HQ cast iron brakes and drag link steering

[BLKCAR]

Gday all, been messing around with my HR front end and think I might have it right but need some guidance to see if I have done it right.

I'm going for HQ PBR cast iron callipers, vented rotors on HQ stud pattern (diff shop is getting back to me to see if I can drill out orig rear axles and drums to the HQ pattern), HQ-WB stub axles, HJ - WB long non power steering, steering arms and the original drag link and steering box (only because I'm going for a original interior and don't want to cut up my column to do front mounted rack).

I've mocked it all up in the parts car FB and it seems to work with 2 1/4 turns lock to lock, but I'm worried about bump steer as my tie rods aren't horizontal, the tie rod issue might be just because there is no weight on it and when the motor goes in and me and a few fat mates get in that the tie rod will sit better and more horizontally and reduce bump steer. Am I correct in thinking all this so far?

Also with the rear mounted drag link, the HJ steering arms wouldn't bolt on because they fouled on the calliper so can I swap the stub axles from left to right and vice versa, so that the calliper will sit on the front of the rotor instead of the sitting on the rear of the calliper and leave me plenty of room for the steering arms to bolt to the tie rods. Or is there another steering arm I can use eliminate this problem?

Cheers guys only have 6 days left of holidays til year 11 starts

[oz_ek]

From memory I think your going to need HK steering arms and swap the stubs left to right to front mount the calipers.....Bump steer shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Redrilled axle, drums, rotors, etc are not acceptable in the eyes of most rego / engineering authorities these days.

Good to hear a young bloke out getting his hands dirty working on old cars!!

[BLKCAR]

Cheers for the reply OZ, want to get it done by mid year 12 so another year and a half, been at it for almost 2 years now!

I rang around a few shops today and they quoted me anywhere from $400 to $740 to redrill axle and drum and they said that it was an ok thing. I'll ring the mechanic who does our blue/green/pink slips (whatever slip is the roadworthy in NSW, blue I think even though its on pink paper.....???) and see what he thinks about it as it is his decision in the end.

A dual circuit master with VH40/44 remote booster on the front brakes seems to be the way to go with my HQ brakes.

Cheers!

[oz_ek]

If your looking to run HQ drums on a banjo housing, have a look at HQ-WB One tonner axles and a LJ Torana housing, the tonner axles are thicker than standard and have enough material length ways to allow for shortening and re-splining, no need to redrill anything!......The L34 Torana used this type of axle

[ekstevo]

I'm going for HQ PBR cast iron callipers, vented rotors on HQ stud pattern (diff shop is getting back to me to see if I can drill out orig rear axles and drums to the HQ pattern), HQ-WB stub axles, HJ - WB long non power steering, steering arms and the original drag link and steering box

I tried using the original drag link and steering box with 14 195 60 tyres on 6 inch hq rims, hz alloy callipers and HK steering arms the steering is heavy as and no way I'm going to be driving the car the way it is.
I had the steering box reco'ed before I admitted to myself the set up is shit as I've changed the stub axles I'll need a collapsible to column to get an engineers ticket on mine.

[BLKCAR]

Sorry for the late reply guys, been flat out at school.

ekstevo - how did you fix the problem? resort back to original hr calipers and rotors? or upgrade the steering to rack n pinion?

on a side note, what makes the steering heavy?

oz_ek, i rung hoppers stoppers and they said i should be fine running orig ek rear cylinders as long as they dont lock up before the front brakes come on, if that happens i think ill put a proportioning valve in the line.

cheers, jack

[ekstevo]

Im going to put a racknpinion set up in is the plan run out of money at the moment so haven't.
My uncle said at the time to my old man that it wont work the steering will be heavy and shit the uncle worked on and drove eks when they were new his version of what we wanted to do was it was a shit idea in 1965 anyway the old man banged the fists on the table and told us this is what were doing as every car I've had in the last 20 years has had power steering if I liked driving a manual steering hq I might say its alright .
The width of the big tyres on the road the original steering box doesn't like.