Front shocks outside of a arms?

[jsf74]

I have a metric clip with nova lowers and pinto spindles and very little room for shocks inside if the upper a arm. Has anyone else ran into this and what was the solution. The car was built with metric spindles but I went to the pinto's for obvious reasons. Can I mount the shocks in front of the upper arm and still have everything work correct or should i cut a little more clearance on the frame.

[dirttrackrocker]

Sounds like it was built with metric lowers too. I would notch the frame.

[28m]

I had a Smilies and now a Loose Gruff that mount outside the upper A Arm. As long as the shock mount on the lower is at the same distance out as the original mount, you are fine. The shock doesnt know the difference.

[jsf74]

Is it in front or back. Any pics by any chance?

[28m]

Mine is in the front. Honestly, I dont think it matters. I as long as the shock is at the same lean angle and distance on the lower A-arm, it wont matter.

The Orange car is the Loose Gruff. This is when i first got it. I dont run small body shocks so even more reason for the extra clearance. In 1999 I had a Dirtworks that had clearance issues and I switched it over the same way. The Gruff and the Smilies are both built this way originally.

The Red car is the Smilies...it is an 03 or 04 I think. Yes those are the cheapest AFCO's on the planet...LOL...again, 2004. No laughing! :)

http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa260/wauge28/Shock%20mounts/

[jsf74]

Thank you.

[racin6mod]

here's car on racerjunk they mounted the shocks in front of the radiator like an indy car very clean and easy to do.

[jsf74]

I don't think that's going to work cause aren't the shocks supposed to be mounted at a 10 to 20 degree angle.

[TCmod]

I don't think that's going to work cause aren't the shocks supposed to be mounted at a 10 to 20 degree angle.

They may be mounted at a crazy angle but the shock mount on the upper should arc pretty close to as if it was mounted to the lower. I've wanted to try a setup like this for a while now. I think it would be fun to mess with the motion ratio of the shock by shortening and lengthening its mounting point on the upper.

[jsf74]

I'm just going to trim some and use the kiss method.

[28m]

I'm just going to trim some and use the kiss method.

I agree. The cantilever system would make me lay awake at night and wonder what the he!! the valving would be with....yeah, way too much brain power needed.

[blacksmythx]

That cantilever setup looks like what Wayne Brooks won with at Bristol in 2000.

[hipower17]

there was a chassis built yrs. ago in east ky that used this shock setup. i think eddie carrier jr. had one when he ran mods. these cars won a lot of races.

[Egoracing]

I built and ran a car like that several years ago but I had the shocks straighter as I ran a transfer bar system not tied to the upper a frame. The mounts on the bottom had several holes across the chassis to adjust the angle of the shock to be able to adjust them. (I sent Zero Racing on here pictures in early 2000 of the setup). It took some math and tinkering to get them set the way we wanted but we ran all season on one set of front shocks on asphalt and the 3 years before we were loosing about 1 a month from dents.
On dirt cars we built we put the left shock on the rear of the A arm and the right on the front to allow for the most counter steer we could build into the chassis. On asphalt we put the left in front and the right in the rear.
The closer you can get the bottom mount to the ball joint the better it can control the wheel.

[dirttrackrocker]

I'm thinking that if you measure from the bushings on the lower A arm to where you would normally mount the shock and make the mount on the upper arm that long, I don't think the angle would be a factor.