bore fitment might take a bit too much out of the hub.
On to the more spendy'er solutions
3.) Lateral Dynamics C5/C6 modular spindle
https://www.lateral-dynamics.com/
Looks very promising and the owner, Mark, is very responsive and isn't an "all things corvette" guy and wants his modular spindles used everywhere, of course.... I directed him to Blooze's blueprints off of his 355 build thread and it looks highly possible, still a bit worried about the offset as the uprights are very meaty and the corvette bearings are bit deeper than the fiero bearings, but aren't they all. They could even be setup to replace the rear uprights as well. They come with Howe balljoints and utilize the C5/C6 hub/bearing....BUUTTT price.... 1800$ for a setup he has in stock... 4-5K$ for a custom setup...gotta pay to play I guess... He's getting a quote given the 88 blueprints short cut a ton of his work. we'll see.....
4.) Wilwood C10 Pro-Spindles
Looks very promising, price is "decent" at $499/spindle at certain vendors, not sure about the 9deg kingpin angle, axle centerline to lower ball joint mount looks to provide a 1-2" drop with regards to the 88 fiero upright. Steering tierod attachment would have to be altered or a new one created to address any bumpsteer issues... need to research more about instance center first. Called 3 times and no one can get back to me on the exact bearing used, but it comes with 5x120 and 5x5 bolt patterns, uses Chevy C10 ball joints. Total height is 9", ~2.25" taller than the stock 88 upright.
5.) Palatov Motorsports
PM Modular Uprights – GTX
Very interesting, pricey at $600 /upright, dimensions are 'very' similar to stock 88GT front upright, only inch taller, and thinner with regards to offset. Can be ordered to run solid joints or balljoints. KPI is 4.8 deg, Balljoints used are moog K9802 , bearing is SKF 513089, bolt pattern 5x114.3, and steering arm needs Moog ES2059R tie rod, they have an additional wilwood brake package as well starting at 600$/upright. Custom steering arms are $150 per side but still need to learn more about instance center and if the one shipped with the upright would need to be altered or not.
Unknown...
6.) Given that Rodney Dickman has pulled his rebuildable bearings from his site and has no plans to offer them again (primarily due to some jack wads over at OE trashing his product, given that he never intended them for race use), and his current stock of taper bearings are hit or miss with regards to autox/tracking... I contacted Chris at WCF and he mentioned he had all but put into production a spindle setup that would maintain the stock offset (didn't as to not step on Rodney's original bearing solution) and given Rodney's lack of a heavy duty solution he's considering going forward with these. He asked me to call him back every week to keep bugging him about it as well as anyone else who's interested.
Thoughts, ideas, comments, peer review...... questions, quips, queries, quandries...
Edit: price and spelling corrections
