Ross's extended city, easy entry Goblin- 06 SS/SC, NW Arkansas

Ross

Goblin Guru
Assembled the front uprights today, with the new hub bearings, thicker rod end mounts. Torqued everything.
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Pressed out the old rear hub bearings. The aluminum had a reaction to the steel bearings, so they were stuck.
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The rear Moog wheel bearings arrived today. Test fitted them, and painted them white.
Cleaned, sanded, dremel wire brushed & painted the rear uprights. Reapplied the torque numbers.
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Maybe tomorrow I can get it back on the road. A guys gotta dream.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
Today I was gathering data for MAF tuning using HP Tuners. I wanted to get low & high airflow rates thru the intake MAF sensor, so I left the car in 2nd gear, and found a curvy road to the lake. So fun!
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jamesm

Goblin Guru
That sounds like fun! What road(s) did you take? We drove down to Rogers the other day but the roads aren't super curvy between here and there.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
That sounds like fun! What road(s) did you take? We drove down to Rogers the other day but the roads aren't super curvy between here and there.
I took the curvy road out to Horseshoe Bend Campground, 16165 AR-94, Rogers, AR 72758
It is only 6 miles of curves, but it was fun.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
Today I swapped my front and rear springs. Now the front has 125 lbs/inch springs, and the rear has 300 lbs/inch.
The goblin use to have too much rear traction, leading to understeer.
Now the car is neutral, and I can swing the rear around if I want to (oversteer), but also has understeer under throttle.
Much nicer, better balanced car!
 

JSATX

Goblin Guru
That’s interesting, others have reported improvements running much heavier springs in front. Someday we’ll have to get some real back to back tests done on a track I guess.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
That’s interesting, others have reported improvements running much heavier springs in front. Someday we’ll have to get some real back to back tests done on a track I guess.
I agree! The more we share info, the better these things will get.
I like my suspension to move, and the front only weighs 600 pounds, so it shouldn't need a heavy spring.
Too heavy of a spring can skip the front wheels and loose steerage!

Are you running a sway bar?
Not yet... I put the radiator fan on the "wrong" side so that I have room for a front anti-sway bar. Also ordered the cobalt links so I can mount a rear anti-sway bar.
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Ross, will it be the 23mm or the 18mm swaybar? You will have to let us know your result. In my experience, fi you have achieve close to neutral chassis balance, the rear swaybar will create a lot of oversteer - great if you want to go drifting! :D
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
Ross, will it be the 23mm or the 18mm swaybar? You will have to let us know your result. In my experience, fi you have achieve close to neutral chassis balance, the rear swaybar will create a lot of oversteer - great if you want to go drifting! :D
Well... I own a 23mm from my donor, but I would guess both would be too big. But I'm willing to try it... might work better if I put the springs back the way they were, causing understeer, then add a rear anti-sway bar to bring it back to neutral. At least in theory.
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Can't hurt to try it. The chassis tuning is something I am looking forward to at some point in the future, makes one well aware of the capabilities and limitations of your car.
 

DCMoney

Goblin Guru
Well... I own a 23mm from my donor, but I would guess both would be too big. But I'm willing to try it... might work better if I put the springs back the way they were, causing understeer, then add a rear anti-sway bar to bring it back to neutral. At least in theory.
I have the 125lb springs on the rear and the 18mm sway bar, front have what ever spring rate came with the kit. Haven't had a single case of understeer, and only a few instances of oversteer. I don't care for it though, I have zero feedback on when the rear is going to break free in a corner.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
I have the 125lb springs on the rear and the 18mm sway bar, front have what ever spring rate came with the kit. Haven't had a single case of understeer, and only a few instances of oversteer. I don't care for it though, I have zero feedback on when the rear is going to break free in a corner.
That was my guess at a good setup... adding a small front antisway bar is my new guess.
 

JeffsGoblin

Goblin Guru
Buying wheels and tires is so much fun. I must have looked at 40 wheels and another 40 tires in various combinations.

