Spohn upper a arms question

sackracing

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
I am using Spohn uppers with G body parts lowers, and the camber is off so far in the positive direction that it takes almost an inch of shim to even get it in spec. I don't think this is safe. I wonder if mixing brands is contributing to the problem. They should both be stock spec. Any ideas?
 
Is the suspension lowered in any way? I also wasn't aware that G body had lowers, just uppers.
 
It has one coil cut out of a new set of moog springs, that should make the camber negative, not positive.
 
The only thing I can think of is to measure the legnth of the upper control arm from the shaft to the center of the ball joint. It should be about 8" so if it's a 1/4" longer than that you may have the wrong one.
 
From the best I can measure, it is 8.5 inches from the center of the ball joint to the center of the shaft. I checked the paperwork and they are supposed to be g body arms.
 
the left and right are correct. and going by the computer alignment, the front corners of the a arms need almost an inch of shim and the rear corners need about a quarter inch. the alignment shop threw their hands up over this one. The factory a arms had about a quarter inch of shim in them, so it's not the frame. I'm gonna call Spohn on Monday.
 
I got some pics of another car with a similiar setup and it appears as thought this is the case with tubular uppers. I ordered some one piece .750 shims from Summit and just picked up some longer grade 8 bolts.
 
i haven't called them yet. I got a text picture of a car with TRZ arms on it and it had more shim in it than mine does. I was hoping some more people would chime in and tell me if this is common.
 
I know this may sound strange, but is the upper ball joint mounted on the top or bottom of the control arm? I measured an upper today and got just a hair above 8.5" from the shaft to the ccenter of the ball joint. If you've got 8.5" arms then it should be right. I'll see about taking a measurement off the lower tomorrow if I get the chance.
 
I have close to 3/8" of shim on the passengers side and 5/8" on the drivers side with my TRZ a-arms. I have the rod end uppers and I turned the rod ends in one turn more than they were shipped with. I'm running a-body spindles, so I don't know how much that affects it.
 
The ball joints are on the bottom of the a arm. It could be that the bottoms are the problem. I ordered some circle track one piece shim plates from Summit today, 3/4".
 
Thanks for chiming in Mike. Can you give us an idea of how much distance 1 full turn in is?

One thing you might try, and it will help your camber curve some, is to use a longer ball joint on the top or bottom. It will move the control arm in slightly which would eliminate some of the shims you're having to use.
 
Thanks for chiming in Mike. Can you give us an idea of how much distance 1 full turn in is?
I
One thing you might try, and it will help your camber curve some, is to use a longer ball joint on the top or bottom. It will move the control arm in slightly which would eliminate some of the shims you're having to use.

I'm not seeing how a longer ball joint moves the arms in.
 
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