I'm going to be replacing the front suspension in my '79 LeMans. Are there significant advantages to going with tubular control arms? I figure I need to remove them anyways to replace the bushings at least, and I've seen tubular kits that come with the bushings and ball joints already on them. Obviously it would be cheaper to just have new bushings pressed in and replacing the ball joints myself but if there are big improvements from a tubular swap then why not.
Stock vs. tubular control arms
- Thread starter Wildmani
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the advantage is they are lighter in weight and the bushings will give you a firmer ride. The ball joints are not pressed in, they are either screwed in or installed with nuts and bolts..
pontiacgp said:
The lower ball joints are pressed in, the top ones are bolted in. At least on the stock ones, not sure about tubular.
outsider_27 said:
they are on the lower stock control arm but I don't think I have ever seen a press in ball joint on a tubular lower...they have all been screw in and the top for the tubulars are the bolt in or screw in. The advantage to the screw in is you can get them rebuildable and you can change the length of the stud
So I guess it'll just depend on if I want to spend the money or not, lol! I was looking at the upper and lower set on gbodyparts.com, anybody used them? Any issues?
Hey check this site out, i ordered a pair of tubular uppers and allot of other things to rebuild my suspension from here, http://www.jrmotorsports.com . They aren't espensive and it's good stuff.
I have never had an issue with a stock control arms ( other than the bushing the ball joint presses into wears out over time on the LCA ). IMO the money on better spent on, brakes, wheels, tires, motor, trans, ect...
I have to admit that they sure do look pretty though !
I have to admit that they sure do look pretty though !
axisg, Upper tubular control arms for G-bodys on that website i listed run roughly 50-60$ a piece, they really aren't that high priced, compared to other brands though they are a great deal, it kind've seems like your paying for the name with some of the higher priced tubular uppers.
CamaroAdam73 said:
those uppers look like they are from UB Machine and that's about the price of them. They look to be the ones that Gbodyparts sell for way higher in price. I run them and have found them good except the solid bushings tend to wear out rather quickly, about one set per year. We and most of the other teams run those uppers and they can take pretty good pounding. I have seem them bend but never seen any break even slamming against the wall. I am still using them because I have camaro spindles so I cut an inch out of the control arm so I can get my camber settings. I am going to upgrade to another upper that is made for the tall spindle and those have the poly urethane bushing but cost $295...
Thanks! I think I'm just going to stick with stock, seems like it's not going to be that much bang for the buck. My car is just going to be a cruiser anyway so it's probably better to use that money somewhere else like axisg said.
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