DOES THE HDK SUSPENSION K-MEMBER HANDLE BETTER THAN A T-BAR SUSPENSION?
Geometry and having a rack aside...all the coilover kit k-frames on the market seemingly have some similar comprimises which are on the surface pretty bad for a cornering car. I know that generally front steer rack driving vehicles feel better. These things have their place but clearly not anywhere near optimized for handling.
1st: Generally made out of cut plate and square tubing at right angles with no gussets or triangulation whatsoever. This might be just fine for a drag only car and possibly a street car but there's nothing stopping any of these from parallelagraming other than the wall thickness which has a minor effect. The entire car does this to some extent also but not having the OEM k-frame in my opinion makes this more likely. The OEM K-shape is much better for this and it also has vertical height in the middle which would resist bending and torsion. The sway bar mounts like this have to just be flexing left and right since they are basically on horns sticking out. It's a real area that can be improved. Another tie bar in front back to the rails of the k-frame, gussets, smaller square tubing with triangulation would make a serious difference.
2nd is the LCA with the narrow pitch of the two pivot points. Generally, you want is further apart for stability as you find in nearly all modern cars but how to totally solve this using a front steer rack and such a low pivot point, I am not sure. You'd almost need to go with a strut rod that would ride above the tie rods but this might not be possible. In an original Mustang II / Pinto the strut rod goes to the rear direction but on an A-body it wouldn't have much support even if there was a pickup point due to the location of the k-frame bolts without welding something to the stock frame rails. The pivot points being low is also inviting more flex to the k-frame and movement under load.
Really, the first part you could beef it up yourself.
These make sense on drag cars for sure, or for something like a Gen 3 hemi or whatever street car.
Did you figure out the tire size limitation on the front from the K-frame? It was quite easy to put the 275-35-18s in the car in my case with the stock stuff, so was suprised to see such narrow tires.
Geometry and having a rack aside...all the coilover kit k-frames on the market seemingly have some similar comprimises which are on the surface pretty bad for a cornering car. I know that generally front steer rack driving vehicles feel better. These things have their place but clearly not anywhere near optimized for handling.
1st: Generally made out of cut plate and square tubing at right angles with no gussets or triangulation whatsoever. This might be just fine for a drag only car and possibly a street car but there's nothing stopping any of these from parallelagraming other than the wall thickness which has a minor effect. The entire car does this to some extent also but not having the OEM k-frame in my opinion makes this more likely. The OEM K-shape is much better for this and it also has vertical height in the middle which would resist bending and torsion. The sway bar mounts like this have to just be flexing left and right since they are basically on horns sticking out. It's a real area that can be improved. Another tie bar in front back to the rails of the k-frame, gussets, smaller square tubing with triangulation would make a serious difference.
2nd is the LCA with the narrow pitch of the two pivot points. Generally, you want is further apart for stability as you find in nearly all modern cars but how to totally solve this using a front steer rack and such a low pivot point, I am not sure. You'd almost need to go with a strut rod that would ride above the tie rods but this might not be possible. In an original Mustang II / Pinto the strut rod goes to the rear direction but on an A-body it wouldn't have much support even if there was a pickup point due to the location of the k-frame bolts without welding something to the stock frame rails. The pivot points being low is also inviting more flex to the k-frame and movement under load.
Really, the first part you could beef it up yourself.
These make sense on drag cars for sure, or for something like a Gen 3 hemi or whatever street car.
Did you figure out the tire size limitation on the front from the K-frame? It was quite easy to put the 275-35-18s in the car in my case with the stock stuff, so was suprised to see such narrow tires.
