Tubular upper arms-I feel lucky tonight

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What do you mean "front wheel and tire combo"? Is there something that I'm missing? just wondering


When you are running meats and streamers the adjustability is pointless, your car will corner like crap anyway.

They do little or nothing even when you are running a standard wheel and tire like 14s or 15s with some BFGs.

They are however useful when you move to a real performance wheel and tire package like abodyjoe is running.

The weight savings is insignificant on all but race cars where weight reduction becomes a priority.

In the end….. If you choose tube control arms you should only buy the best quality. Often people buy crap like this simply because it looks cool.
 
"I am surprised that Mancini continues to put their business in jeopardy by distributing these prodicts."

I agree. after all the bad press C.A.P. has gotten you'd think vendors like Mancini would wise up and dump their products for liability reasons.
I'm glad nobody was hurt.
 
Often people buy crap like this simply because it looks cool.

people usually buy crap like that to save a couple bucks over a part that is made properly. Ya see it all the time in threads on various boards.
 
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there is no penetration on the tube at the weld...!
 
I like the Firm feel arms. good deal altogether. I think someone is stamping out the new stock UCL's. THat outfit that is making the spindles. (cant remember, oldtimer's kicking in).
 
I have never liked those skinny upper control arms. Now seeing a second one go bad that confirms why I don't like them.
 
I have never liked those skinny upper control arms. Now seeing a second one go bad that confirms why I don't like them.


again. there is nothing wrong with the tube arms if they are welded properly. cap obviously doesn't know how to weld. its a shame garbage like this is even being sold because it makes people think all tube stuff is junk which is the furthest thing from the truth.
 
I bought these arms from a well known vendor,not because they where cheap.The original arm on drivers side was rewelded when i bought car,so i figured i would go with something new.I never thought i would be putting my family or myself at risk.You would think a vendor would have a certain amount of faith in the products they sell...By the way,this vendor does not advertise the makers name,just says upper tubulars.Figured they would not sell junk...MY BAD!!
 
When you are running meats and streamers the adjustability is pointless, your car will corner like crap anyway.

They do little or nothing even when you are running a standard wheel and tire like 14s or 15s with some BFGs.

They are however useful when you move to a real performance wheel and tire package like abodyjoe is running.

The weight savings is insignificant on all but race cars where weight reduction becomes a priority.

In the end….. If you choose tube control arms you should only buy the best quality. Often people buy crap like this simply because it looks cool.

I have to disagree with this reasoning...

Adjustable UCA's give you more caster - caster equals more straight line stability especially at high speeds. so anyone going above 45 mph will benefit from the added caster of an adjustable UCA, or as much positive caster you can get out of a stock UCA - I got 4.5 degrees out of my stockers and thats about as far as you can go.

An adjustable UCA can give you as much as 7 degrees positive caster so when you have skinney's up front and meats out back the car will want to go straight and not wander. those big and little combo's of tires are harder to control then rubber bands and you could use all the help you can get at the drag strip!
 
I have to disagree with this reasoning...

Adjustable UCA's give you more caster - caster equals more straight line stability especially at high speeds. so anyone going above 45 mph will benefit from the added caster of an adjustable UCA, or as much positive caster you can get out of a stock UCA - I got 4.5 degrees out of my stockers and thats about as far as you can go.

An adjustable UCA can give you as much as 7 degrees positive caster so when you have skinney's up front and meats out back the car will want to go straight and not wander. those big and little combo's of tires are harder to control then rubber bands and you could use all the help you can get at the drag strip!

This is the normal justification, but it is an exaggeration. Stock parts, adjustable bushings, and a quality alignment will more than get the job done.


I do think they could get better welds from a high school metal shop student.
 
I bought these arms from a well known vendor,not because they where cheap.The original arm on drivers side was rewelded when i bought car,so i figured i would go with something new.I never thought i would be putting my family or myself at risk.You would think a vendor would have a certain amount of faith in the products they sell...By the way,this vendor does not advertise the makers name,just says upper tubulars.Figured they would not sell junk...MY BAD!!



mancini?? can't for thr life of me figure out why they sell cap garbage.. should have asked here before you bought from them.i know i would have told you not to buy from them..
 
There is nothing at all wrong with using tube arms as long as the jackass welding them knows how to weld. The guys at cap obviously don't know how to weld.

I concur.Looks like poor to no penetration in that weld.

I'll stick to stock upper A arms with a good workover. Any camber issues can be resolved with a set of Moog offset camber bushings for less than $40.
 
I've been running the CAP arms on my Challenger for well over a year now without problems so far. I didn't know of any issues at the time I bought them. This isn't the first time that I've heard about failures of CAP parts, but with the internet the story/evidence isn't always clear cut. It's COMPLETELY obvious based on those pictures that this was a weld failure though, and I'd have to say I'll be looking for a new pair of tubular UCA's.

And as Joe said, there's nothing wrong with tubular a-arms in general. They are used in everything from F1 cars to Baja racers, and in the case of F1, on cars that cost over 3 million dollars. Like anything aftermarket, there are different levels of quality. CAP has proven itself to be low quality at best. And unlike a lot of things, the CAP arms are not cheaper than the alternatives!

RMS, Magnumforce, Hotchkiss, Firm Feel and Just Suspension all have tubular arms that are quality pieces that I would run well before I ever went back to stock design UCA's.

For those of you that think you're safe running ancient stock UCA's instead of tubular ones, I suggest you think again. Stock UCA's flex, twist, and eventually crack. And unless you're the original owner, you have no idea how many curbs, potholes, or accidents those UCA's have seen over the last 40 years. Also, the factory UCA's were designed around the original tire/rubber compounds available at the time. Needless to say, the tires that originally came on our cars are closer to hockey pucks than they are to modern tire compounds. More grip at the tire equals more force transmitted to the chassis, and in the case of the stock stamped arms, more flex.
 
I have some that i havn't installed yet. Don't know the brand as i bought them new from another guy who ordered the wrong ones. They have the same silver R/L sticker in the same place, but the pivots are thinner. So now i'm a bit worried. Is there any way of telling if they have been MIG or TIG welded?

BTW, 72bluNblu, nice info on the UCA story, thanks
 
I have some that i havn't installed yet. Don't know the brand as i bought them new from another guy who ordered the wrong ones. They have the same silver R/L sticker in the same place, but the pivots are thinner. So now i'm a bit worried. Is there any way of telling if they have been MIG or TIG welded?

BTW, 72bluNblu, nice info on the UCA story, thanks


CAP also sells their arms with heim joints, so that might account for the pivot difference. I'd try to find out where he got them.

As far as MIG vs TIG welded, it depends on the weld. On average I'd say TIG welds are smaller, cleaner, more uniform welds. But a good MIG weld can look much better than a bad TIG weld.

Post up some pictures of the arms, we can probably figure out which one's you have.
 
It's probably just my own tendency toward over-engineering stuff, but the design gives me the creeps. Personally, I'd like to see a gusset that ties the whole mess together at the ball joint end. It wouldn't take much material to vastly improve force distribution on something this important. Nonetheless, even a well-designed gusset won't compensate for crappy welds.
 
a gusset isn't needed. hell in caps case it probably would have a shitty weld there too..lol. if its welded correctly there would be no problems..
 
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