Ridetech 11230109 - Manual (Page 13)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR Ridetech Tall SPINDLES
These spindles will fit ’67-69 Camaro, ’64-’72 Chevelle, and ’68-’74 Nova. They will provide a 2”
drop, and are taller than stock to improve the car’s cornering ability. The raised upper ball joint will
cause the tires to lean into the corner, like a motorcycle, rather than outboard as the shorter stock
spindles do. This camber action change also raises the roll center for less body roll, and transfer the
car’s center of gravity inboard in the turn as well. You will see an appreciable improvement in
handling. Standard size anti sway bars will work well with those improvements, without the need for
monster sway bars that can cause a harsh ride.
The spindles are modeled after stock disc brake spindles and will accept any disc brake set up
designed for those. If your car came with drum brakes, be sure to swap to the appropriate disc brake
master cylinder and valving. We have test fitted ECI, Wilwood, Baer, Aerospace, and stock GM kits.
The only modification we discovered to be necessary was a small trim on the bottom of the stamped
¼” steel caliper bracket that holds the caliper. It is an area that is not stressed and will not cause any
loss of strengt
h. There are variations among the various reproduction the shaft to be flipped in it’s
bushings for brackets, so the trim will be seen only on some of those.
Stock stamped control arms will accept these spindles, as will any aftermarket arms we have seen.
Our own tubular control arms have the upper ball joint plates rotated slightly for better ball joint angles
on lowered cars. We also set the ball joint ¾” to the rear of the car to allow more aggressive positive
caster settings, as well as to compensate for the normal forward rake seen on hot rods. The upper
control arms shaft has a 3/16” offset, allowing the shaft to be rotated in it’s bushings for a 3/8” net
change in the upper arm’s effective length. That design was pioneered by the MOOG company, as
many stock autos suffer from a sagged cross member, making it difficult to obtain good alignment
numbers. We suggest the alignment be done with 1/8” toe in, ½ degree positive camber, and 3
degrees positive caster with power steering, 2 degrees manual.
It is important to be sure you have the proper steering arms. Many cars were updated to disc brakes
in the past by using disc brake and spindle assemblies from a donor car. However, the Chevelle
steering arms are front steer, and the tie rod is roughly the same height as the lower ball joint. The
Camaro and Nova arms are rear steer, with the outer tie rod end much lower than the ball joint. If the
incorrect arms are used, the incorrect height tie rod end will cause major bump steer problems. Our
testing of prototype versions of these spindles revealed that a small additional lowering of the
mounting holes for the steering arms was necessary to remove the small amount of factory
bumpsteer, and to account for the changes made by the taller spindle. We included that
enhancement in the production version of your new dropped spindles.