I've recently completed a 5 lug conversion along with raised spindles. The car is pretty low now, but more importantly I've regained some travel compared to when I was not using the raised spindles. What I'm finding is that I have some pretty significant bump steer now. Obviously this can be corrected with some combination of rack spacers and/or a bump steer tie rod kit.

What I'm having trouble understanding is reading up on roll center changes and correcting this with extended ball joints. Wouldn't this simply raise the car back up and defeat what you have just worked to do? Or is it just the opposite...? Since the ball joint is on the "bottom" it would push the spindle further up effectively lowering the chassis?

Is this even a concern on a 914 with raised spindles?

http://www.meganracing.com/tech/faqs.asp?i...ject=Suspension

No ride height change but your lower control arm is closer to the ground. If you didn't change the stock geometry and lowered the car with raised spindles it's not a concern.

Raised spindles and bump steer? How low are you? Got a picture.

Though raising the spindles is the more correct way of lowering the car drastically, it can still introduce bumpsteer. Aaron, were your steering arms bent down when the spindles were raised as well? Even then, you'll probably need a bumpsteer kit to dial it in correctly.

Raising the spindles should tend to preserve the roll center. Not sure I understand the extended ball joints.

What are your angles looking like on your lower control arms? Pictures from when the car is on the ground are required...
If the car is lowered using the torsion bars and your ball joints are higher than your control arm bushings, you've got a problem.

I'd have to dig through my notes as I have the ride height based off some "tried and true" numbers out there. Not that it matters for this problem, but I am corner balanced.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow to show the ride height and the relationship between the lower control arm and the tire rods. Am I correct to believe they are supposed to be parallel to one another?

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Looks like my tie rod arms aren't quite parallel with the A arms, so I could benefit from some correction. The spindles are raised 19mm and I believe were built by Tangerine Racing.

Raised spindles and extended ball joints do the same thing; allow the car to be lowered considerably without sinking the roll center below ground.

IMHO, raised spindles are much better in every respect since they allow some strut travel to be regained and do not increase side loading on a weak ball joint shaft (recipe for fatigue failure).

Tie rods don't need to be parallel (necessarily), they just need to be wherever has the least bumpsteer. I know this is not useful at all, but some formula cars have non-parallel tie rods because the bumpsteer works out better that way. You probably need a little but of spacing to further lower your outer tie rod end or raise the rack.