| Go back to previous topic | | Forum name | Handling/Suspension | | Topic subject | anyone with adjustable ball joints + lowered, experiences with suspension hitting wheel well? | | Topic URL | https://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=i6&topic_id=30346 |
30346, anyone with adjustable ball joints + lowered, experiences with suspension hitting wheel well? Posted by ez, May-07-07 07:02 PM
We have had a bunch of good threads on different camber kits, suspension setups, and pros/cons of each. (believe me I know, I've spent a week searching through them!)
For the fronts, we have the options of anchor bolts, adjustable ball joints, and the pricey adjustable a-arms.
Most of the issues posted with the anchor bolts are the fact that the a-arm will hit the inner wheel well unless you mod it. That's an easy fix if you "mod" your a-arm. (safe, though?)
The adjustable ball joints are supposedly the remedy to that - HOWEVER, the search showed an old old old post by the1bill, saying that the adjustable ball joints raise the a-arms 1", and when you lower the car too - the suspension has much less travel and you can actually hit the inside of the fender and destroy a tire. Anyone had issues with the adjustable ball joints and a large drop (like sportlines???)
Here's a message between me and our resident suspension expert Joel
"I was going to get ball joints, b/c as you suggested, they wouldn't require modding the a-arm.
However (the1bill) knew a guy that hit a bump and lost a tire b/c of the reduced travel of the a-arm. This was the only time I ever found an incident related to them - but it does makes sense. The adjustable ball joint adds another inch to the height of the a-arm at its tip. When you lower the car, this pushes the outside part of the a-arm even higher into the wheel well. Sportlines (perhaps 1-2 inch raise of a-arm) + ball joint (1 inch raise of a-arm) = ~3 inches less space between a-arm and inner wheel well.
That's why he mentioned that adjustable ball joints aren't good if you are also lowered. Seems kinda stupid, if the reason you are getting them in the first place is because you are lowered and want to bring camber into specs! "
Another issue is, the anchor bolts won't change caster, but adjustable ball joints will. However, since I never got the ball joint recall done, maybe I should go this route :)
In addition, does anyone know what the lowest adjustable profile ball joint out there is? We have SPC, and evidentally some generics you can get at autopart stores now.
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30348, RE: anyone with adjustable ball joints + lowered, experiences with suspension hitting wheel well? Posted by DanKid, May-07-07 08:01 PM
I just got done "removing" my Ingalls adjustable ball joints on Sunday. I had the ball joints sitting in my basement for a whole year because I had no clue on how to install them until some guys on here gave me some tips. http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=30149&mesg_id=30149&page=&topic_page=2
I installed them last weekend and started hearing a loud banging and rubbing noise coming from the front right tire after the install. I had to leave the car in the driveway all week and removed them on Sunday. I'm gonna sell the ingalls ball joint and camber kit along with my sportline/tokiko setup on ebay in a few days. When I went to take off the ball joints I noticed that the whole inner fender inside the wheel well was badly scraped up. Had I driven the car at high speeds I would have had a tire blowout. :whoa
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30356, RE: anyone with adjustable ball joints + lowered, experiences with suspension hitting wheel well? Posted by freelancefool, May-08-07 02:06 PM
Personally I would get the 'pricey' adjustable upper control arms. Mine were $458 shipped from RRE. If you price out a set of new upper control arms they are about $130 per side. So for $260 + $200 for the Ingall's camber kit you get something that allows you to adjust camber only.
Something that RRE doesn't tell you about the adjustable upper control arms is that you can adjust caster +-1.5 degrees. Since stock there is about a 1* difference in caster between the left and right side this will help you adjust to improve turn-in if you do not have access to a 10-20 ton press to flip the bushings on the lower compression arm.
You will lose some travel on the suspension as well with the adjustable control arms, but I don't hear any knocking when driving over the crappy roads of Louisiana. I think I lost about 1/2 an inch of travel.
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