Since we are talking about AWD & it is basically just a matter of somebody DOING it....It isn't much of a matter of HOW so I thought about this new subject......

What about AWS? Anybody wanna tackle how to do it?

 

gm did a prototype camaro with aws back in the day

 

Yep. I had just gotten through reading the article on the throne & thought I'd ask about the reality of actually doing it here.

 

If I could win the lottery and never have to go back to that waste of time called a J.O.B. I would do it. I think it would be fairly easy. GM had the AWS on some trucks & Suburbans a few years ago. I'm pretty sure you could rob all the parts you needed off of one of those and modify as needed to fit our cars. Then, all that would be left to do is modify the rear wheel wells for clearance.

 

I actually have already looked into the full sized truck AWS systems, but the wheel track is way to wide to fit under our fenders.

Yes, everything could be narrowed, but that would totally throw off the electric steering control box throws. They would definately oversteer in both directions. The throws would have to be electronically shortened in the servo control programming.

If there were an AWS S10/S15, that would make it much easier to do.

 

Would you even want to use anything from the quadrasteer electronics? From what I've seen, the quadrasteer on the trucks was more of a low speed thing for turning tighter and easier manuvering of trailers so it would steer the rear wheels the opposite way from the front. The more performance oriented all wheel steering on vehicles like 3000gt's and the dodge stealth steered the rear wheels the same direction as the front (just at less of an angle than the front) at higher speeds and didn't do anything at low speed. I'd think thats more of what you would want anyways on a camaro..

 

I'm sure you could get ome axle knuckles kit from a rockcrawler place and then rob the rest from a denali. You can put steering on pretty much any axle. Power Block made a front axle out of a Dana 60 rear axle.

 

The way the GM test mule was done was that at low speeds the rears turned opposite the fronts, like the Quadrasteer you described.

But at higher speeds, the rears would turn the same direction as the fronts, like in the 3000gt's & stealth like you described.

So it benefited in both speed ranges. I think the Quadrasteer does that too. Opposite at low speed, same direction at higher speeds.

 

The GM test mule 3rd gen Camaro used S10 knuckles on a Dana 44.

 

s10 knuckles on a Dana 44?

as far as i know gm never made a solid front axle s10

 

I never said there was.....

S10s came with steering knuckles......F-bodies came with Dana 44s. Combine the two and you get.....S10 knuckles, on a Dana 44 axle.

 

you could probably do aws by either modding your rear axle for steering or just flipping a front axle from a 4wd truck and putting it back there. then weld up some brackets to hold a hydraulic ram on it. then hook a Sharline valve, or what ever its called you know what i mean, to to your stearing box and then just run the hydraulic lines. pretty much the same as what they do in monster trucks. the only thing im not sure about is why you would want to build aws on a third gen they already have a very sharp turning radius.

 

If you shorten the axle and the linkage the steering shouldn't change. The thing is that GM did it in their longest trucks to make them turn tighter, not much of a point in following that scheme on an f-body.

Most sports car setups more resemble a sloppy suspension that under some conditions allows the wheel to move giving a small fraction of a steering input, more of a gimmick than anything else. I don't think anyone has ever shown a car that is overall faster around a real track, under real conditions with it

 

Does anyone have a link to the article on this AWS Third Gen? I would like to read it

 

aws isn't as great as it seems. go hang around on some 300zx forums, and most of them remove it

 

That wouldn't work, because the front 4WD S10 axles had the pumpkin severely offset.

Put it in the rear & it would no longer line up with the tranny for the driveshaft.

You could only do it if you shortened one axle tube & lengthened the other. Even then, the R&P would be rotating the opposite way from how they were designed to.

 

I scanned it for ya.....Anybody noctice that there are TWO PHBs? 2 side by side, like doubling up the strength.

 

^ pretty cool stuff. Although I don't see the practical use for it. I think I'll take awd over aws...

 

x2

what would this prove, aside from some cool factor?

AWD would be much cooler and practical than aws

 

 

Is there more info on that 4ws camaro? What rack? What electronics and such? I was talking with a quadrasteer truck guy the other day and it got me thinking. I didn't think there was much clearance down there for a rack, especially on a lowered car.

 

For all you guys talking about the quadrasteer, not only were they not very reliable (one reason they don't make them anymore), but they were also hella expensive to have fixed and/or serviced if something broke, which was the bigger reason why they aren't made anymore.

I drove one back when they still had the GM Auto Show in Motion, and I wasn't impressed with their turning ability. Now that Rack and Pinion is standard on those trucks they aren't that big a deal to turn unless you have a crew cab with an 8' bed or something. Maybe a dually. I've never driven a dually outside of an actual box truck. Now my buddy has a Ford F-250, and that thing has the same turning radius as his semi truck. And I mean that with absolutely zero exaggeration.

Mathius

 

austrailian built dana 44? Im guessn typo.. I know i doesnt matter which rear youd use just thought its a intersting typo/ miss information..