bent upper ball joints

[TRUSTEDONE2003]

hey fellas, my issue is this: my upper ball joints are hitting the under side of the fenderwell and has bent them down, of course now they're ruined and they knock anytime i hit a bump. i've been reading through the threads and am finding some conflicting info. i have the ingalls camber kit, tokico blues, and dropzone coilovers. i know that i need to get rid of the dz's but i don't exactly have the 385 bones for cround controls right now. i've heard good and bad things about the spc adjustable ball joints. so which is it?? i want to keep my ride height at about one inch over the tires, with gsx 17's and kumho tires. should i just wait to get the ground control or get the spc's?? any assistance is appreciated...trust

 

[my95tsi]

go to the junkyard and find new upper control arms and get the spc adjustable ball joints, they work much better and will clear the fender wall completely....

 

[TRUSTEDONE2003]

do u have the spc link?? thanks for the help bro....trust

 

[wret]

Why bother with the adjustable ball joints? At the ride height you describe, you should be no more than about -1.5 camber in the front.

 

[my95tsi]

You just can't assume what the camber would be at by knowing how much he dropped his car. Plus he already has the issue of his control arm hitting the inner fender. Any camber kit besides the adjustable ball joints will do that. I dropped my car 1.7 inches and my front camber was off by almost 3 degrees. It varies by each car. Ingalls camber kits are complete crap, if you get the adjustable ball joints will will not have to worry ever again. Go to nopi.com they are the cheapest i know of, $85 a piece.

Why bother with the adjustable ball joints? At the ride height you describe, you should be no more than about -1.5 camber in the front.

 

[wret]

You just can't assume what the camber would be at by knowing how much he dropped his car.

Actually I believe one CAN predict the amount of alignment change based on the amount of drop. If suspension components were manufactured to be identical, what makes you think they would not respond identically? My question, directed to TRUSTEDONE2003, was not rhetorical. I’m interested to know what was the perceived problem that required correction in the first place.

 

[jtmcinder]

You just can't assume what the camber would be at by knowing how much he dropped his car.

You're absolutely correct that you can't assume.

But, then again, if you have a set of suspension maps for your car, you can know what it will be.

- Jtoby

 

[my95tsi]

well than that must mean everyone with a 7 bolt has crankwalk....

Actually I believe one CAN predict the amount of alignment change based on the amount of drop. If suspension components were manufactured to be identical, what makes you think they would not respond identically? My question, directed to TRUSTEDONE2003, was not rhetorical. I’m interested to know what was the perceived problem that required correction in the first place.

 

[wret]

well than that must mean everyone with a 7 bolt has crankwalk....

Good point. They do. Not all to the point of catastrophic failure and there are some special causes that influence the degree of wear, but the wear patterns are all similar. This of course has nothing to do with suspension travel.

 

[TRUSTEDONE2003]

hey bud, my issue is this: my upper ball joints have been bent down by the inner fenderwell and are knocking everytime i hit a bump, so I know I have to replace those real soon. But I want to get this done correctly the first time so I don't have to keep f-n with it. I'd like to spend my time in the engine bay, ya know? But I have heard both good and bad things about these spc adj's. Somebody said that you lose travel and the 2g's are already limited in travel. I'd like to keep the car relatively low, about an inch over the tires, with gsx stock 17's. So what is the "right way" to do this??

 

[my95tsi]

lose travel? how would you lose travel. They are almost exactly the same as the stock ones except that they slide out. They are actually easier to install than the damn ingalls kit. I had both and got rid of the damn ingalls cause they suck. Took me less than 30 min total per side to put them on. You don't even need a ball joint press. Trust me, they move exactly the same as they do now, the only differenve is that there is a bolt on top of the spindel which you can adust to slide in or out.

 

[wret]

hey bud, my issue is this: my upper ball joints have been bent down by the inner fenderwell and are knocking everytime i hit a bump, so I know I have to replace those real soon. But I want to get this done correctly the first time so I don't have to keep f-n with it. I'd like to spend my time in the engine bay, ya know? But I have heard both good and bad things about these spc adj's. Somebody said that you lose travel and the 2g's are already limited in travel. I'd like to keep the car relatively low, about an inch over the tires, with gsx stock 17's. So what is the "right way" to do this??

I don't have personal experience with adjustable ball joints but this is not the first time I’ve heard about this type of problem with them. Basically I’m asking, why bother? Will your car be so low that it causes excessive negative camber? The amount considered excessive varies depending on your purpose (and whom you talk to).