A Body on Air - RideTech.com
Transcription
A Body on Air - RideTech.com
Two versions of air ride for the 1964-72 Chevelle by Doc Frohmader At one time I held an unofficial land speed record. I was young and foolish, there was a LOT less traffic, and I was under the influence of testosterone poisoning. Nevertheless, in a borrowed 1964 Chevelle SS convertible powered by a 327, I managed to hold my foot down longest and achieve 110 mph. The road (un-named to protect the innocent) was a beautiful stretch of two-lane, flat as a board, straight as an arrow, miles and miles long, through rural country. You could wait hours between cars. The biggest town (at one end of the road) had a bar, a junk yard, and two churches along with six houses. On a clear day you could see for miles. My heart still hammers a bit when I think about it. (Later I would be clocked at 155 passing a well-concealed State Patrol officer who had heard of our escapades and set his mind on law enforcement - ending my amateur land speed career.) I loved that car and several other early SS Chevelles I would play with. Remember these were NEW when I was running wild. I ran them on the street, at the drag strip, and even on dirt tracks. To say they were and are a staple of American performance and cornerstone of the American Dream is an understatement of epic proportion. I still own a ‘70 SS big block Chevelle. A-Body A-Body on on Air Air The Air Ride ShockWave front suspension kit for one side. It is not only a step up in performance and handling, but the complication was worked out in the engineering. A less expensive wayto go and still have the joy of air suspension is the CoolRide kit. It’s a little more of a job to install but very effective. With the brakes and spindles out of the way, you want to mark out the area to be trimmed from the spring tower. Air springs have a larger diameter and need the clearance. Still, as everyone who’s owned and loved vintage cars will attest, there are always ways to enhance performance and personalize any car. (Those of you who are into points-perfect restos may want to stick your fingers in your ears and loudly sing the Barney theme while I continue.) More power, better brakes, and suspension upgrades top my list. Recognizing this, Air Ride Technologies’ Bret Voelkel dug up a pretty nice Chevelle and set out to create both CoolRide (conventional air spring/shock setup) and ShockWave (a billet aluminum air spring and 12-way adjustable race shock combination unit) kits to fit the front of 196472 A-body GM cars. (Actually, Bret tried to buy my Chevelle and when that didn’t work I think he set out to build a better one just to one-up me.) Although I’ve found ARTs components and kits to be well designed, skillfully fabricated, and functionally effective, the ART guys put a little extra into the A-body kits - even including a new tube lower A-arm in the ShockWave kit. The lip around the inside is also trimmed for clearance as is the spring location lip up inside. Rodney takes his time and makes it look professional. Check clearance with the spring. This kit uses both upper and lower stock A-arms. It’s a good time to consider any bushing or ball-joint replacement so you don’t double your work and get the most from your investment. To give you an idea of what these kits look like, how to install them, and help you decide which will suit you best, I went to Jasper and worked with Rodney (Welding Rod) Mason to install and photo both. CoolRide Version This kit contains a standard Firestone air spring selected from some 700 variations to suit the weight, suspension type, weight distribution, and A-arm mechanical advantage to do the best job on these cars. The original A-arms are used with an adapter plate to support and locate the bottom spring mount, At the top, a spacer and mount adapter bolts between the spring and the spring tower, using the original shock mount location. For that reason, a shock mount is required to relocate the shock from inside the spring to behind the A-arm. The shock mount is welded to the frame and bolted to the A-arm. As is the case with any suspension fabrication, whenever you have welding to do, make sure either (A) you have the welding skills to make sure you have good penetration, no voids, and a proper joint or (B) you have someone do it who has those skills. It also requires a welding machine with sufficient capacity to do the job. Use your head and stay healthy. The new springs are shorter but also wider than the original GM parts. Because of this, and the absolute need to allow clearance for moving parts, there is a modification required to the original spring tower. You’ll have to mark out and cut away a portion of the outer lip of the spring tower. This will not cause a problem with weakening the frame, but it will cause the resto guys to get nervous. In reality, this is not a conversion for those who intend to do a points-perfect resto. The air spring is bolted to the upper mount, air fitting installed, and the mounting stud threaded in. Lift the assembly up into the spring tower, pushing the mount stud through the old shock mount hole, and bolt it in place. The lower mount plate fits down into the lower A-arm but can be moved a bit. Center the holes in the plate and arm