Best tubular upper control arms?

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hangten

hangten

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Who make the best tubular upper control arms(price/quality) for a A-Body. Looking to get some for my hang 10 to add some adjustability. Want to lower the car down some. thanks
 
hangten said:
ive looked at reilly's, Firm Feels, and Mancini's. They are all the same price, but Firm Feels are fixed using bushings and reillys and Mancinis use heim joints. not sure which is better....

firm feel
http://www.firmfeel.com/img/tubeuca1.jpg

mancini
http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/chucker54_2024_49567692
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depends on how you use your car. if it gets driven in snow with salt on the roads i would go bushed. if its only out on nice days and gets caught in rain then the heim are fine. plus with the heim ones you can dial some more caster in to your alignment. i've had the heim on my car for about 3 years now and have had no issues. i also think if you call RMS that he will senn the arms with bushings too. atleast he used to.
 
hangten said:
Who make the best tubular upper control arms(price/quality) for a A-Body. Looking to get some for my hang 10 to add some adjustability. Want to lower the car down some. thanks
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You could just install moog 7103 offset bushings in your old A-arms and get the adjustment you need. Install them for increased caster, not the instructions in the box.

What caster camber setting do you want to end up with? I can get 4+ pos caster and 1+ neg camber with mine lower and stock UCA's.

My car has about 1 5/8" between the frame and LCA with rubber bumpstops removed.

bumpstopdistance.jpg
 
my car is a 75 Hang ten Dart that I want to set up like a 70's Trans Am racer. Will be mostly a street/offramp carver. will be running 15" minilite style wheels and want the car to have that racecar stance. Any suggestions on how to set the car up (shocks, springs, torsion bars, sway bars) would be greatly appreciated.
 
hangten said:
my car is a 75 Hang ten Dart that I want to set up like a 70's Trans Am racer. Will be mostly a street/offramp carver. will be running 15" minilite style wheels and want the car to have that racecar stance. Any suggestions on how to set the car up (shocks, springs, torsion bars, sway bars) would be greatly appreciated.
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Are you interested in taking it out to a track? Or just aggressive street driving?

Aggressive street:

.99 T-bars
1 1/8 front sway bar
3/4 rear sway bar
Qa1, edelbrock shocks, KYB's are ok but at thier limits to keep up to .99 T-bars.
offset upper 7103 UCA bushing per diagram here: http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/susp/18.html
rubber LCA bushings are fine
poly strut rod bushings modified like so: http://users.erols.com/mathewg/bushings.html
3-5 degree positive caster closer 5 is better
1/2 negative camber
1/16" toe in
11.75 late B-body factory front disk
adjustable rear proportioning valve
frame connectors
firm feel power steering box
11/16" tie rods off a C-body


What backspacing are those MiniLites? What minilite version are they? You really need 4.25 to fit 225/60/15 in the front. Rear you could do 255/60/15 at least with is lowered some.

Rewelding the K-member and adding some reinforcement around the steering box bracket would be nice.
 
thanks for that list. Car will be aggressive street. Would love to try the track but just cant do it right now. I am waiting to order wheels till after I get my 8 3/4 setup in the car, so I can make some good measurements. Would offset shackles help to gain some more tire room out back? or is that a bad idea?
 
hangten said:
my car is a 75 Hang ten Dart that I want to set up like a 70's Trans Am racer. Will be mostly a street/offramp carver. will be running 15" minilite style wheels and want the car to have that racecar stance. Any suggestions on how to set the car up (shocks, springs, torsion bars, sway bars) would be greatly appreciated.
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Who makes a minilite style wheel??? I am interested.

I'll go along with autoxcuda's suspension recommendation, though I prefer a polygraphite bushings myself for consistency. An alternative shock that has been recommended by others here is the Monroe Gas.

Not wild about mixed tire sizes either. Going wider at the rear than front promotes understeer. This isn't a big issue for a car with a rear weight bias, like a Porsche, but for an American V-8, it'll plow.

I don't know if autoxcuda has had problems with rubbing rear tires on the leaf springs. I have with cop car rims and found that fabricating a Watts link cured the problem, but limited wheel travel. An off-the-shelf Panhard bar (aka track bar) would cure the problem, too. However, the Panhard bar, in my experience makes the rear axle respond differently in left and right turns.
 
