Rear Lower Control Arm Upgrade

[silver_pilate]

I ended up picking up some RLCAs with heim joints from Mark at Breeze. Gordon has a similar product as well. Tonight I put them on, and I was able to really put the lift and trolly jack to use for the first significant work.

The Bendpack 4 post has been great to get under the car for little things and for checks, but I hadn't used the jack yet. It's an air-over-hydraulic trolly jack, and for the RLCA install, I chocked the front wheels and then lifted the rear frame to unload the suspension. After just lifting the tires, I set it back down just enough for the tires to make contact to support the axle. Completely effortless.

Looking to the rear:
https://i.imgur.com/OFMF3oZ.jpg

Looking toward the front:
https://i.imgur.com/UwOfwkQ.jpg

The old control arms came out without a fight:
https://i.imgur.com/XrFRr8N.jpg

And the new ones went in with just a bit of opening up the mounting ears.
https://i.imgur.com/vzmdKuV.jpg

The heim joints are offset front and rear to get a better (straighter) alignment.
https://i.imgur.com/uuA7Z5X.jpg

I am pleased with the product and install, but I haven't had a chance to try them out in a drive yet. Since I don't road race, I don't expect a huge difference in feel, other than being a bit more planted in cornering and casual driving and hopefully a bit less wheel hop in hard launches.

--Nathan

[Gordon Levy]

Since those are pretty much kinda of copy of mine that we have been doing for 18 years of so there are a few things you need to know about set up that mostly needs to be done on an alignment rack.

[silver_pilate]

Yeah, I don't have one of those :D. I just set them at stock length of the FFR unit for now to see how they feel.

[Gordon Levy]

What you need to be aware of is thrust angle. It can be a bit off just using the FFR arms as a reference. On a 4 wheel alignment rack it will show toe in on one side and toe out on the other. Having the rod ends allow you to adjust that as close to 0 as possible. The effect of not adjusting that is the possibility of the back of the car moving one way of the other under hard accel.

[silver_pilate]

Great to know, Gordon. Thanks for the information. I'm hoping to find a place to eventually do a professional alignment on this car. I used my toe plates and caster/camber gauge to get the front as close as possible, but I know there is some more improvement to be seen. When I find a place I trust, I'll have them take a look at the rear as well.