Ackerman Questions (Street Stock 81 Camaro) & setup Questions

Can anyone help me out with the "Ackerman Steering." I've got an asphalt car for the las vegas bullring. It's a 1981 Camaro. I was told that i should get a 1978 Nova pitman arm. What else do I need and what do I need to do to get the correct amount of ackerman? Im also looking for someone with a basic shock and spring setup for this track. Ive been playing hell trying to find the track's banking degrees. I also have a large aftermarket sway bar and I do not know if it is the 1 1/8" bar or the 1 1/4" bar. I measured the circumferance and that came out to apprimately 4 3/8" which is just confusing me more as I was trying to work backwards from this formula (Pie * Radius squared = circumfrance). Also I need a heck of a lot more camber in the left front. Is there a longer stock upper control arm off another vehicle maybe that will work on the camaro? Im also having problems with bending shocks due to the fact that they are mounted directly behind the control arms and the spindles continuously hit them. I have a lot more questions but i'll just start with these. If anyone can help please do! Thank you!  

I am nowhere close to Vegas and don't know anything about that track but I'll try to help what I can. First the pitman arm fix is usually for the metric cars and uses a 68 or so arm. The nova and f-body uses the same front clip and from my knowledge the same arm according to the catalogs for them. If your allowed to run rod-ends for tie-rods you can space them with shims at the pitman arm, idler arm, and spindles to adjust the bumpsteer and have some effect on the ackerman. adjusting your center link in relation to the tie-rods will help as well. Having one drag link longer than the other is what your looking for.

To measure the sway bar just take a 1 1/8" wrench and a 1 1/4" wrench and do a slip fit and you'll have that answer!

For your shocks it sound like they are just too far out but you dont want to bring them in too far as that will reduce the effectiveness of the shock.  Try moving the lower mount in just an inch, tack it,and check the clearance. If you take out the spring it will be much easier to cycle the suspension.

I don't know of any upper that would work for your chassis, however I do know of a couple of fixes but you'll need a good welder. The first choice is to cut the upper control arm mount and weld it in a more desirable position. But some tracks may not allow that and its easy to spot. So that bring me to the more complicated fix... Get 2 arms and measure out from the center line of the shaft to a place where you can cut the arm in two. But on the second one measure out or in a 1/2" further. Take the longer two pieces and weld them together, and smooth out the welds with a grinder. A little paint and bam you got a longer control arm!!  

I hope this helps and with some more info maybe we can help more.    Jr  
"Remember when sex was safe and racing was dangerous?"

Awesome, thanks for the help. I can't believe i had a total brain fart on the sway bar! Unfortunately i don't have any wrenches that big but i sure will by this weekend. Ive got several other questions about setup to if anyone can help. Heres what Im working with now.

RF Spring 950
RF Shock S7M6565 Bilstein
LF Spring 850
LF Shock Pro WB746
RR Spring 200
RR Shock Pro MB95 260/260
LR Spring 175
LR Shock Pro WB946 260/260

Scale wieght (Not Exact Yet)
LF 775
RF 867
LR 918
RR 637
53% left
55.8% cross
Total 3197

Stagger
Front: 2 1/8
Rear: 3

LF Caster: 1 3/4
LF Camber: 2
RF Caster: 3
RF Camber: 4 1/2

369055LH & 360956RH 12 rotors.

358 motor with 76cc heads stock cast manifold (Cast #6263752) Holley 4412. Stock truck exhaust manifolds with straight pipes.

78 Corvette Master Cylinder w/ aftermarket proportioning valve for Disc/disc with 3/16 brake line ran to the ford 9" with 600 gears. Is the line possible too small?

Does any one possibly have any suggestions on what might make this thing faster with the chassis setup? Im definately going to put some taller gears in the car cause i was running close to 7100 RPMs.  

The ChassisHelp team has developed a free Ackerman calculator plus many more calcs.

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http://www.chassishelp.com/ackerman.html

See ya at the races!