Team 3 makes AC III wheels
LT-3-17X8.jpg


Vintage Wheel Works
V48-16x8-small.jpg


PS Engineering also makes minilite wheels in any setup . website is confusing and cant find a pic right now.
http://www.psewheels.com/
 
72 Demon said:
Who makes a minilite style wheel??? I am interested.

I'll go along with autoxcuda's suspension recommendation, though I prefer a polygraphite bushings myself for consistency. An alternative shock that has been recommended by others here is the Monroe Gas..
Click to expand...

I have poly bushings on my Cuda and my Dart convertible. I don't think they are that necessary on street handling. But with the Dart convertible flex body I would not run them (previous owner install).

..
Not wild about mixed tire sizes either. Going wider at the rear than front promotes understeer. This isn't a big issue for a car with a rear weight bias, like a Porsche, but for an American V-8, it'll plow...
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I'm not a fan because I want to do four tire rotations. The fronts take a beating at the track.

I don't know if autoxcuda has had problems with rubbing rear tires on the leaf springs. I have with cop car rims and found that fabricating a Watts link cured the problem, but limited wheel travel. An off-the-shelf Panhard bar (aka track bar) would cure the problem, too. However, the Panhard bar, in my experience makes the rear axle respond differently in left and right turns.
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With a 245/60/15 with 15x7 4.25 backspacing (cop/ralley rims) I will get rear tires rubbing the leafs. Especially if you are throwing the car around real aggressive. On a 67-69 Dart that barely rubs the inside and outside if really pushed in corners.

With 245/50/15ZR BFG Comp TA I don't get that rubbing with 15x8 rallyes with 4.5 backspacing. That just as close to the leaf as the 245/60/15 with 4.25 backspacing. The 50 series Z-rated tire is a much stiffer sidewall and it's shorter with less leverage to roll over.

With a 67-69 Barracuda or Duster/Demon has more room on the outside for rear tires. So you can get a wider and little less backspacing. Like a 15x8 rim 4.25 backspacing and a 275/50/15 tire. IHMO the 275/60/15's look like balloons.

With the Team III rims and the VWW rims, I'd go to 16" or 17" rims.

On the conservative side:
Front
255/45/16 16x8 rims with 5" backspacing
Rear
255/45/16 16x8 rims with 4.25" backspacing OR run the same rims as up front but run 3/4 space so you can tire rotate. Benefit for running 4.25 (less) rear backspacing is that it make the rims look deeper in the rear and give it a look.

Pushing the tire size limits...
Front
275/40/17 17x9 rims with 5.5" backspacing. Must roll/cut 3/4" deep x 3" tall triangle out of lower front fender lip edge. Must run flat style upper ball joints.
Rear
275/40/17 17x9 rims with 5.5" backspacing and 65-67 B-body rear end and perches moved in.

The 275/40/17 17x9 rims are my personal next step.
 
Looks like an old thread but thought I'd jump in here anyways. I've seen some of these out there over the years and the Magnum Force tubular control arms are the best in my opinion. Tried the QA1 arms but they were entirely the wrong width for the cars brackets and left a big gap at each end. Ugly welds and small tubes too. Squeak prone poly bushings. Easy choice for me. Chromoly and Delrin for mine.
 
Ill 2nd magnum force arms , had them on for years now and made a very noticeable improve -meant in steering feel and adjust ability .
 
Hemidaytona said:
Looks like an old thread but thought I'd jump in here anyways. I've seen some of these out there over the years and the Magnum Force tubular control arms are the best in my opinion. Tried the QA1 arms but they were entirely the wrong width for the cars brackets and left a big gap at each end. Ugly welds and small tubes too. Squeak prone poly bushings. Easy choice for me. Chromoly and Delrin for mine.
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i wouldn't put magnumforsce stuff on my worst enemies car..


you want unlimited adjustibility and derlin bushings then go this route.. http://bergmanautocraft.com/proddetail.php?prod=5-0090
 
Anyone else have QA1's on their car? Pretty good reviews for them on summit.
 
Can no go wrong with the RMS...have 3 set in use on your bracket cars...
 
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