Alternative to SPL's LCAs?

[a_ahmed]

I was talking to Kuah and well they jacked up their LCA arms... holy **** 899$ for rears... 699$ or fronts... damn...

The other crap out there sucks as was discussed... yashio factory, ikeya, battle version/orange tree, ebay etc...

What alternates does one have?... I mean SPL's product is awesome but...

They said they jacked up the prices as they import them from japan and well they are having to increase the price due to inflation and exchange rate increases in order to make any profit... that sucks but is the reality at the moment...

I was going to ask them if he can get me a deal for fronts and rears but hell not even 599$ each (1200$ + shipping) he said he cant do it... and well id be nuts to pay that too but alas... still a no

[veilside180sx]

Just be patient...I'm working on some

[a_ahmed]

good to hear bro... ill be patient.. what a rip off... lol... even though its good product but still...

[WishIHadaSilvia]

So he orders them preassembled from Japan? If you can find out who he gets them from you could go straight to the source. How much have they gone up in price? The yen conversion rate was ~114:$1 when I was over there in September. Right now it is ~101:$1, so if he jacked the prices up 50-70 dollars I'd understand, chances are that's not the case.

[a_ahmed]

http://www.nagisa-auto.com/products/nissan/index.html

i think this is it i heard long ago 'nams or something' i think thats nagisa auto.

So i see it as 57750 Japanese yen = 571.372414 Canadian dollars

[WishIHadaSilvia]

Well, if people wanted to get those I have a few friends in Japan (who doesn't these days) who could get them and ship them out. It would make more sense to order a bunch of them. If they're the exact same thing SPL sells then it would be a good deal, even if you had to pay another 50-60 bucks for shipping/fees for the guy to do it all.

[Def]

Too bad our dollar is worth less than the Mexican peso these days. The days of 120+ yen per dollar would be nice for getting Japanese stuff.

[SOneThreeCoupe]

You don't want those. I have them and they're pretty crappy for the price.

You want Ikeya Formula or the Battle Version copies of Ikeya. I'd like to know exactly why they suck, according to you.

[Wiisass]

You don't want those. I have them and they're pretty crappy for the price.

You want Ikeya Formula or the Battle Version copies of Ikeya. I'd like to know exactly why they suck, according to you.

Are you talking about the TC sportline ones that Alex was selling under the peachtree name or orange tree or some fruit tree name?

Yeah, they're horrible. I have them, have used them, talked to people who have used them, etc. So this is all from my experience or other people who I trusts experience.

The bearings in the end are either fitted poorly or just really cheap or a combination of the both. The lower ball joint bearing will not rotate. The ones i have on my car right now are loosening the castle nuts after driving around a little. There is no steering return with these due to how tight the bearing is. And this is after a couple hundred street miles and they're still like this.

As for the rest of the design, the TC rod doesn't seem to sit right on it at all. I've tried putting it above and below and it will twist the LCA when you tighten everything down.

The inboard adjuster crap doesn't really work on the car. Or I just don't have a custom wrench that will allow you to get in there and give it more than a 10* turn on the jam nuts.

So that's why they suck. I would not recommend them at all. I have a feeling that if you're not dealing with the steering issues, then the bearing has play in it. And the bearing size isn't normal. I forget the numbers exactly, but I do remember that every metric bearing that I looked at as a replacement for it had an OD that was at least 10mm bigger than what's in there. I was thinking about finding a standard bearing and sleeving it to fit in there, but it just doesn't seem like it's worth the effort due to the other problems with the arms.

Tim

[SOneThreeCoupe]

Your grievances are similar to mine about the SPL/Nam's LCAs.

The bearings are cheap, but, interestingly, are still surprisingly solid and tight after about 20k miles and a couple track days.

I had to drill the holes in the LCAs larger so I could fit my Whiteline brackets. Getting a socket in there to hold the nuts is damn near impossible, so I ground away at the bottom to give myself more clearance. Good? No. I hate to drill or grind at anything vulnerable to stress cracking.

[Invisible_Saddle]

TC sportline isn't alex's brand. I know. going over pfieffer's house and him having a box of aurora bearings for his BV line. and i think he uses like qa-1 for his orangetree line. his only change is the bearing. he still uses the same arm as his BV stuff. I would go over to G-dimension and see him on the pipe bender and jig busting out orders of his arms. his LCAs are ikeya compies except he removed the swaybar tab. I have a set of ikeya formula front LCAs i got from a D1 team last november when they were out here.

[Wiisass]

I'm not saying that everything Alex sells is TC sportline. I'm saying the lowers are. That's all this discussion is about.

[racepar1]

You don't want those. I have them and they're pretty crappy for the price.

You want Ikeya Formula or the Battle Version copies of Ikeya. I'd like to know exactly why they suck, according to you.

I talked to Alex from battle version specifically about his ikeya formula LCA copies and he didn't even reccomend that I use them or even SPL for that matter. He DID reccomend the real ikeya formula ones though. The quality of the bearings in the copies that he distributes were compared to megan as were the quality of the bearings in SPL's as they are simply re-sold copies as well. If SPL manufactures their own LCA's I'm sure the quality would be MUCH better.

[a_ahmed]

yea they are NAMS stuff, but I thought the heim joints were replaced. None the less I never heard of anyone complaining about anything.

For sure SPL makes their tie rod ends and TC rods and well now the S13/S14/S15 RUCAs...

[SOneThreeCoupe]

yea they are NAMS stuff, but I thought the heim joints were replaced. None the less I never heard of anyone complaining about anything.

I've complained about them a couple times over on Zilvia.