Looking at getting a pair of tubular upper control arms for my '67 Barracuda for the additional adjustability for my higher ride height. What are some good, quality arms? I know in the past with my '69 RR I came across some aftermarket a-arms breaking at the welds.
Tubular Upper Control Arm Vendors
- Thread starter GRANCUDA
- Start date
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abodyjoe
Well-Known Member
Buy the RMS arms.
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abodyjoe
Well-Known Member
CAP crap were the ones breaking at the welds..
Evan Dutch
Well-Known Member
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twayne24365
Well-Known Member
small or large ball joint?
We have adjustable and none adjustable tubular control arms available both made in the USA. But like the poster above we need to know if you are running the larger or small upper ball joint front end.
PST | Performance Control Arm | Adjustable Control Arms
Thanks
James
PST | Performance Control Arm | Adjustable Control Arms
Thanks
James
CAP got bought out by QA1 over 6 years ago now, just don't buy a used set. The QA1 parts are great.
As far as tubular arms go, it depends on what your going to use the car for. After running hotchkis UCA's on my Challenger, I personally won't run Heim joints on a UCA for a street car. They just do not last on a driver. My first set only went 7k miles, were replaced by hotchkis (great company and customer service!) and the second set will be toast by 10k. For a low mile weekend driver, show car or something that never sees weather they might be ok, but I won't run them on a driver. So I only look at UCA's with bushings.
The other thing to consider is the shape, most of them now have a narrower "V" shape, but there are still some out there with a more rounded "U" shape. Which is fine for most folks, but if you plan on running a wide 18" rim up front you have to check for rim to UCA clearance at full steering lock and suspension extension. Smaller diameter rims can't have the amount of backspace to run into that problem though.
Then there's adjustable vs not. But unless you're planning on some aggressive alignment numbers, like for autoX or road course use, the non-adjustable UCA's have enough extra caster built in for pretty much everybody. And if you're not doing your own alignments or know a good shop the non adjustable UCA's are easier to deal with.
abodyjoe
Well-Known Member
i was replying to where he said years ago when h was looking he heard there was a company that was breaking at the welds.. that was CAP crap.. yes QA1 bought them out and spent a long time redesigning the junk..
the two are totally different now and go by totally different names.
I have a set of QA1's for my 70 duster. Hoping some day I get to the point in this build that I can use them!!
twayne24365
Well-Known Member
I have the small bj qa1 on my car the alignment went great and they are doing great so far....much nicer than stock!
GMachineDartGT
Senior Member
Here are my 2 favorites.
SPC-By far easiest to adjust, unlike any other arm, delrin greasable bushings
QA1-The beefiest of the regular tubular arms. Its the only one with reinforcement around the upper ball joint. QA1 employs real engineers. The same cannot be said for every company.
SPC-By far easiest to adjust, unlike any other arm, delrin greasable bushings
QA1-The beefiest of the regular tubular arms. Its the only one with reinforcement around the upper ball joint. QA1 employs real engineers. The same cannot be said for every company.
NudeHemidude
Well-Known Member
I used Firm Feel upper arms because they use bushes instead of heim joints and used the stock small ball joints.
The big ball joints are hard to get in Australia.
The big ball joints are hard to get in Australia.
MomsDuster
Well-Known Member
I know that feeling!
684door
Well-Known Member
Qa1 is what I used. They work great
I got these tubulars with the car. I'm going through front suspension/brakes now. Do I run these things? Street car, trying to make a fast car that gets driven 3x a week. They seem like it would make it harder for front end shop. Originals just need balls and bushings to put back in. But it would be nice to make it handle....
Somewhat on thread with the tubular uppers that came with this car, are these lower control arms. Must be for a later spindle? Wil the later spindle accept the K/H calipers that are on my car now?
Thanks!
(Am I too far off topic in this thread?) All seems related but IDK.
Thanks!
(Am I too far off topic in this thread?) All seems related but IDK.
GMachineDartGT
Senior Member
The heim joints on that setup may make noise over time. No bumpstop plate, no reinforcement at the ball joint and limited adjustability. Where's the upside again?
Yeah, dunno really. Maybe some adjustability to The camber? The steering arms are not correct either. I think some new ball joints and bushings with some chassis black will set me right. Do you recognize the brand of these puppies? Would help when I go to sell them.
Thanks for your time
Thanks for your time
Hate to bug you at all now, but where would a guy source quality upper n loer ball joints and bushings for a 67 barracuda? With K/H setup of it matters...
Again, thanks for your time.
Again, thanks for your time.
The upside is the increased caster compared to stock. And, I don't see how there's "limited adjustability" either. The camber bolts would work just like they would with the stock UCA's and you already have more caster built in, so they're no less adjustable than the stock stuff. A shop that can set an alignment on a torsion bar car shouldn't have any more issues with those than the stockers. In fact, because you can screw the heims joints in or out a bit you would have more adjustability, the only issue with using the heims is you'd have to pull the UCA's out of the mounts to adjust them, that set up isn't adjustable while it's in place. And you wouldn't be likely to find a non-custom alignment shop that would be willing to do that, you'd have to adjust the heims yourself. And of course you would want to make sure you had enough threads engaged, there's some adjustability there but it's not unlimited. You would need to either move the bumpstop or switch to a rectangular one or something so that there's a downstop on the suspension to keep the UCA's from hitting the frame. And I'm not a big fan of heims at the UCA for a street car, they wear out faster ( at least in my experience).
As far as the brand goes, based on the design and lack of markings I would be inclined to say they're from Magnumforce. Mopar A Body Adjustable Tubular Upper Control Arms There's a chance they could be the older design of the RMS arms, but they had RMS stickers on them. Based on the welds they aren't the old CAP arms. Most of the rest of the tubular UCA's have a gusset plate at the ball joint with that design, but I could be missing something.
It looks to me like both your UCA's and your lower ball joints are for a 73+ style spindle. Do you have spindles on the car now with the KH set up? The KH set up will not work with the later spindles, you'd need KH disk spindles and they use a small upper ball joint.
thank you! Armed with that information, I believe I will go with the stock setup combined with the offset moog 7103 UCA bushings, rubber all around except some poly strut bushings (after pouring over the forums cause I know it's out there somewhere). It's nothing but a street car so I'm doing what I can to make it a good driver. Still not cheap. PST has most of it.
Thanks again for your time,
I couldn't find the number for the small upper ball...was it moog K704?
Anyway if I go PST ... they should know.
Huge help!
Thanks again for your time,
I couldn't find the number for the small upper ball...was it moog K704?
Anyway if I go PST ... they should know.
Huge help!
GMachineDartGT
Senior Member
My delrin lower arm bushings wouldnt hurt either. The rubber these days is not the same as the USA stuff from the 70s.
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