UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Body

[UMI Sales]

Re: UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Bo

They are rebuildable with interchangeable studs. And they are low friction as well as adjustable.

http://www.qa1.net/suspension/ball-joints

We ran them at Pittsburgh International on the road course as well as on Speed Stop and Auto-x with no trouble at all. The preload settings were still spot on even after that abuse.

 

[pontiacgp]

Re: UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Bo

Those ball joints look real nice and no springs meaning they stay consistent. Do the spindles have to be taper reamed to a different angle and/or depth or does the stud fit the stock taper. The price is nice too, Howe is around $70. It's great that your out there testing these products and I know that you don't have any fun doing it, it's just a job...

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

Re: UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Bo

Given the issue of bump steer (worsening) when using tall spindles, since a taller ball joint simulates a taller spindle, does it make bump steer worse? There seems to be a trade off between camber improvement and bump steer worsening, like a teeter totter. You're trading one for the other. Good camber/worse bump steer or bad camber/better bump steer.

I'm of the opinion the entire front end needs a do over but I'm damned to come up with an idea how to design a better one. They sandbagged these cars with crap like this. I know they weren't designed to be super cars but the front end baffles me, surely they could have done better.

 

[UMI Sales]

Re: UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Bo

To answer your bump steer question, we are still in research mode.

This fall the Green Machine ran Optima Ultimate Street Car at Pittsburgh International and was able to post our best road course time of four trips there - even though it was 39 degrees and wet in spots. The camber curve with 0.5" lower and 1.0" upper ball joints along with our new adjustable arm really helped the car turn nicely.

This off season we'll plot the bump steer and see what needs to happen to optimize it. Then of course we'll post our results.

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

Re: UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Bo

Might I suggest doing skid pad testing, before and after all these wonderful parts were put on. I think it would demonstrate more clearly how much improvement is made with these parts. Numbers speak for themselves and I think it would help people decide where to get parts given how confused some people are by the number of companies making suspension parts for these cars.

 

[UMI Sales]

Re: UMI Releases New Product- Adj. Upper A-arms for the G-Bo

If I recall correctly, the Green car pulled a 0.69 on a 200ft skidpad in stock trim. That was improved to around 0.89 awhile back before the big changes, the BFG Rivals and so on.

We will probably test it in the spring to see if we can pull 1.0G or more.

Lateral acceleration is nice. We also work on transition, road feel, brake balance, forward traction and so on.