View attachment 8412

I wanted to keep the gear ratios the same as the stock car, so I started with the stock tires that came with my donor:

5 spoke stock aluminum wheel 18"x7"
Toyo Proxes 4 plus 215/45r18, 25.6" high 7.75" wide.

Then looked for wheels and tires near that same 25.6" diameter.
I was looking for wide tires, and noticed that 17" Mustang wheels are cheap and 10.5" wide wheels.
Ended up choosing Nitto NT05R Drag Radial Tire - 315/35R17 which are 25.7" high.

The hard part is calculating the wheel spacer width:
I didn't want the wheels to intrude closer to the car, and rub, so I started calculating spacers that would keep the inside edge of the wheel at the same location.

2006 CHEVROLET COBALT_SS 18"x7" Wheel
Bolt Pattern: 5x110mm
Hub Diameter: 65.1mm
Width 203.2mm (7" inside width where the tire bead touches. actual wheel is 8"(203.2mm) wide on the outside)
Offset 42mm

1998 Mustang 17"x10.5" Wheel
Bolt Pattern: 5x114.3mm
wheel center bore 70.3mm
Width 11.5" (10.5" inside width where the tire bead touches. actual wheel is 11.5" wide on the outside)
Offset: 27mm
Backspacing: 173mm

The spacer's thickness will be the Mustang wheel backspacing (173mm) less the stock wheel backspacing.
Since I only have the stock offset, I calculated the backspacing (203.2mm/2 + 42mm) = 143.6mm

So to keep the inside wheel rim at the same location, I need a 173-143.6 = 29.4mm thick spacer.

But the new tires overhang the wheel more than the original tire, so the tire might rub if I don't include that in my calculations.
So the stock 215mm tire overhangs the 7" wheel by (215-(7*25.4))/2 = 18.6mm
The new 315mm tire overhangs the 10.5" wheel by (315-(10.5*25.4))/2 = 24.15mm
So to keep the inside of the tire at the same location, I need a (24.15-18.6)+29.4 = 34.95mm thick spacer.

But the new tires have more sidewall thickness than the stock tires, so they will move more during cornering. I don't know how much more, but I did measure the Cobalt SS hub stud length is 38.6 mm long. Since I want to go a little wider, a 39mm thick spacer will save me from trimming all the stock studs shorter. So this is what I went with. (Later realized that the brake rotor thickness gets subtracted from the hub stud length, but no big deal, 39mm works)

Ordered from http://motorsport-tech.com/ for custom made wheel adapters that are hub centric.
39mm thick wheel adapter.
from 5x110mm hub bolt pattern, Hub Diameter: 65.1mm
to 5x114.3mm wheel, center bore 70.3mm
Ross, what is the minimum you think you would go with the spacers and not have to trim the stock 5x110 hubs and still clear everything? 37mm?
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
Ross, what is the minimum you think you would go with the spacers and not have to trim the stock 5x110 hubs and still clear everything? 37mm?
My wheel studs were sticking out of the hub 38.6 mm, so I ordered 39mm spacers, but I forgot that the brake disks take up some of that thickness. Maybe 6mm? If it is 6mm thick, then I only needed a 33mm spacer to not have to trim the stock studs.
 
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JeffsGoblin

Goblin Guru
My wheel studs were sticking out of the hub 38.6 mm, so I ordered 39mm spacers, but I forgot that the brake drums take up some of that thickness. Maybe 6mm? If it is 6mm thick, then I only needed a 33mm spacer to not have to trim the stock studs.
What stud size did you select on the web site? Also thanks for the quick response!
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
I have the 125lb springs on the rear and the 18mm sway bar, front have what ever spring rate came with the kit. Haven't had a single case of understeer, and only a few instances of oversteer. I don't care for it though, I have zero feedback on when the rear is going to break free in a corner.
DC, the tires could also be a contributor to no prewarning before breaking loose. Which ones are you using, don't recall and too lazy to troll through your build log. :rolleyes: Some tires give good feedback, others do not. Pirelli tires (P6) were petty good at feeding back before looping, but when I replaced them with P7s there was almost no warning and I swapped ends more times than I care to admit in some pretty embarrassing moments.
 
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