Coil-Over Conversion front lower control arms... Arraut Motorsports? (Page 2/3)
Gall757 AUG 16, 09:40 AM
That welder knew what he was doing.....
wftb AUG 16, 11:17 AM
Glad you could make it work, looks good.

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86 GT built 2.2 ecotec turbo
rear SLA suspension
QA1 coilovers on tube arms

olejoedad AUG 16, 11:56 AM
👍🏼👍🏼
Spadesluck AUG 17, 12:52 PM
That is awesome! I would powdercoat it or at the very least paint to keep the elements off.
Spadesluck AUG 17, 12:58 PM
Let me help you out with these pictures Svenge.

Before:


After:
fieroguru AUG 17, 07:41 PM
Maybe it is just the picture (and I don't have any 84-87 front a-arm to check), but it doesn't look like the ball joint is centered to the lateral support, maybe 1/8" off-center. If that is the case, then the repaired arm will have this offset in the wrong direction, which will change the wheelbase slightly.

Overall that was a creative solution to the problem!
Svenge AUG 18, 08:34 PM

quote
Originally posted by Spadesluck:

Let me help you out with these pictures Svenge.
...



Lol thanks Spades. I am not sure how to upload an image directly to the forum yet. I think i need to resize them. Too lazy right now.

Here's the issue with the ball joint for camber alignment:
https://imgur.com/gallery/YqujJ8l

You can see the flange is hitting the lip in the back of the arm when mounted this way. I decided I'm going to flip over the upper arms tomorrow. There's no other way to fix it. I might have trouble making the stock brake lines fit this way, we'll see.

Also:

quote
Originally posted by fieroguru:

Maybe it is just the picture (and I don't have any 84-87 front a-arm to check), but it doesn't look like the ball joint is centered to the lateral support, maybe 1/8" off-center. If that is the case, then the repaired arm will have this offset in the wrong direction, which will change the wheelbase slightly.

Overall that was a creative solution to the problem!



I looked more closely at that. I have some pictures if you care to see them, but after looking carefully I do think it's just the way the picture was taken. I do believe they are centered. Regardless, measurements were taken to accommodate that anyway when refabricating the arm. We used a jig to locate on the ball mount and the center / main pivot location and mirrored the rearward support pivot relative to those two datums. This could slightly affect the location where the shock is mounted and the swaybar but that should be fine if it's slightly off. The locations of the three main mounting points should all be correct.

Thanks guys you've been very helpful and encouraging.
Spadesluck AUG 19, 07:03 PM
What does it all look like when sitting on the ground? Being in the air seems to make it look real bad.
wftb AUG 19, 07:47 PM
My upper control arms are flipped over from the way yours are. To flip them you have to change them from side to side as well. Even with hogging all the holes out that mount the ball joints I could still only get about 1/2 degree of negative camber. When I switched to Del a lum bushings I took 1/4" out of the length of the upper control arms. Now I can get a little over 1 degree negative camber. And thats the most I can get with the big shocks on, but on the track it works really well, I find the front end of my car does not lean a lot anyway.

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86 GT built 2.2 ecotec turbo
rear SLA suspension
QA1 coilovers on tube arms

Svenge AUG 19, 11:56 PM
Ok everything is making sense now thanks to u 2 guys. Wftb and spades thx mucho.

Ok so I flipped the arms “upside down” and that helped with the camber, but when I tried to put the wheels on I was rather disappointed when they hit the upper arm tubing which was now quite a bit higher up in the wheel well. Yours must fit cuz they not stock / bigger inner clearances. Note: I did flip sides too making sure the caster was correct.

So I ended up flipping them back over such that the plates are up top but before installing them I cut through the flange which was in the way of the ball joint inboard side. This got me to spec camber at least, pretty close to 0 deg, will get measurement at the alignment tomorrow.

It’s pretty much done now so I’ll take a bunch of pics after alignment is done. Overall it looks great despite me scratching up the paint after taking the arms off like 5 times and using channel locks to adjust the height... but i don’t really care that much.
Thx again guys.

[This message has been edited by Svenge (edited 08-19-2019).]