WS.666

iTrader: (28)

How would I go about installing adjustable upper and lower a-arms. I know they bolt in...I was wondering how I should set them up with the adjustments. Should I lay them on top of the stockers and adjust them to stock size? Is there any advantage to going short or longer with either a-arm? If they're put on the alignment machine and an adjustment has to be made, they have to be taken off and adjusted, correct?

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

Just to get them close I would set them up close to the factory arms. If your car is lowered a good amount you may want to adjust the uppers to help with the camber.

Mark2002

iTrader: (2)

Not necessarily. Only if theres no room remaining in the K-member slot to slide it any more. Once they're out of room though, yes the end of the arm has to be removed, adjusted then reinstalled. At this point (in my case) the alignment became an hourly cost instead of a flat alignment charge.

I installed rod-ended lower a-arms (stock uppers) and wanted some additional negative camber and positive caster. I assumed the rod ends were set at stock length, so I rotated the caster ends out 1 full turn, and the cambers out 2 full turns. Turns out, you can't really adjust the caster very much this way since your basically extending the arm backwards at about a 45deg angle when screwing the rod-end out while the slot in the k-member is perpendicular to the car centerline. Extending the rod more than ~1 revolution means it no longer lines up with the k-member slot. The camber, however you can adjust as far as you want. I only went 2 revolutions, and it turns out I needed about 10 when I had it aligned. That gave me a full 1deg of negative camber and put the rod end in the center of the slot.

If you're going the adjustable upper route as well, you may not have this issue since it can be adjusted to compensate.

Mark.