The Project Pad

Okay.

Advantages and disadvantages of;
Shortening a strut tube
and turning in a steering arm.

on a T44.

GO.



But really. Want to shorten my strut housings and turn the arms in. I'm being told by a friend... that I should not do this. At least not on a T44.
I know others have gotten away with it before. Anybody want to chime in on why I should not do this?

FedEx delivered my package to have the strut housings shortened today.

I don't see any reason not to shorten them. Turning the arms may change steering geometry.. Or would it not? I dunno, haven't thought about it hard enough

And with that, other questions.

Helper springs or tender springs? I was considering running some tender springs until I saw they were $100 a piece. Anybody have any insight on what to do or not to do?

turning the arms IN will change your Ackerman angle/scrub
if you are going to change your steering arm setup and LOWER the car you will want to keep the c-arm angle and steering rod angle as similar as possible. this will reduce bump steer significantly. c-arm angle, as in pivot to pivot vs putting a digilevel on the c-arm itself. you can use a threaded sleeve that is shorter to properly locate it vs steering rod, as long as you dial in your ride height. resulting in a bit less adjustability height-wise but better angles.

a shorter strut tube just lets you go lower ride height and helps you get back a little travel

also consider raising the height of the strut mounts on the chassis to go lower and retain some travel

helper springs, well, help keep it all together and aligned when it gets unloaded. I got my helpers from
http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/shocksho00/Categories?category=Helper%20Springs
the Hyperco's 2.5" x4" are a reasonable 23$ each.

I may have a spare set of spring dividers that I had lathed up. they're not cheap but they are a good bit cheaper than I found for alu vs nylon/composite

good article

http://www.me.ua.edu/me364/PDF/Steering_Ackerman.pdf