Designing strut blocks; need measurement

The Dark Side of Will · Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:38 pm

I'm finally sitting down at the keyboard to design the strut blocks I've been meaning to design forever...

The trouble is, my car is pulled pretty far apart, so I can't take the one measurement I need to see how feasible this is.

Ok, a strut block is like what they made for the Fiero dragster... it pushes the struts inboard from the hub carrier in order to clear a bit more wheel backspacing. The ones they made for the Fiero dragster required a good bit of frame rail notching. Mine will not, however, they will be more complicated because of it.

I've seen some pictures of the Fiero dragster rear suspension, but like a fool, I didn't save them. Anyone have those?

Anyway, the measurement I need is the minimum clearance between the bottom of the strut and the frame rail on an early chassis with early cradle.
In order to take this measurement, pull your strut & hub carrier out without disturbing the camber adjustment, remove the spring from the strut and reinstall the assembly without the spring. Use a jack to cycle the suspension from full droop to full jounce and tell me what the minimum clearance between the clamp part of the strut and the frame rail is. Taking a picture of the setup along with the measurment would be great. Along with the measurement, the location in the suspension travel at which minimum clearance occurs and the static camber setting of your suspension will also be necessary.

Thanks.

The Dark Side of Will · Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:53 pm

Found dragster rear suspension pics:

Mine will not move the struts as far and thus will not require any cutting of the body. 1" is the minimum amount possible to move the struts.

The Dark Side of Will · Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:34 pm

Oh yeah, for you guys with stock rear springs... What's the distance from the upper spring cushion to the top of the strut clamp? I need to know that approximately to get the angle right. On my car that distance is about 12 5/8"... since my car's lowered slightly more than 1", that should be about 13 3/4" on a stock ride-height car. Somebody LMK if I'm off by more than an inch or so.

Shaun41178(2) · Post by **Shaun41178(2)** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:12 pm

Thats a pretty interesting idea. I am sorry that I cant' help. I have an 88.

How much backspacing do you plan on running? STock I want to say is 5.5 inches. I think you can get more without interference but I forget how much. Maybe an inch or so. I forget. I had the notes around here a long time ago. like 6 years ago. Stuff gets lost.

getting an extra inch of backspacing is quite a bit actually. It will allow a much wider rim to fit under the stock fenders. I would try an inch and see how you like it if you can't get anyone to find measurements for you.

The Dark Side of Will · Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:52 pm

Well the minimum it can move without modifying the struts and/or hub carrier is about 1"...

WCF says that 17x9-45's will fit on stock suspension. Based on my calcs relative to a 16x8-25 wheel, I think that 17x10-51's would fit with 1" strut blocks... That's a real nice wheel for a 275/40-17

THE PUNISHER · Post by **THE PUNISHER** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:22 pm

I currently have 17x7's all around and would really love to go to a 17x10 outback. The biggest problem I have found is that with the 5x100 bolt pattern comes the crap ass FWD bolt patterns and finding a reasonably priced 17x9-10 is impossible. I don't want to switch rear bolt patterns at this point. On project I would like to complete is going to the P6000 HD upwrights , but I figure I may as well not fuck with something that isn't broken.

The only alternative would be having weldcraft in michigan widen the wheels @ $189 a shot. @ this point I would rather have 2 sets of wheels. One for street , 1 for autocross / track. I have been looking for a set of Beretta 16" fat 5 spokes for track use.. but again 16x7 sucks ass...

The upwrights look great , but Im not about to plunk down $1000 per wheel for HRE's , Forgelines , Ect....

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 10:00 pm

Use Held coilovers... you can run a fatass tire under your fiero with those. They probably gain as much as those spacers do in clearance

The Dark Side of Will · Tue Dec 14, 2004 9:38 am

Held coil overs are no different than any other coil overs. I already have homegrown Koni coil overs... I'd be able to run the above mentioned 17x9 with those, but not 17x10.

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:07 pm

Now im picking up what your laying down...

I understand why you need the spacers now.

The Dark Side of Will · Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:00 pm

THE PUNISHER wrote:I currently have 17x7's all around and would really love to go to a 17x10 outback.

You're suspension is apart right now, right? Think you can get me that measurement? That would speed things along a bit... If I get the prototypes done and find that I could have gone with an extra 1/2", I'd have to totally redesign things.

The only alternative would be having weldcraft in michigan widen the wheels @ $189 a shot. @ this point I would rather have 2 sets of wheels. One for street , 1 for autocross / track. I have been looking for a set of Beretta 16" fat 5 spokes for track use.. but again 16x7 sucks ass...

I've been thinking of Compomotive wheels at approx $2K/set, but they don't have a style that really cranks my tractor.
Having wheels widened is an interesting possibility and $189 doesn't seem like too high a price...

THE PUNISHER · Post by **THE PUNISHER** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 10:00 am

I will measure it up this sunday

The Dark Side of Will · Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:28 am

Spanks

The Dark Side of Will · Sun Dec 19, 2004 1:12 pm

Oh yeah, tidbit I'd never seen in print before...

I haven't measured every kind of strut, of course, but the Gabriels I used to use for coil overs have a total of 9.6 degrees of camber adjustability.

Some of this is obviously in the positive direction, but I will rectify this with strut blocks to maintain a large range of available camber for camber junkies just like us.

The Dark Side of Will · Sat Dec 25, 2004 7:21 pm

THE PUNISHER wrote:I will measure it up this sunday

Did you ever get that measurment?

(I know I'm a hell of a guy to be hurrying somebody up...)

THE PUNISHER · Post by **THE PUNISHER** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 7:14 pm

The Dark Side of Will wrote:
THE PUNISHER wrote:I will measure it up this sunday
Did you ever get that measurment?

(I know I'm a hell of a guy to be hurrying somebody up...)

Caught up in Christmas no I didn't

Good news.. jan 2nd Til the 10th is ""Get the northstar Running week" Where I will be spending an entire week in my garage working on the car in an attempt to get it running

The Dark Side of Will · Mon Dec 27, 2004 7:23 pm

Trying to set aside time new years' weekend to get the front bank header mock-up done