Giggity

Unfortunately it looks like I am going to have to pull the car apart, pull the ball joint out of the new a-arm and take pictures of it not fitting again. This is a tremendous pain in the ***, but I suspect they will not work with me until I try their tip which "always works". Even after that it's not clear that they will refund my money, I'm guessing they will try and send me a new piece which may or may not fit.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

I know that most people, myself included, don't like to waste either time or money. However, sometimes you have to bite the bullet. In this circumstance, I'd be tempted to check with a wrecking yard, and see if you can pick up a pair of the upper a-arm mounts, without breaking the bank, of course.

First, it will prevent you from having to disassemble the car, just to prove that the a-arms aren't correct, which is sure what it looks like. Secondly, you won't have the car tied up during the disassembly/re-assembly phase, just in case you need to use it. And finally, you can sand-blast, paint, and "pretty up" the spare set, and then be able to assemble them and have them ready to go, when you finally have a proper set of a-arms, saving time when you do the swap for hopefully, what will be the final time.

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Are they blind ?, you've got plenty of pictures that clearly show they don't fit!

SSHAWK

iTrader: (14)

ALL I have to say is THANK GOD I went with UMI Performance for all my ****...If I would have gone through all this I would have flip a **** on someone at to that place. My stuff went on like a glove all nice a pretty.

I hear you talking about bending **** to fit ..**** that. I would have sent it back and asked for the right part because it shouldn't be like that.

I hope all goes well for you and best of luck with getting it going. My car drives a lot better now with all my stuff UMI K-member, UMI upper & lower Adj A-arms.

Travis Johnson

iTrader: (2)

I think you should at least try their tip before bashing on Spohn. It's too bad they weren't open Saturday and you have to take it apart again. But they're a business, weekend hours cost money.

But it took me three minutes to find the installation instructions on their website, and it clearly says to leave the ball joint bolts loose. All you had to do is look them up and read them.

I don't see how Spohn is in the wrong here or why they deserve this kind of bad publicity. Now if loosening the ball joint bolts doesn't work and they won't work a refund or exchange, then you have a reason to be angry.

I know it can be really frustrating when an install doesn't work right, but it's out of line to vent that frustration on a supplier when you haven't even followed their instructions.

Giggity

Please show me where I'm "bashing" on Spohn. I even went out of my way to note how promptly they returned my calls and how polite they were. I made this thread to find out if anyone else had the same problem. If someone says "Hey my arms didn't fit and I loosened the ball joints and then they fit" I could confidently disassemble my car to try it.

The only thing I'm annoyed with is that Spohn is just blindly chanting "Loosen the ball joints" like it's some kind of cure all. They didn't even acknowledge they looked at the pics. It's not a tight fit now, it's not even close to fitting. Even after bending the crap out of my mounts it still wouldn't go in.

And while I'm ranting... If this is a known problem and the ball joints being installed is really distorting the arm that much, why do they offer them pre-installed? Shouldn't they keep them loose from the factory so it doesn't bend the arms?

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

Bingo!!

Travis Johnson

iTrader: (2)

That might not be what you intended, but from the other comments it looks like other people are taking it that way.

I hate it when I have to take things apart twice too, but it's perfectly reasonable for Spohn to request you follow their instructions before making a return.

If I hadn't junked my mounts a couple weeks ago I'd send them to you to test fit on. Maybe someone else here has some old ones.

Element

iTrader: (5)

Maybe it's because I'm just a dumb redneck who doesn't understand mechanical engineering, but if tightening the bolts distorts the control arm that much (and I'm having problems seeing how the bolts would cause the arms to spread...I can see it causing them to flex up a bit in the z-axis compared to the ball joint plate, but not how they're claiming the arms flex in the y-axis), isn't that going to cause a lot of pre-load on the bushings once the control arm is installed and the ball joint bolts tightened up?

One way to check to see if loosening the bolts is going to make a difference would be to measure the span between the inner faces of the bushings with the bolts tight, then loosen the bolts and check the span again.

Not bashing a sponsor, but the answer they're giving for this problem seems a lot like denying their solid mounts raise the engine, when countless people have real-world verified that it happens.

joblo1978

iTrader: (14)

I fail to see how the ball joint just simply being installed relocates the poly ends to where they won't fit in the mount.

Say they do fit with the ball joint removed or loosened, what happens when you mount the ball joint afterwards? Seems to me like it would warp and then bind the bushing defeating the purpose of the aftermarket a-arm.

I could be wrong and am not a mechanical engineer, but it appears to be a flawed design.

SSHAWK

iTrader: (14)

Giggity I have all my stock stuff if you need it shoot me a PM .I don't know what the stock **** sells for but its sounds like mine might be better off to use then your bent up **** right now.

My Car has 40k miles on it.

Something doesn't look right with this picture right side lines up left side not so much lol.

Paul Bell

iTrader: (9)

Hey Gigitty, I just ran across this thread. Did you get this sorted out or did you give up?

I too had a Spohn product (body brace/TA mount) that was way off. They claimed it couldn't be as they make everything on a jig-despite the photos I sent them clearly showing how far off it was. A replacement part I HAD TO PURCHASE from them was welded correctly and fit properly. That was the last Spohn component I'll ever purchase, sometime in 2006. UMI or BMR is the way.

I think Spohn's problem is that they assume they are always right and the customer is always wrong. They must think their customers are idiots. We are-for buying from them.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Thats really a shame people have to act like that. Dumbasses