used for the sway bar for correct location. Then, drill the two 3/8 holes in the arm and bolt it together. On the other hand, if you do a neat job of it, clean up the cut edges and repair the paint, this is not something that looks nasty or amateurish. Like most things we do when playing with our toys, the end quality is a direct result of quality work and patience. The lower spring adapter is a bolt-on, but it requires drilling two holes. The plates were designed to fit the shape and contour of the GM arms and also to make location easy. You’ll find the plates fall into place fairly well. All you really need to do is align the hole for the sway bar in the A-arm with the hole in the plate, clamp the plates to keep them tight while drilling, and punch the two holes. Probably the trickiest part of this operation is removing the original springs. They are long, you can’t get them out without a spring compressor, and if you aren’t using your head you could get seriously hurt. I suggest that you use a QUALITY spring compressor (cheap junk can kill). I also suggest you use a length of 5/16 to 3/8 chain to wrap around the spring and through the lower A-arm, bolted to capture the spring and prevent it from flying if something goes wrong. As usual, a good floor jack and jack stands MUST be used to get the car up enough to work on safely. Lift the A-arm up until it contacts the bottom of the spring assembly and again check for clearance problems. The competed upgrade uses the stock brakes (drum or disc), sway bar, Aarms, and spindles. From that perspective the installation is straight-forward and does not require any additional expenditure to get what you want. However, I will recommend that you repair or replace any of the stock components such as ball joints, bushings, etc. to avoid doubling your work and to get the best from your new air suspension. Good sources for replacements include MOOG for stock replacements and PST for high-performance rebuild kits. As long as it’s apart... The CoolRide ride quality is excellent, the handling is smooth, and the car quite stable. By adjusting air pressure you can alter ride height quite a bit, getting the stance just the way you want it for maximum impact. In addition, the air pressure will alter the stiffness of the suspension, so you can determine what is optimum pressure for ride, performance handling, or a combination that works best for you. The spring is bolted to the plate from the bottom like this. It uses a single 3/8 bolt, but it keeps the spring from walking side to side. The original type sway bar mount is used. You may have to shorten the spacer tube slightly on some sway bars kits because of the extra thickness including the mounting plate. Halfway between top and bottom on that center line, mark and drill the 1/ 2 inch hole for the lower shock mount bolt. Install the mount but just snug it up for now. The shock location is important but relatively simple taken in steps. First, mark a line on the A-arm that is aligned on the center of the brake hose mount. The A-arm should be at about ride height. ShockWave Version The Air Ride ShockWaves are yet another step up. Because the air spring and shock are in the same compact unit, you will not have to reposition the shock mount and weld the brackets. The shocks are billet aluminum race shocks fabricated by QA-1 and include a 12-way adjustable rate feature. This is NOT for looks, nor does it have the limited function of some of the historic adjustable shocks, but is a real tool that works very well. Until you try it out, you will never know just how much accurate shock rate adjustment can alter the character of the ride and handling. The kit includes a new tubular lower A-arm that cleans up the look, eliminates bulk and unnecessary spring mount gear. The combination is much lighter than the original GM setup and that means less unsprung weight. In turn, less un-sprung weight translates into a more nimble and responsive suspension. Again, the stock brakes, sway bar, and spindle or any aftermarket parts that fit stock locations are compatible with the ShockWave upgrade. Where the two kits are alike is the process for tear-down and the required modification to the spring tower for spring clearance. The ShockWave and CoolRide units are about the same diameter, so the metal removed is identical. In both cases, you should always check to make sure you have clearance at all ride heights and wheel positions. With the A-arm at ride height (typically level side to side), and the shock at midway in its travel (Rodney has a dead shock he works with but you can check the shock and use a ruler) he measures the difference between the shock mount height and the shock eye. The mount is sawed off to get the right height. Measure twice, cut once! As you can see, the first cut was a little long. A pre-fit will tell that and allow you to do a final trim-cut. When the right height is established, the mount is bolted to the shock and the assembly held down on the frame rail to make sure it is not bound. Then, tack weld the mount, step back, and make sure there’s no interference. Then remove the shock and weld the mount solid. The completed installation - with drum brakes, yet! but as you can see all the stock parts still fit like