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The following is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the installation of Church Boys Racing suspension system. It will also include exhaust and electronics to perform a power train installation of the 430 HP LS3 and 4L65E cruise and connect package offered by GM Performance. The installation will be broken into different parts, front suspension, fuel system, wiring, etc., in no particular order, but based on systematic installation to the final first firing on the power train.
Some background;
The vehicle is an original 1966 Nova belonging to David Konneker, a member here on Steve's. David drove the car with his dad on the 2007 Hot Rod Power Tour. While the car performed as designed, it just wasn't enough. True to hot rodder form, David contacted me about performing an entire make over of his car using CBR components. After a few phone conversations with David and Chuck, discussing the build plans, the stage was set.
David lives about an hour from my shop, so the car arrived with little fan fare. David had already removed the original 283 and power glide, removed the rear end and rebuilt same, and installed the CBR 2" lowering springs.
Original Car...
Removal of the old 283
Installation of the rebuilt rearend and lowering springs
This phase of the install will consist of the upper and lower tubular control arms, rack and pionion steering with billet steering arms, crossmember, Church bar, double adjustable varishocks, topped off by a Snokesbar....
The lower tubular a-arm kit
This shows how the spacers are oriented, and should be installed in each of the rod ends on the upper and lower arms. The tapered end of the spacers slide into the hole in the heim end, then into the saddle of the mounting plate.
Install the mounting plates onto the car, leaving the bolts loose, in fact, leave all the bolts loose until everything is mounted, then you can go back and tighten it all up.
In the inital setup, you can adjust the arms to be pretty close to where the final alignment will be. I used the front measurement off an aligned car, the rear provided by Chuck. Again, this is a rough guide as individual cars will vary.
The rear leg of each arm, both driver and passeneger side should measure 13" from the center of the balljoint to the center of the hole in the heim joint. Make sure your ball joint stud is as vertical as possible, before taking the measurement.
The front leg of each arm, both driver and passenger side, should measure approximately 19" from the center of the balljoint, to the center of the hole in the heim joint.The tape is a little off in the photo, but it is 19" on an aligned car.
Once these measurements are set, the front plates mounted, and the spacers installed into the heims, you can slide the arms into their respective saddles. I did the front of the arm first, as the fit is very precise. Insert the bolt and hand tighten the nut and lockwasher.Then slide the rear in, line up the hole, and install the bolt from the rear with eccentric attached. Install the front eccentric washer, lockwasher and nut. The eccentrics need to face upwards in the eccentric guide on the frame.
Item of note. When you install the ball joints into the lower arms, the dust boot installs between the ball joint and the arm. The bosses on the ball joint prevent the rubber from being completely crushed between the two. This keeps the boot in place, the grease inside the joint, and prevents the boot from "walking" off the joint.
Here are the upper arms as they arrived, fresh out of the wrappings....
Notice the arrow in the following picture. The arms have a specific orientation, the one pictured being the passenger side....
Before you install the upper arms, you will need to make a slight relief in the shock tower housing. Notice the white dot in the picture. This is where the forward heim barely contacts the housing. I just took a large ball peen hammer and relieved the area about 1/8 to 3/16 inches, no big deal. Then just install the bolts through the arm into the housing, and tighten hand tight. The relief is required on both sides, on the forward heim only.
Before you install the spindles, make sure the cotter pins are clocked in the front to back orientation, other wise you won't be able to install the pins all the way.
The spindles used are the stock drum brake spindles. The 7/16" holes for the steering arms need to be enlarged to 1/2" to accept the new bolts. Once they are enlarged, install the billet steering arms to the spindles. Be aware that the arms are specific to each side. The slant on the end of the arm should slant upward to the inside of the car. In addition, there is a relief cut into the outside arc of the arm to allow the arm to clear the spindle boss.
Note that when you install the spindles onto the ball joints, you have to hold the spindle up off the ball joint stud to start the castle nut, then allow the spindle to slide down as the nut is tightened. Once again, remember to clock the cotter pin hole forward to allow the pin to be installed.
At this point you can tighten the castle nuts for the upper and lower ball joints, and install the cotter pins....
Front Suspension Install, Sway bar (Church Bar)...
The sway bar comes already assembled with the rubber isolators and the heims on the bar. Note that the bar has a correct orientation, and can be installed upside down. Note the location in the picture. The hole is more towards the bottom of the flattened part of the bar. If it is flipped over, the longer side of the flat will interfere with the isolator bar at full drop of the suspension.
I used some ty-wraps to hold the bar up in the front, just looped them around the a-arm frame brackets until I got the hardware connected at the rear. I installed the sway bar saddles and the rubber isolators with one bolt in the front. You will need to drill holes for the bolts in the backside of the saddles. The sway bar install is pretty easy and straightforward.
To install the shock mounting plates you need to grind away the lip on the underside of the shock tower so the plate lays as flat as possible...
The top side needs two 5/16" holes drilled in the top plate, as there are none from the factory....
The rest is academic, install the upper plate with the bolts. Slide the bottom plate into place, and tighten the nuts. The Snokesbar was added to the build, so for the install you can delete two of the three spacers, as the upper shock plate makes up the difference. You do have to use the one closest to the fender lip though. As always, leave all the bolts loose until both plates and the plate for the Snokes bar are mounted, then tighten everything down.
Shocks assembled and installed. Follow the instructions from Varishock, they are very easy to assembled and install...
Also got the front disc brake kit assembled and installed. Follow the instructions. This kit is no different than a stock brake kit, and assembles the same way. The only thing I found different from the instructions was that you have to install the pads into the caliper, slide the assembly into the trunion bracket, and then bolt it to the spindle...worked perfectly. The kit also comes with 1/2" or 7/16" studs depending on your setup....
Item of note. When you install the ball joints into the lower arms, the dust boot installs between the ball joint and the arm. The bosses on the ball joint prevent the rubber from being completely crushed between the two. This keeps the boot in place, the grease inside the joint, and prevents the boot from "walking" off the joint.
This is a good point. On my old ball joints, the boots were pushed up through the opening in the lower arms (and torn). The new Moogs that I put in didn't have much of a spacer/boss to keep the boot from being crushed so I added a spacer to each bolt between the ball joint and the control arm that was about 1/2 the thickness of the boot flange. It worked great, allowing just enough compression of the boot without causing it to tear. Just something others may want to consider depending how their ball joints fit. Nice write up Tom!
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'63 400 Wagon
Stupid car projects.
konnerker
Low Clearance Power Steering Pump fitting with integrated steel tube ....
do you have a part number for this?curious why you bought it.....I bought most of the same stuff you bought for a stock clip...but not this...more info please
Contact Chuck, he has the fitting for sale. The output hole on the PS pump is very close to the pulley. A regular fitting won't work, as the stock PS hose is over 200 bucks. Kind of pricey to modify. If you use an -AN fitting it would need to be milled down.
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Nice write up Tom!
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