Conversion - Front End

As I mentioned earlier, I did a complete front suspension rebuild about a year ago; swapping the deep pocket lower A-arms, front anti-sway bar, spindle, vented rotors, calipers, and V-6 springs from a ’78 Sunbird wagon for my stock non-GT parts. I replaced the bushings and ball joints at that time as well. Since I didn’t want to disassemble and redo all that work again, I opted to buy beefed up 5-lug Monza rotors from Dave’s Vega Village rather than doing the S-10 spindle, rotor, calipers, and ball joint adapter. But that all changed when I upgraded to 12-inch rear disk brakes and needed the ¾ -inch bigger S-10 front disks to keep the brake system balanced. This is discussed later in the article. My car came with power brakes, and I retained the stock booster without any clearance problems. I replaced the V-6 springs with new Moog CS 5576 V-8 Monza springs. My first impression was these were way too stiff, so I considered CS 5624 which was used in V-6 H-bodies with A/C and some V-8 cars without A/C. The 5624 springs were too tall to install without cutting two coils out of them and making them potentially even stiffer than the 5576 springs. Once I got all the sheet metal and front bumper on the car, the rate on the 5576 springs was much better; a little stiff but quite acceptable for better handling they provide. I didn’t have to cut them and the ride height is just about perfect. With the variable rate rear springs installed the car looks very balanced.

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