they’re supposed to. Back down to the bare bones again, but to do the ShockWave installation the lower A-arm is also removed by pulling the two large bolts on either side. I find that the ShockWaves tend to be a more sophisticated version of air ride. I think you’ll find they will improve handling noticeably. The adjustability is excellent and fully functional, so if you are serious about ride and handling you can really dial this gear in and satisfy that itch. The units are re-buildable and repairable should they ever be damaged. This includes the shocks that, like all quality race shocks, are designed for modification, recalibration, and rebuilding. Common Points In both cases, you’ll need hardware to power and control the air suspension. On The ShockWave unit, ready to go. The air fitting and lower mount donut are on and the air line inserted before the unit is installed. the simple side, you can opt for a basic compressor, a small air storage tank, a single (dual action) analogue gauge, and two manual switches. From there you can add a bewildering array of options to tailor the system to do what you want. Additional or bigger compressors will allow faster and more repeated adjustment to the ride height. That all makes sense, because the amount of air available limits the rate of change. The same goes for additional or larger air storage. The more you have the more often you can adjust the pressure up and down. Rodney slips the ShockWave unit up from the bottom and adds the upper urethane donut, washer, and nut. After tightening, he’ll add a lock nut. Now you can install the new tube A-arm. It fits into the same location and even uses the original hardware. It will be snug, so don’t lose patience. Like the rest of the parts, the new Aarm attaches using the original ball joint. The ShockWave attaches to the A-arm with the long bolt included. As you can see, the arm is made specifically for this application. The smaller the air pump and storage the longer you may have to wait. However, if you don’t plan to do a lot of playing around, or if you can wait a couple of minutes for things to pump up again, this will not be a major concern. All my air ride equipped vehicles use the standard pump and single tank. The size of the valves and lines alter the SPEED of altitude adjustment. More air can flow through larger lines and valves at the same pressure. So when dropping or raising the car if the lines are bigger more air can flow in or out and speed increases. Keep in mind that this typically means you will require a lot bigger pump and storage to support the increased flow. ART has the standard gear up to BigRed massive units but because I’m not into bouncing contests, I’ve stuck with standard 1/4 inch line and valving. Gauges are available in analogue black or white face. A digital (fabricated specially for ART by Dakota Digital) gauge unit is also available. I’ve used both and like them both. In one truck I have a Dakota Digital dash and the digital air ride controls are a perfect match. In another project, I used AutoMeter white-faced Phantom gauges and the white-faced analogues match quite well. It’s a matter of taste. The A-arm is designed to accept the original sway bar mount as well. Pretty slick, heh? You can almost see how much lighter and more responsive this kit makes the A-body suspension. Controls are either manual or solenoid operated RidePro units. The manual switches work well, but you’ll find a little extra bulk in lines running to them and there is a little more seepage common to them than the solenoids. After sitting for a few days you will have to add air. The RidePro setup uses micro-switches and 1/8 inch lines to the control unit, reducing the bulk. The solenoids and pressure senders can be located anywhere, so you can tuck them out of the way. All said, I prefer the RidePro units because I like the way they operate. In both cases, proper installation is essential for long, satisfying service. All lines must be secured tightly and kept from moving parts. You don’t want lines flopping around or vibrating. Avoid placing lines and controls where they can be damaged. Also, proper bump stops, limiting the downward travel to where if a catastrophic failure should happen (an accident?, road debris?) the car won’t drop to the ground and hang up. So there you have it. A lot of options mean a lot of choices to make. I know I can trust you to do what makes you happy. Enjoy the ride and take care of those precious Chevelles. A typical RidePro solenoid-operated style support package. Tank, pump, solenoids, lines, fittings, and two dual-dial gauges with micro-switches are needed and are now the most common selection for a fourwheel system. Want basic? A pump, tank, lines, fittings, and single manual gauge would do it. This provides operation for front only and does not isolate side to side. The digital gauge unit is made by Dakota digital, so it will be a match to their other products. One gauge shows both fronts, then switches to both rears by pressing the small stud at the lower right on the gauge housing. Prefer analogue? Air Ride offers both white and black-faced gauges with dual needles so one gauge shows both sides simultaneously.
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