Old Chevy a-arm questions.

[michael]

OK, I have a '74 2WD Blazer that's getting a little prerunner treatment. I have 3" coils on the front and the thing
drives awful. I put the upper ball joints under the top a-arm with 1/2" spacers. I'm currently running about 2 degrees
positive caster, 1/2 degree pos camber. All the components seem pretty good, but the truck wanders all over the
road, the wheel doesn't want to return to center and wind blows me around allot. Any suggestions....thicker spacers,
more castor.....anybody have some longer a-arms???? Thanks!

Michael <A target="_blank" HREF=http://jmartin.net/parker/goose.html>http://jmartin.net/parker/goose.html</A>

[heavy8]

Michael,
It looks like you have an alignment problem still, run about 0 to -.5deg camber and set the caster to factory spec. If you know the tow is correct it is the positive caster that is causing it to wonder all over the road. to make the caster more negative you need to add shims to the front upper a arms. this will change your toe- in and camber as well so its
best to your local alignment shop do it.
As far as a lift for your truck I would trash your control arms (upper and lower) and bye some after market long travel arms. If tuned correctly they can perform quite well With out busting your bank. Do not buy a kit with springs, they give you to much lft and sacrifice all your droop. Start out with the control arms and some 3/4 ton replacement springs. Its not going to give you as much lift but you will have about 60% /40% droop/compression (A must for offroad)and with your glass fenders you can run 33- 35's with no problems. good luck.

[rdc]

Im assuming your talking about 3" lift coils right? Your arms are all the way topped out if they are the original stock arms you are almost definetly going to have alignment trouble. You have the glass you seriously need to look into fabtechs ($1100) or CST's($1300) kit. You said your giving it "a prerunner treatment" right?

[jeff]

California SuperTrucks and Fabtech both offer "long travel" arms for the C-10 based vehicles. I can't speak for Fabtech... however the CST arms run around $1299 for a pair.

[Steve_HKmtrsprts]

Go with California Super Trucks, My friend just did his a couple of weeks ago and it looks really good. Nothing against Fabtech, CST is just what looks better, performance wise I couldn't tell ya.

Going big and Filming it all..

[rdc]

Steve, how come you think CST's look better, because their black? I would agree with that. I hate [censored] blue. I believe that both sets widen the front almost exactly the same, maybe Jeff could verify all of this for us. For 88-98 Chevy's CST also told me that they use 3 times thicker tubes than Fabtech. Are they both Chromoly? Help us out Jeff. Steve what are you running on your Chevy?

[Steve_HKmtrsprts]

Hey Derek, I have run both fabtech and CST long travel kits. I had no problems with either, I just liked the way that CST looked and there was less crap on the arms that I didn't use. Fabtech kept the mounts for the swaybars and had a huge bumpstop mount. But I modified my CST kit and ran a 2.5 King through the bucket and a sway-a-way air bump on the outside of the bucket. It stroked about 13inches. If you want pics I can send them to you. But I sold the truck last December.

Going big and Filming it all..

[michael]

Yes, any pictures would be great!

Michael <A target="_blank" HREF=http://jmartin.net/parker/goose.html>http://jmartin.net/parker/goose.html</A>

[Donahoe]

Chris Robinson knows his stuff... California supertrucks would be the choice for me. But to be honest I think Fabtechs kit fits in Chris's Fixture. SAME?SAME?

NEVER LIFT!!!!!

[rdc]

CST is good, but the fabtech kit wont fit in CST fixture their arms are pushed farther forword making the tires rub on the stock bumper, as opposed to CST who's sit back making the tire rub on the fender, plus fabtech cycles around 9-10 were CST does 12".....