Qa1 upper control arm and moog offset bushing help
I appreciate these thoughts and Info....qa1 arms are designed to reduce the weight of stock arms and offer more strength. They give additional caster and adjustments positive or negative that’s why they are so fancy. With any control arm I should have the option to adjust negative -neutral and into positive camber. I’m having a issue on this driver side as I can’t get neutral or positive and that’s just saying something isn’t right.
Qa1 says arm 52303 which contains the small ball joint is different then the 52303 arm containing the big ball joint. There’s a different in the end of the arm as the hole the large screw in ball joint sits in is bigger for the bigger ball joint. I’m no scientist but that I’m immediatly tells me the 52301 big ball joint arm should sit out a tad farther at least enough to give me that .5 camber I’m after? It’s a 73 up arm for a 73 spindle. I’m running a 52301 small balljoint arm for a 70-72 with a ball joint adapter sleeve. As I stated above Ive now bought new arms the proper 73 up arms for the 73 spindle. So does that not sound like a geometry issue to anyone??????? Anyways all good. I’ll figure it all out like usual. My main concern/ question here was will the moog offset k7103 bushings fit into the qa1 arms. Offset bushings will give me my numbers I’m personally after
You have a fundamental misunderstanding about how those control arms work.
The arms by themselves do not give additional
adjustment. If you use the same exact eccentric bolts as the stock arms, the amount of adjustment is exactly the same as stock.
The difference is that the QA1 UCA's have additional positive caster built into the design. Which means that the "starting value" for the amount of caster has been changed. Aftermarket tubular UCA's typically have 2° or 3° of additional caster built in, which just means that the range has just been shifted 2 or 3° to the positive side. For example, if the range of adjustment was -1° caster to +2° caster with the stock UCA's and eccentrics, then the range with the QA1's would be +1° to +4° assuming they had 2° built in. The amount you can adjust the caster with the UCA mounting bolts is the same as before (3 degrees total), but now there is more positive caster built in. And yes, that means you have less ability to get 0 or negative caster. And that has an effect on your camber setting as well.
The geometry of the control arm is fixed with the QA1's, it physically
CAN NOT add adjustability in
BOTH directions. It just shifts the range one direction or the other. In the case of the QA1's, more caster has been built in. The amount of adjustability is completely up to the eccentrics.
As far as the ball joints, the centerline of the ball joint is in exactly the same place between the small ball joint arms and the large ball joint arms. Changing over to the large ball joint arms will not change the suspension geometry, it will just eliminate the tapered adaptor.
I’m working on sorting this out will post when I find out what’s going on with the driver corner. I don’t want negative camber at the drag strip. Straight line needs straight wheels!!! What good is a adjustable suspension if you can only stay in negative camber. I want neutral or positive adjustment abilities like every other Abody out there. How do you know the moog will not fit in the qa1? Own a set? Have you tried? Waiting for my offset bushings and I’ll let everyone know if they fit in the qa1 arms
If your car sees any street time at all, you'd better have a small amount of negative camber. And -.5° of camber won't hurt a thing at the drag strip. If anything the slight tilt on the tire will reduce the amount of contact patch in the front and reduce rolling resistance. The wheels are still pointed straight down the track, that's toe, not camber.
If you wanted positive camber and a small caster number, you should have stayed with the stock arms and bias ply's. "Every other A-body out there" doesn't run QA1 UCA's. The geometry of the QA1 UCA's is designed to give an alignment with moderately positive caster and slightly negative camber, because that's what these cars should have with modern tires.
As for the use of the Moog K7103 offset bushings, I have no idea if they will work with the QA1 arms. I know that the non-adjustable Magnumforce tubular UCA's can use stock bushings, as I have a set with the K7103's installed in them for even more caster. But that doesn't mean a thing for the QA1's.
