speedway motors upper a arms on street?

[UNGN]

I pulled the trigger on them. Do you know anyone running them with a tall upper balljoint? I'm running one and some 2" lowering umi springs

im lowering my car with 2" umi lowering springs. These are direct screw in bump stop replacements for the lower control arms? All they do is just lessen the impact of the control arm correct? Does anyone do anything about bumpstops with the speedway tubular uppers?

I have the Tall ball joints. Wheel interference can be an issue with 17"X8" or smaller diameter 8" wheels. I run 16X8's but had to do some grinding on the ball joint plates for clearance.

The shock should top out before the upper arm hits the frame, so no upper arm bumpstop is needed... unless you are using off road shocks and are going for the rallycross look.

 

[pontiacgp]

Just in case some of you are not aware the purpose of the tall ball joint is to get your upper control arm past the mid point and pointing up. The stock upper is pointing down so when you go into a corner and compress the outside front wheel the travel of the stock upper give the wheel more positive camber which you do not want before the arc goes past midpoint and starts to give you negative camber. If the upper control arm is pointing up when you compress that wheel the negative camber is increased which is what you want. I also set my camber setting on my GP to - .75 to - 1 degree instead of the OEM setting of positive camber

 

[mobileaudio25]

I forget the length of the stock bolts but I used longer bolts cause with my set up I was cutting 1/2" out of the tubular uppers but the heat from the welding shortened the life of the bushings so I used the 8" control arm and added shims. Before I install the 1/2" bolts I take a small cold chisel and make some knurls so when I install the 1/2" bolts in the 1/2" hole the bolts stay in place and don't rotate when I am tightening the nuts. I used just regular non locking nuts the get the wheel alignment and after the wheel alignment was done I changed out the service nut for the nylon locking nuts. I do not use the locking nylon nut to have the wheel alignment done cause the nuts has to be lossing several times and the nylon locking nut is a one time use nut

I ordered umi upper A arm hardware for my speedway uppers. Would you recommend having the alignment shop put new washers on the bolts when they get it all adjusted?

 

[mobileaudio25]

I have the Tall ball joints. Wheel interference can be an issue with 17"X8" or smaller diameter 8" wheels. I run 16X8's but had to do some grinding on the ball joint plates for clearance.

The shock should top out before the upper arm hits the frame, so no upper arm bumpstop is needed... unless you are using off road shocks and are going for the rallycross look.

I'm running umi 2" dropsprings and umi shocks upfront do you think I should be good without bumpstops?

Do you think I could run into clearance issues then? I could get longer studs and run a .25 in spacer if you think that it would be wise?

 

[mobileaudio25]

Just in case some of you are not aware the purpose of the tall ball joint is to get your upper control arm past the mid point and pointing up. The stock upper is pointing down so when you go into a corner and compress the outside front wheel the travel of the stock upper give the wheel more positive camber which you do not want before the arc goes past midpoint and starts to give you negative camber. If the upper control arm is pointing up when you compress that wheel the negative camber is increased which is what you want. I also set my camber setting on my GP to - .75 to - 1 degree instead of the OEM setting of positive camber

Yeah I've read up on the benefits of the tall upper ball joints. Figured I might as well fix the geometry somewhat while I'm at it.

What do you have caster set to? I have 17x8 do you think I'll need spacers?

 

[MC96]

The problem with the Speedway/UB arms is, other than being metal on metal (with maybe a nylon sleeve inside) Is that when guys change to them, they (wisely) add longer ball joints and put in a ton of caster.

Well, now the cross shaft is running in an "s" and the arm is trying to pivot in on two different axis', It usually locks the arm up tighter than a stock arm would be, not always, but it definitely takes away much of the advantage of the swap. Another problem with more caster is depending on what your combo is, it can get the upper into the header tubes.

They are cheap, and they work, they just arent perfect for what most people are trying to do with them.

I use the stock lowers and welded in the Howe insert to use the screw in ball joints. I like to use low friction ball joints and I don't think you can get press in low friction ball joints. UMI has some nice lower control arms but the stock ones with poli bushings are good enough for me

I believe you have to mix some bare housing numbers and stud numbers buy you can indeed get a Howe lower to fit a metric car.

 

[pontiacgp]

Yeah I've read up on the benefits of the tall upper ball joints. Figured I might as well fix the geometry somewhat while I'm at it.

What do you have caster set to? I have 17x8 do you think I'll need spacers?

I have a borgeson delphi 600 steering box and they say you need more caster for that box so I need to increase the caster to bring the wheel back to center a bit quicker. I'm also trying a cross caster setting so right now to deal with the road camber I have 3.5 on the left and 4 on the right. I think I'll be increasing the bias a little as well. The box is 12:1 so it's quick on the steering so I don't want the car to wander, the stop to stop is 3 turns on the box.

 

[mobileaudio25]

The problem with the Speedway/UB arms is, other than being metal on metal (with maybe a nylon sleeve inside) Is that when guys change to them, they (wisely) add longer ball joints and put in a ton of caster.

Well, now the cross shaft is running in an "s" and the arm is trying to pivot in on two different axis', It usually locks the arm up tighter than a stock arm would be, not always, but it definitely takes away much of the advantage of the swap. Another problem with more caster is depending on what your combo is, it can get the upper into the header tubes.

They are cheap, and they work, they just arent perfect for what most people are trying to do with them.




I believe you have to mix some bare housing numbers and stud numbers buy you can indeed get a Howe lower to fit a metric car.

I was just looking for a slightly stronger control arm and something new to stick in place since I'm replacing everything else. Figured they have to be better than the worn out uppers I'm running now. I only drive the car a few hundred miles a year if that. Most likely run -.5 to -1 degree camber and get my caster as close to 5 as I can. From what I've read that's good for a street car?

 

[autonaut]

I dont get it.

Why not run the stock ones with new bushings.

Unless you're building an all out track performer, going with solid bushings is overkill.

 

[L92 OLDS]

I dont get it.

Why not run the stock ones with new bushings.

Unless you're building an all out track performer, going with solid bushings is overkill.

When I crossed this bridge, rebuilding the factory control arms with rubber bushings was more expensive than buying the UB machine tubulars