POSSIBLE budget rear LCA solution...

[racepar1]

I stumbled across these as I was looking at some afco threaded tubes..

http://www.daymotorsports.com/product/499/ADJUSTABLE-UPPER-CONTROL-ARM

You can order them with different length radius rods and it looks like the ball joint mount is angled some. The only problem is that you are stuck without a rear swaybar mount...

Drop-in bearings for the balljoints are sold here as well...

http://www.colemanracing.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=3777

I'm pretty sure that if you call them you can order them for cheaper without the shanks and spacers and crap, or order them with different shanks.

[Def]

If that's a price per pair then I could see that working. If it's the price per arm then I think you'd be way over the price of a pair of rear Godspeed arms and still having to do quite a bit of fab work.

[Solo_S14]

If that's a price per pair then I could see that working. If it's the price per arm then I think you'd be way over the price of a pair of rear Godspeed arms and still having to do quite a bit of fab work.

Not to beat it to death, but are you still working on the Godspeed rears, or were the problems with suitable components halting that for the time being?

[Def]

Not to beat it to death, but are you still working on the Godspeed rears, or were the problems with suitable components halting that for the time being?

I'm debating what I'm going to do in the rear.

I'm working on other stuff(passenger seat mounts) on the car in the near term if that's what you're asking though.

[racepar1]

If that's a price per pair then I could see that working. If it's the price per arm then I think you'd be way over the price of a pair of rear Godspeed arms and still having to do quite a bit of fab work.

Yeah, the pricing was pretty un-clear. You could likely get some used for pretty cheap though. Circle track car parts aren't generally very hard to find... As for the fab work, I'm not really sure what I would do for the swaybar mount. I'm sure I could figure something out.

[CodyAce]

Day Motorsports rocks! Quick shipping and fair prices.

Funny you mentioned the threaded tubes, as I too was lookingn at them...but missed the LCA looking setup!

[Matt93SE]

That's a Front LCA solution as well. The angled tube would replace the T/C rod. You'd still have to fab a sway bar mount there as well, but it's possible.

.... Then again, moving the T/C rod out that far would probably destroy your maximum steering angles.

[Def]

That's a Front LCA solution as well. The angled tube would replace the T/C rod. You'd still have to fab a sway bar mount there as well, but it's possible.

.... Then again, moving the T/C rod out that far would probably destroy your maximum steering angles.

It definitely would, especially with wide wheels.

IMO, that stuff is cool, but the amount of fab work in the small details is deceptively time consuming. Just the misalignment bushings for the rod ends will take you a few hours on a lathe since you're talking about 8 minimum for the rear. Add in other little things and it snowballs into a major project very quickly.

Then when you're done there are always things that you'd do differently the second time, but there's no way you're spending that much time to redo X, Y, Z etc.

[Matt93SE]

Yup. all something to think about.
Sometimes makes me wonder why I didn't buy American Iron where everything is 1/10 the price...

[CodyAce]

Yup. all something to think about.
Sometimes makes me wonder why I didn't buy American Iron where everything is 1/10 the price...

If I had a dollar for everytime I heard someone say that around the both our garage, and my groups of friends lol!

This is why I love helping friends build Mustangs. Not only is stuff is rediculously cheap, but 9/10 of comparable parts are of both higher quality, better fitment, and nicer finish on the domestic end as well. However, we must not neglect the fact that for every 240sx (insert suspension part here) there are 10-15 at the same time sold for the Mustang. That certainly keeps pricing in check.

[racepar1]

It definitely would, especially with wide wheels.

IMO, that stuff is cool, but the amount of fab work in the small details is deceptively time consuming. Just the misalignment bushings for the rod ends will take you a few hours on a lathe since you're talking about 8 minimum for the rear. Add in other little things and it snowballs into a major project very quickly.

Then when you're done there are always things that you'd do differently the second time, but there's no way you're spending that much time to redo X, Y, Z etc.

The thing that worries me about the godspeed arms is the way that the balljoint spherical is mounted. It appears that it has a machined housing (looks like a rod end) with a spherical bearing pressed into it. I would be somewhat worried about that housing breaking (specifically the shank) only because godspeed sourced the material and machined it. For some reason I have more confidence in cheap tubing manufacturing then cheap machining...

As for the work involved for these arms it really isn't that bad. The only thing that you really have to make is the spacers for the rod ends. Really these would be best for someone that didn't plan to run a rear sway anyways.

Truthfully making our own suspension arms for the entire car in our garages is pretty easy. Radius rods are cheap as hell and easy to source, most of the spacers needed can actually be purchased and re-bored and faced to fit, and with QA1 rod ends/bearings are cheap and easy to source as well. QA1's new site is awesome BTW. I tried to look at their stuff last year, but their old site sucked ass. There really isn't much stopping even the average car enthusiast from making their own stuff, other then their own ignorance on what is available out there.

[Def]

I don't see the shank breaking on the Godspeed arm - it's almost 1" in diameter. Even assuming they used the cheapest ~50 ksi steel, that's a VERY generous safety margin.

I really don't see anything on the Godspeed arms that I would say raises huge alarms. The welding is a little spotty here and there, and they miss a few really tight spots on the tubes on the RLCA - but overall nothing that's going to make or break the safety of them. I did weld a bit of the reinforcement plate that's stamped over the outer balljoint shank threaded portion since it wasn't welded to the back of the reinforcement plate. Not a major mod, and took maybe 10 mins to do both arms.

I haven't destructively tested the rears, but I'd sell them if I really thought there was a safety hazard there for track usage. The fronts I don't see how they can fail given how thick the tubing is.

[racepar1]

I don't see the shank breaking on the Godspeed arm - it's almost 1" in diameter. Even assuming they used the cheapest ~50 ksi steel, that's a VERY generous safety margin.

I didn't realize they were THAT thick. I remember them looking smaller in pictures. I'm not too worried about the resto of the arm though either. I'm just questioning whether going any farther then simply raising the subframe in the rear is worth it now that the roll axis issue has been brought up. Even if I run in modified class I am only allowed 1" of correction. With that little amount of correction in the front I am questioning if I should worry about rear roll center at all. I am becoming curious about how much dropping the toe arm pivot down on the upright helps though...

[Def]

I didn't realize they were THAT thick. I remember them looking smaller in pictures. I'm not too worried about the resto of the arm though either. I'm just questioning whether going any farther then simply raising the subframe in the rear is worth it now that the roll axis issue has been brought up. Even if I run in modified class I am only allowed 1" of correction. With that little amount of correction in the front I am questioning if I should worry about rear roll center at all. I am becoming curious about how much dropping the toe arm pivot down on the upright helps though...

I can take a measurement, but it's a substantial piece. Maybe it's closer to 3/4", but still, even with only 50-60 ksi yield strength mild steel, that's going to take A LOT of force to break if you don't have it spaced way out. You could have a shear force of 5000 lbs(2x the weight of your car roughly), and still only get to about 11 ksi in that joint. Bending will add to the stresses, but you can see that it's not a highly stressed joint since you still have quite a bit of room before getting to yielding. More likely the strength is in the 60-70 ksi range(typical hot rolled mild steel), so there's even more safety factor there.

It'd probably yield on the outer edge of the holder rather than on the shank, since it's maybe 1/4-3/8" there at the widest point, but still, the area is probably on the order of ~3/8 in^2 and the stresses are pretty low.

The arms weigh just as much as the stock arms(which are an inefficient use of materials), so there is more than enough safety factor in their construction.