Does anyone...besides the manufacturer....have any experience with these adjustable upper control arms? I am preparing to put a 572 in my 68 and know it will be a very tight fit. Question is 3 fold :
Do they really free up much more space than others?
Do they work as well for suspension issues?
Is there a disadvantage to their solid bushings setup?

1- Yes. All alignment adjustments are now made on the control arm sleeves, vs putting shims between the frame and cross shaft.
2- They will help get a more modern alignment setting, but without a G mod, tall spindle or tall ball joint they will not cure the lack of negative camber gain that plague all 1st gen f body cars. as far as durability, they are fine for both street and road racing, they are not a load bearing arm.
3-No disadvantage on bushing design. They are greaseable, and will act like a bearing with fluid movement, not bind, and will not wear down like rubber.

Tyler

Which would be better? : g-mod or tall ball joints?

I have them - they are very nice. The space that is gained comes from the fact that you don't use shims that push the arm toward the engine - plus they don't have the large ears for the bushings like stock arms have.

Which is better? I guess you have to define "better" and figure out what you want to gain. I will say that if you are going to be replacing your upper arms, you'll also probably be replacing the upper ball joints as well. If that's the case, it's certainly EASIER to get the tall ball joints and leave the mount holes where the factory put them. Mark Savitske sells a tall upper ball joint and an Xtra tall upper ball joint. I'd call him ask him about it. He's a very friendly and knowledgeable guy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/gort69/DSCN0215.jpg

They are pretty close to each other. If you don't mind cutting, the G mod is free, if you want to retain orginality then do the tall ball joint.

Tyler

Mark Savitske sells a tall upper ball joint and an Xtra tall upper ball joint. I'd call him ask him about it. He's a very friendly and knowledgeable guy.Call Mark.

http://www.scandc.com/

I almost have my 77 back together, and have these arms & a howe tall LBJ. They are smooth moving parts, and I did a rough alignment in the garage the other night, and they are easy to adjust. Between those arms & the GW del-a-lum lower bushings, the front end moves buttery smooth. :yes:

My added advice: BUY THE HEX SLEEVES. Thank me later.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SIBLY/My77Z28/IMG_1020s.jpg
(old shot)

i think the control arms are the best bang for the buck out there, as far as control arms go. the stage 2 from sc&c is the least money/biggest benefit i've spent on my car, and i've spent alot! i haven't heard a complaint about them yet. you get my vote for the stage 2...

I have the same setup as Bonzo, SC&C on top and G/W on the bottom. Got 5 degrees camber (oops, as Al pointed out below, I do mean CASTER!!!) no sweat. Mine is on a 68 with the guldstrand mod.

I REALLY wish someone had mentioned the hex sleeves!
http://home.comcast.net/~Jimragtop2/front/front-11.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~Jimragtop2/front/front-15.jpg

5 degrees camber? Holy crap, Jim - change it fast before you ruin your tires! :) (I know you meant caster)

PS While you weren't looking someone stuck your alternator on the wrong side

Jim, how much thread do you have showing on the forward arms with 5* caster? I may need to get longer sleeves. At 4.5* caster I'm right at the limit of 1" of thread exposed. Mark sells longer hex sleeves for approx $12-$15 each he said.

Are all of you using tall ball joints with the SPC arms, or standard height? Also what brand do you recommend?

Thanks!

I got the tall one from SC&C.

I'm using the X-tra tall uppers from SC&C. Also using the tall outer tie rod ends. They are made by Howe.

Hey Rick,I dunno if I mentioned it but you can still use shims to get more caster out of it without charging the length of the sleeves. A lot of our clients that run auto X set the arms up with the street alignment then dial in their race specs with shims and mark the shim packs. That way they can drive to the track,drop the shim packs in and race,then pull them out and drive home. :cool:
For those looking for even more strength and header clearance you can remove the OE A arms mounting studs,drill the holes out to 1/2" and install grade 8 bolts like Jim did (you gain even more if you put the head of the bolts on the inboard side).
We just started offering a HD hardware kit for that purpose using 17-4 hardnened stainless steel bolts (same tensile strength as grade 8 carbon steel),with lock nuts,stainless washers etc.

The gist of the tall ball joint vs. the G mod is basically this. Our std. tall upper ball joints alone have slightly less geometry gain than the most common versions of the G Mod,but require zero cutting etc. Our X Tall Severe Duty upper ball joint (an SC&C exclusive part) yields more gain than the G mod but not as much as AFX tall aluminum spindles. The std. tall ball joints AND the G mod (we use a simplified version made possible by the adj. A arms) yields geometry similar to the tall AFX spindles. Combining the X Tall upper ball joints AND the G mod ends up being too much of a good thing and performance starts to fall off so we don`t recomend it. Making any of those packages a Stage 2 still uses the OE lower ball joints but adds our tall modular tie rod ends (this one is another SC&C only part) to correct about 80% of the factory bumpsteer. I think that about covers it. :thumbsup: Mark SC&C

Thanks, Mark. I too went with the grade 8 bolt setup. Great idea about the shims too.

Rick, I ended up with a lil more than an inch, less than an eigth of thread, Mark said it woulld be ok.

If I ever adjust them again, I may buy the hex sleeves, and I'll get them longer.

Well, using my turntables (from ebay) I was able to just get 5* caster and am using .5* neg camber. Mark, your comment about shims for race settings is interesting. What kind of settings are folks using in autocross? TIA.

Jim - thanks.

Those settings will work great on the street. Autocross combos vary wildly but -1.5* caster is fairly common with some folks running -2* or more. One of out clients in Australia is kicking all kinds of butt running -3.5* camber on his Camaro! The more - camber you run the less toe in or more toe out you can (and should) run due to camber thrust. The guy in Oz is running 1/4" toe out. :eek: Mark SC&C