With the spindles sand blasted and painted, it is time to focus on the control arms. There are 2 types of factory front lower control arms; those with round rear bushings and those with oval. GM pretty much mixed and matched these at random. The round ones were the first design then the oval ones came about to give a little more shock absorption from pot holes and such. The round ones give you stiffer suspension, which is fine if you leave the round rear bushing rubber. But if you plan on driving on the street and want to use urethane bushings, I strongly recommend using the control arms with the oval bushings. The extra material in the oval bushings offset the stiffer urethane, resulting in a stiffer response suspension yet forgiving with shock from the road.
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I ordered 9200M5 (8.25” –10”) w/metric steel cross shaft/ bolt in ball joint plate, requested: 5” & 6” sleeves w/ midsized plate and 6.5” cross shaft centers with OE pivots. These arms give all the versatility in adjustment with out requiring any shims. No shims give you the shortest distance between the arms pivot point and the ball-joint center. This equates to maximum camber roll on hard cornering, which makes the most use of the B-body spindles handling potential. The adjustable arms make doing alignments so much easier. Pole Position also offers home alignment kits. To mount the spindle to the upper arms just use the stock B-body upper ball-joint. The outmost ends of the brackets that are welded to the frame to mount the upper control arm shafts need to be bent in slightly to allow the upper arms to achieve maximum travel before hitting the frame.
This picture is to show where the brackets get bent in to clear upper control arms. The 2 places are located by the small pieces of white chalk. The area was freshly painted again because the paint chipped after hammering on it. If I’d have known, I’d have done this step prior to galvanizing and painting.
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The ’70 Chevelle calipers fit these spindles without any modification. You can use ’69 Camaro front disk brake hoses with the Chevelle drum brake hose frame brackets, they are a few inches longer. Be sure to use the correct “Banjo” bolt. Napa #82701 is 1.1” long. You can also use ’78 Camaro hoses but you will need to use Banjo bolt Auto Zone # 313935 which is .9” long. The ’78 Camaro hoses are cheaper and do not have to be special ordered. I found this out after already purchasing my ’69 hoses, so that’s what I used. Or you could just use the stock Chevelle frame bracket and hoses.
As shown in an earlier article, I welded 3/8” thick steel blocks with taped holes to give a much stronger front sway bar mount. I am using a 1-3/8” front sway bar and a hard corner with this heavy vehicle, there is no doubt in my mind that the mount bolts would just rip right out of the factory tapped holes in the thin frame material. I found the bar at Malibu Performance 818-222-6725. also I used polyurethane sway-bar mounts which I drilled and tapped grease fittings in.