Another question for Bob Paulin

[tom36]

I have a Cadillac with  a '79 Trans Am clip. I would like to lower the front down a couple of inches and a stock car friend said that a '69 catalina with disc brakes spindle would bolt on, and drop the front 1 1/2 to 2 ".  Asssuming I could even find said spindles, did you ever hear of this?  Thanks, Tom..

[tom36]

Well, does anyone have any opinions on 2" dropped spindles?  Any manufacturers you would recommend or those to stay away from?  Thanks, Tom..

[enjenjo]

Only dropped spindles I have experience with is Bell Tech, a buddy had one break on his pickup. Granted 100,000 miles, but never loaded heavy.

The Pontiac full size spindle can be adapted, whether it will give you any drop, you'll have to measure that. Disc brake parts for the 69 are more expensive.

[tomslik]

enj, i had a 68 (stock gm) spindle break to, just to put things in perspective.
had bells on my coe with a 1/4 inch wheel spacer, never a problem.

[Phat]

Its a trick we used in racing late models/prostocks(oval track cars) to win a lot of big races  up your way....... Dont bother doing it as its very labor intensive and there is a lot of cutting and building a jig to get roll centers correct...also Rereaming the lower ball joint to be on top.(bunch of other things also)  We only did it because after a good sandblasting and a fluff and buff it had a pass car casting # on it that was real hard to trace.(rules said we had to use pass car spindles)  Vette pindles are about the same but we could not use sports car spindles.  They also look a lot like all the older stuff back to tri five but the pontiac was the one we used to get away with.so.....no sence in doing it on a rod.  Just buy the dropped spindles as they are much better now. A little safer if your not a real good welder and good with frontend geomtry.  They also had bolt on steering arms so we could shorten and change height to change akerman and bump steer with all stock parts.  The guy that told you that had to be a pretty good cheater because thats something even i kept my mouth shut about for years and not a lot of guys knew about.LOL  Now they use aftermarket stuff so no big deal.

[tom36]

Thanks for the input guys.  I think I will go with 2" dropped spindles from the aftermarket.   The car handles really well now but it is still 2 ton going into a corner and I would hate to be sitting like a Rambler with a broken trunion  if a spindle breaks   .

"The guy that told you that had to be a pretty good cheater because thats something even i kept my mouth shut about for years and not a lot of guys knew about.LOL"

As Smokey Yunic would say, it's how you interpet the rule book