Not sure that it matters but does the curved side of the bearing assembly belong facing forward or to the rear.

Anyone know torque specs for tower bolts, upper shock nut and bearing assembly bolts?

 

LOL im doing the exact same thing right now!@!

Founders? I honestly dont think that it matters which way it goes in. Im going to try with it facing towards the front of the car i think and see how it goes. Dont know torque specs but they are 1/2" nut and 1/4" allen key bolt so not to crazy from what i remember.

 

Yes not to tight. I had mine in curved side back, I swapped them around. If you haven't seen already there will likely be a gap in the strut mount on the flat side but your right I don't think it matters.

I think I torqued the mounts and the hex bolts to 35 ft lbs until I limp it down to the shop for an alignment. I don't think they need to be much tighter.

I like them so far. Stuffed koni sports in them they look tough. Excuse the dirty car/bay. I played garage queen this summer, bit off more than I could chew last winter.

 

 

 

Yeah thats kind of why i had the curved side to the front, it covered more of the hole up for me. I just did it for aesthetics really.

Wow im jealous of those Konis!!!! The brake setup looks very good! Heck the whole car looks awesome!! lol I will have pics of mine soon but my engine bay looks nothing like yours!@!@

What is your alignment setup?? I got mine done this morning. Feels great at +5.0 caster and still have room with these mounts!@ Something about that positive caster i love...

 

I'm surprised you didn't strip the threads of the allen heads' hole if you torqued it to 35 ft/lbs.

 

Thin side goes back to the bulk head. If you have them reversed you won't be able to get full caster out of them. You will want to use the center two holes when adjusting the caster. Once caster is set you will use the other two available holes for the other two bolts.

 

whats the bulk head?

 

Firewall

 

Awesome perfecto!! Thanks

 

What did you torque yours too? Not sure why they would strip.

 

Thanks man.

I just kind of have everything eyeballed right now. Did you do the same to get yours down for the alignment?

Sounds like the flat side of the bearing block belongs towards firewall?

Post pictures of yours if you can after the alignment Id like to se where everything ended up.

 

Yeah thats correct, how we did it is right.

I'll grab some pics in a quick sec. What i did before ripping apart the whole front end is i took some measurements and marked bolt locations with a carpenter crayon.

 

If you haven't had your alignment already, you may find this chart informative. It was posted up by a couple of the more knowledgeable suspension guys here at the site.

 

Interesting good stuff!! Mines close to 'hard street' specs, except the camber, i have -.1 (basically zero)?

Also curious about the caster, how come one side is set slightly higher than the other?

 

The offset compensates for the crown in the road. Notice that the road course settings are equal.

 

As in crown do you mean how the public roads are slightly uneven?

 

Crown is the curve to a road, the center where the yellow lines are is higher the edges of a road so water drains off, and if the alignment were 100% equal the car would slowly drift into the ditch

 

Exactly that.
However, it does raise an interesting question. What about a 4 or 5 lane interstate highway? Do you think its the same sort of drainage design or are they essential flat with respect to the single lane you're driving in. (not to jack this thread but the question of alignment has come up)

 

Good queston...I just tried to look it up and all I got was the math to fig out the best angle...I didn't think that much went into road construction lol I would assume that it is always angled toward the shoulder otherwise we would be fighting to keep the car on the road in the left hand lanes with the alignment and the bakside of the crown working against you, but that's just an assumption

 

Most of the 4-lane (2 each way) interstates I drive on are crowned symmetrically. ie. right lane leans right and left lane leans left.
Consequently, I don't want cross caster in any of my vehicles.
I find it annoying on any road for that matter. I'd rather feel through the wheel what the road surface is like.

 

here some quick pics excuse the dirty engine bay/messy wiring...

 

they look good. Is that before or after your alignment. just wondering as someone said you use the center holes and then the remaining ones that are uncovered. do you know what you have everything torqued to?

 

This is after. Hotpart said that you use the center bolts for choosing caster then use other two bolts to lock down. so maybe i did it wrong? Maybe i should move two bolts into the center holes? Drives fine...

I used this chart

Torque Specs:
Gen 3 Camaro:
Fastener Ft-Lbs N-m
Strut to steering knuckle bolt 195 265
Strut upper mounting nut 50 70
Front upper strut mount to wheel housing tower 28 20
Front lower control pivot bolt nut 65 90
Bump stop to control arm 20 28
Control arm ball joint to steering knuckle 90 120
Steering knuckle to tie rod end nut 40 54
Tie rod clamp nut 14 19
Pitman arm to steering gear nut 180 250
Idler arm to frame nut 50 70
Power steering box to frame bolts 80 110


but for the 1/4" allen key bolt idk what its set at, just pretty very hard hand tight with my 3/8" rachet lol.

 

I wouldn't move them should be fine.

 

Where do you get these mounts?

 

founders...or...umi

 

^^^ Disclaimer for the above pics. You cannot buy any mount in chrome or billet anymore. Those were purchased as regular and then chrome plated by a third party.

 

Added disclaimer, if you chrome plate anything with a weld or high tensile strength (heat treated), you must have the plating company bake the parts after plating to eliminate the hydrogen embrittlement.

 

Interesting!

 

I actually just installed a set of Founders mounts on mine.

I had the FLAT side towards the firewall, and I found out that I could only get 4 and 4.3 (instead of 4.5) on the driver side. That was fine for my grampa weekend warrior driving, but in hind sight, yeah....I can see how the curved side towards the firewall woulda given me a few more degrees.

As for the four bolts, you need 4 bolts day in and day out, but you only need two while adjusting alignment, so that's why you should use the middle two. That gives you the most adjustment either way. Once dialed in, put the remaining two bolts in. It's likely you'll only have two holes available, as the other two will be partially blocked by the main strut body. This was the case with mine. ...regardless, as long as you have 4 bolts tightened down, (my amateur, non expert) opinion is that it wouldn't matter which four it was.

 

I was going to bring this up, something often, if not almost always overlooked.

As for all the pics above, guys add some rancho shock boots or similar to protect the shaft. An easy way of affixing them to the top is to get some generic bump stops for coil overs and slide them over the shaft and hang the boot over it.