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2G Tubular front k-member build - share ideas!

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would something like this work
Yes and no. It would need to be heavily shortened. There's only a few inches between those two mounting points.

This modification doesn't accomplish much though. An afetrmarket compression would still need to be "bent" instead of straight, and with spericals on each end, it would still flop/hang. It was this reason that I decided to build this k-member around the OE compression arm.
 
is there a reason the comp. arm has to be bent besides wheel clearance?
Nope, that's it. Wheel clearance in turning. For a straight arm to clear the wheel, the inboard pickup point would need to be pushed forward roughly seven inches. And at that opperating angle, it would lose most of it's ability to act as a compresssion arm.
 
better?
you could even get rid of the 3rd mounting point(bottom left) if its not needed
 

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Looks great, have you thought about creating maybe for solid points that you could detatch the whole thing, motor mounted and skid plate in all? pop off the wheels and pretty much take the whole thing out, just a thought that would be neat if could be fabricated neatly and safe of course
 
You going to make any changes that won't require dropping the Sub frame to pull an auto trans?
 
Why not go to a stratus style LCA?

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Did anything from this thread pan out? Unless theirs was too large, it looks like there may have been a solution for a replaceable lower ball joint for the 1G cars that could adapt to the 2G.
 
Hey Paul, Phillip passed me on about the problem in this thread. Do you mind if I dartboard a few ideas?

Firstly I would say it is possible for us to live without the split LCA. I would not do this though without using a higher caster setup meaning you will need to have that configurable through the arms as well. Essentially I am dancing around steering feel here, it will work I think but you lose something in the feel. If we retarget for the steering axis to hit at the contact patch center via a single combined ball join we will lose steering feel near the limit as the pneumatic trail disappears. By adding caster we add mechanical trail and some feeling is retained. I would go for that route if we cannot continue with the two separate arms there.

Or what about having a machined on piece that extends off the factory upright clamps on where the two ball joint holes were but leaves basically two studs off the bottom that are captured. Let me try to draw it with ASCII, basically it is an S shape like this
____
|
------
____|

So I am looking at an upright for the right side from behind

the standard place where the ball joints mount in inserts here

____
| <--------
------
____|


now two bolts go through the holes from the ball joints and that locks the part in place
, the bolts are long enough to continue all the way to the bottom of the S like this

____
|<|------- (OEM ball joint mount surface)
------
__|_| <---- left with bolts exposed to use as heim joint mount locations for the ends of the arms


So the upright will get extended downward with an attachment that creates two locations to mount heim joints instead of ball joints.

Any of these ideas useful at all?
 
I'll throw this out here. I have had this sitting in a folder for who knows how long. It is just a rough drawing. This is similar to what Andrew is talking about maybe.

This would move the roll center and would allow regular rod ends/ heims. Some questions.
Can we package it tight enough to fall into a good spot for the roll centers?
Would it move the pickup points to far for most rule books?

The alignment dowels would be machined into the adapter/roll center plate.
This model has the rod ends/ heims in single shear but it would be easy to add another box to the bottom and put them in double shear.

Then arms would need to be designed. :)

Sorry it's not all Solid Works pretty or to scale.

All input welcome.

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Nice to see this active again.

Another idea - referring just to the weight carrying LCA - would be replacing it a simple steel arm using the stock dimension to locate outer spindle joint and middle spring perch. A heavy adjustable link then connects it to the inboard chassis point.

Adjusting the link eliminates upper A arm length adjusters in lowered cars.
 
Nice to see this active again.

Another idea - referring just to the weight carrying LCA - would be replacing it a simple steel arm using the stock dimension to locate outer spindle joint and middle spring perch. A heavy adjustable link then connects it to the inboard chassis point.

Adjusting the link eliminates upper A arm length adjusters in lowered cars.

That may work but you have to be careful since there is axle length to think about too. No one want to have a CV axles come apart . It is still a very good idea.
 
That may work but you have to be careful since there is axle length to think about too. No one want to have a CV axles come apart . It is still a very good idea.

It has simplicity - mill a steel rectangle to accept a threaded ball joint on one end, angled suitably, and to accept both the lower spindle bushing and a heavy threaded location for an adjustable arm on the other.

The straight LCA is 15". This piece is maybe six, including a boss for the adjuster/extension. Not much to it - the ball joint and lower spindle bushing are only 2.5" apart on center.

Obviously it has to fit alongside the compression arm's location, and any drop gained by a longer ball joint stud probably should be mirrored in the compression arm's ball joint. Given the compression arms sees none of the corner weight, maybe it could be a simple bent tube using the same threaded ball joint as the straight arm.

This revised, shorter arm would bring both the upper A arm and lower geometry back inward, toward stock distance from the transmission - tuck the front wheels better once they get splayed out by lowering.

EDIT: All I've really proposed is a solid variant of the arm from this post, but where the spindle point is what presumably was worked out in the 1G rollcenter thread.

Weld on a threaded mount for a suitable extended ball joint instead of the Heim joint and it's functionally the same piece.

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Nice to see this active again.


Adjusting the link eliminates upper A arm length adjusters in lowered cars.

My comment was was more directed at this. When you start adding length or removing length to adjust camber axle length/ engagement "could" become a problem. Esp if peeps decided to run both lower and upper adjustable arms. It may not be a problem at all just something to look at. With my adjustable rear arms I can do just that. Exceed the limits of the CV joint by binding or over extending.

Also no one has found suitable extended ball joint that will work. Having two of them in such close proximity has been a big pain in the ass.
 
When you start adding length or removing length to adjust camber axle length/ engagement "could" become a problem.

Understood. Modeling the change should show how this pans out. My assumption has been that lowering the car extends the axles - the long LCA pulls the hubs out as its angle flattens and the upper A needs to follow suit to restore camber.

If so, pulling both back in seems feasible by adjusting the LCA ... but that's already the natural result of lowering the ball joint. No idea.

Also no one has found suitable extended ball joint that will work. Having two of them in such close proximity has been a big pain in the ass.

The two points are 2" apart. We need a joint-in-collar solution measuring under about 50mm in diameter.
 
^ Or a simple double-sheer-bracket version adapted to (something like) this?

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Link.
 
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