Upgrading my front suspension.

Steiner · Apr 19, 2014

BPOS said:
I forgot to mention earlier - at least on my car - I had to trim a small amount away from each inner fender at the front of the upper a-arms for clearance. I can post a picture if you'd like.

I need to. At the time I elected to grab them with channel locks and bend them. Trimming and some panel edging would be a lot cleaner but I don't drive around with the hood up or show the car.

onefiness · Apr 20, 2014

BPOS said:
Certainly nothing wrong with new lowers.

I've never had my SPC uppers loosen. The pivots are attached with lock nuts, the adj sleeves have huge nuts (like those of us running them) and it takes a big wrench to tighten them. Red loctite would be cheap insurance. I also went with the aluminum hex adjusting sleeve which allows you to put a wrench on it and tighten it against the nut. Worthwhile upgrade in my opinion. Compared to the beating the LCA takes, the upper is more or less along for the ride.

I forgot to mention earlier - at least on my car - I had to trim a small amount away from each inner fender at the front of the upper a-arms for clearance. I can post a picture if you'd like.

Yes, I would like to see a picture of that as I have read this happens quite a bit with the SPC arms. Thanks.

BPOS · Apr 20, 2014

hlcass · Apr 20, 2014

2x on the SC&C and SPC. Mark is always a wealth of information and installation advice. I was lucky and had no issue with inner fender clearance. Love the result.

onefiness · Apr 20, 2014

BPOS said:

Thanks for the pic. I wonder why some cars need to be trimmed while others don't?

ROBS6T8 · Apr 21, 2014

I have the SPC uppers and stock lowers with the delrin grease-able bushings installed. I've had no issues with the uppers. Did my own alignment and was within a .5 degree when taken to the alignment shop.
Hotchkis rear 1.5" drop leafs with their shocks. Hotchkis 2" drop coils up front with Varishocks and the Hotchkis front sway bar.
Handles great and I'm waiting to take to a track day to see what she can really do!

ROBS6T8 · Apr 21, 2014

Is that a ground wire clamped to the upper Al? Testing something during the photo shoot?

onefiness · Apr 21, 2014

To all running the SPC uppers with the tall ball joint. How tall of a ball joint are you running, .5 or 1 inch. What diameter wheel and backspacing do you have. Just got off the phone with S C & C, and I am going to have to go to the shop and measure the clearance I have now with the standard ball joint and upper and the wheel. I have 15 x 8 rallys with 4.5 backspacing and Marc said I may have some troubles getting everything to clear. Man, it is literally always something.

ROBS6T8 · Apr 22, 2014

I can't remember which ball joint I got. I know it was pro-forged though. But I couldn't help anyway as I'm running 17x8 up front.
Here's a couple of pics to give you an idea. The second one I believe is deceiving. It doesn't appear that the wheel would even come close to the arm.

This is looking down

onefiness · Apr 22, 2014

Well, if the bottom pic is showing the end of the a arm in relationship to the inside of the rim, depending on your backspace I might be alright. I have to imagine you are running about 5 inch B.S. and it looks like you have about an inch clearance. I will measure anyways. Thanks for the pics.

Cdminter55 · Apr 22, 2014

What brand of control arms are in the picture in thread #29? I don't like the tubular arms that are screwed together. I bought these global west arms 10 yrs ago and haven't had any problems.

BPOS · Apr 22, 2014

ROBS6T8 said:
Is that a ground wire clamped to the upper Al? Testing something during the photo shoot?

Yep - ground for the battery tender is all.

ROBS6T8 · Apr 23, 2014

Cdminter55 said:
What brand of control arms are in the picture in thread #29? I don't like the tubular arms that are screwed together. I bought these global west arms 10 yrs ago and haven't had any problems.

Those are the SPC arms.

onefiness · Apr 23, 2014

Those are Global West control arms. They have the GW sticker on them and you can compare that pic to the ones on the GW website.

Here''s the deal with my car. I am playing phone tag with Marc at S C & C. I have taken pics of my suspension as the car sits at the paint shop. It appears there is room for .5 inch taller ball joints. I think the .5 inch longer tie rods will work also. Problem is, there are hardly any shims on the crossmember so what looks like plenty of room might not be enough. I like the Rally Wheel look on 69's and am not ready to ditch my 15 inch wheels. If I can't get the tall ball joints to work, I will go with the Detroit Speed upper and lower arms as they swear their geometry and contrustion will keep the tire contact patch level with the road and the top of the tire won't lean out. Thought briefly about the G mod, not crazy about the wheel sitting back of center in the wheel opening.

onefiness · Apr 23, 2014

Marc at S C & C gave the nod to use the taller upper ball joint. All related parts have been ordered. Thanks for all the input.

Upgrading my front suspension.

Steiner

onefiness

BPOS

hlcass

onefiness

ROBS6T8

ROBS6T8

onefiness

ROBS6T8

onefiness

Cdminter55

BPOS

ROBS6T8

onefiness

onefiness

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities