Look what I found when I disassembled my "stock" '57 front suspension!

[Bitchin'57]

Chevelle spindles????? How??? Why???

I purchased the '57 rolling project about 6 months ago. I had no reason to believe that the front end wasn't original. It had drum brakes, if that matters. I wonder what happened to the originals. Do the spindles interchange, or should I post pics of the control arms, too? This is my first old Chevy, so I'm new to GM front suspensions.

http://hemiduster.com/spindles-57.jpg

[chevynut]

Please post a pic of the front of the frame, a-arms, etc. Those are not tri5 spindles. Did your frame get clipped?

[Bitchin'57]

The A-arms are still attached. It's 11:30 pm here, I'll post pics tomorrow.

[Rick_L]

Just guessing, those look like Chevelle/Camaro/Nova spindles. They don't interchange with stock spindles.

Do the lower ball joint studs point down or up?

[Bitchin'57]

Rick_L, the lower ball joint studs point up.

Here is a pic of the front end.

http://hemiduster.com/smoothie-firewall-in.jpg

[markm]

Early Camaro/Chevelle stuff is 9.5 inch drums instead of 10.00.

[chevynut]

Here's a stock 67-69 Camaro/68-72 Nova front suspension. Looks like with the right balljoints configuration you could bolt the spindles in like the PO did. Someone must have inverted the balljoints on the lower a-arms. Got a closeup pic of the lower a-arms after removal?

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l231/buddypaw/IMAG1338_zpsoajsdquh.jpg

[Bitchin'57]

Here's a stock 67-69 Camaro/68-72 Nova front suspension. Looks like with the right balljoints configuration you could bolt the spindles in like the PO did. Someone must have inverted the balljoints on the lower a-arms. Got a closeup pic of the lower a-arms after removal?


I can post some pics of the lower arm ball joint tonight.

[Bitchin'57]

http://hemiduster.com/lowerbj1.jpg

http://hemiduster.com/lowerbj2.jpg

[markm]

That is stock 55-7 stuff, what hubs and drums did they use. Was this a running car or a roller.

[Rick_L]

I've never seen anything like that.

Looks like it's stock control arms with the lower ball joint adapted from something. I do see that the steering arms appear to be from the same car as the spindles.

Also looks like there are a bunch of shims on the upper control arms - that makes sense since the steering inclination angle of the Chevelle/Camaro spindles is greater than the original spindles.

Stock drums would be 11", and the Chevelle/Camaro ones 9.5".

[chevynut]

Wow, he just turned the balljoint upside down? They aren't made to run that way and would have failed at some point. Looks really dangerous to me. :eek:

[Bitchin'57]

I've never seen anything like that.

Looks like it's stock control arms with the lower ball joint adapted from something. I do see that the steering arms appear to be from the same car as the spindles.

Also looks like there are a bunch of shims on the upper control arms - that makes sense since the steering inclination angle of the Chevelle/Camaro spindles is greater than the original spindles.

Stock drums would be 11", and the Chevelle/Camaro ones 9.5".
I didn't measure the stack up of shims, but I would bet there was about an inch of shims in there. The drum brake parts are in the trash can, but I would say that they were 9.5" drums. The car didn't come with drums, but I can verify by measuring the backplates.

[markm]

Isn't a 64-72 Chevelle ft. steer, so steering arms must be 1st gen Camaro rear steer. Was this car driven on road like this or just thrown together to sell.

[Bitchin'57]

Wow, he just turned the balljoint upside down? They aren't made to run that way and would have failed at some point. Looks really dangerous to me. :eek:
This car was getting restoration work done at a resto shop in Chattanooga, when for reasons unknown to me, the business was suddenly shut down, and shortly thereafter, the contents of the building were auctioned off. At the time of the sudden closure, the car was completely apart, with the body still on a rotisserie, frame was bare, etc. The PO who won the car at the auction had to assemble the car enough to be able to roll it onto his trailer and bring it home. Maybe it was then that they had to cobble together the front suspension with parts they found inside that shop. That's my best guess, anyway.

[chevynut]

To me it looks like they took the original balljoint and ground the sides off of it so they could turn it upside-down. That style of balljoint is meant to run with the force pushing on the stud, not pulling on it.

[Rick_L]

X2 on what Cnut said about the upside down ball joint.

Hard to say for sure what it would take but it appears that putting it back to stock or to use aftermarket parts for a 55-57 wouldn't be all that difficult. Question is could you use those control arms, probably could.

[markm]

I wonder if my 55 was ever owned by the previous owner of this 57, they similar qualities.

[Bitchin'57]

X2 on what Cnut said about the upside down ball joint.

Hard to say for sure what it would take but it appears that putting it back to stock or to use aftermarket parts for a 55-57 wouldn't be all that difficult. Question is could you use those control arms, probably could.
Soon, the A-arms will be scrap metal.

[Bitchin'57]

I'm going to be in the market for 55-57 steering arms, as the ones I have are matched to those spindles. If anyone here has nice used ones they'd like to sell, PM me.

[WagonCrazy]

Bitchin57. Once you spend the money on a new front end suspension, you're about half way there to a C4 frame setup with C4 suspension to go with it. Food for thought....we all know someone on this forum who makes those frames...

[Bitchin'57]

Bitchin57. Once you spend the money on a new front end suspension, you're about half way there to a C4 frame setup with C4 suspension to go with it. Food for thought....we all know someone on this forum who makes those frames...
I knew that was coming....

[Maddog]

Bitchin57. Once you spend the money on a new front end suspension, you're about half way there to a C4 frame setup with C4 suspension to go with it. Food for thought....we all know someone on this forum who makes those frames...


$700-$800 to buy disc brakes and rebuild complete front suspension, so C4 frame and suspension is no more then $1500-$1600?

[Bitchin'57]

I've already purchased 2" drop spindles and a Wilwood 13" 6 piston front brake kit, so I'm already invested in that direction. If I had known about the C4 setup sooner, I might have gone that way.