I purchased a pair of SPC upper control arms pn: 62010 for the 99 Si and installed it. I ran a weekend autocross event and used them to adjust some negative camber since my tires' outer edges are hotter than the insides.

On the street, one should probably not have a problem with suspension bottoming out. On an autocross, especially a bumpy course, this became a problem. The adjusting bolt that moves the sliding plate in and out (to control camber) hit the top hat of my suspension. This is on stock-rate Ground Control sleeves, lowered about an inch to an inch-and-a-half. Koni yellows are the dampers I'm running.

As you can see, the bolt gouged the lower/outer part of the top hat.

This caused the bolt to bend at the end, binding up the entire assembly. No fun when you're trying to get the suspension back to stock camber.

The solution is to cut about 4mm off of that bolt, which will enable it to clear the top hat. It will still operate normally in the control arm. Also, lowering the suspension to an extreme and running relatively soft springs will cause this to happen.

David Shlosser at SPC was very helpful in identifying issues and offering some suggestions. I was expecting a lot worse of a response, yet I'm very pleased.

Hope this has been insightful!

 

could you show pics of it after you've cut 4mm off which ever bolt you need to trim... or just circle it in the pictre...

I'm not really clear on what hit the spring seat... is it a bolt on top of the A-arm that we can't see in the pic?

 

^I agree.

Since I already have the adjustable ball joint from them, I'm in the market for getting an entirely different style. The SPC adjustable ball joint locknut was hitting the plate on top. It's basically contacting the plate each time I hit a bump and I hate that sound. It is making my suspension worse than it already is. Very uncomfortable to drive.

Show us a picture of how you cut the bolt. Thanks....

 

You can see the head of the bolt just above the ball joint, it's the other end of that bolt that made contact with the spring seat. I marked where the end of that bolt protruded from the A-arm and added a 1/2mm so it wouldn't slip out.

I do not otherwise have a good way to illustrate what was cut. In order to do it, however, you'll need to disassemble the entire A-arm which isn't a big deal. Hold the bolt in a vise and just use a hack saw or dremel.

 

I gotcha...

So the threaded "end" of that bolt showing contacted the spring seat... right..

Which in turn bent the bolt which bound it up right?

SO... IF you have to tighten that adjusting bolt soo far that it COULD contact the spring seat you should grind of 4mm or soo of the threaded end...

However if your car is not that lowered and the threaded adjusting bolt clears the spring seat there's no need to grind off any material.

Correct?

I found out it doesn't really matter to me (sort of) as I'm ordering them for a 93 civic so it only comes with the ball joint... not the whole upper arm assembly...

I will check clearnces and any issues once I get/install them... and post updates on this thread.


Thanks for the heads up though.

 

Yeah, this mod may only be applicable if you really tax the suspension in autocross race situations.

 

Use long enough and stiff enough bumpstops and it won't be a problem anymore.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by opeth13 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Use long enough and stiff enough bumpstops and it won't be a problem anymore.</TD></TR></TABLE>

why in the world would you want to use bumbstops to stop this promblem? that would be just like makeing your suspenstion null and viod

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

why in the world would you want to use bumbstops to stop this promblem? that would be just like makeing your suspenstion null and viod</TD></TR></TABLE>

Follow the link below and click on the "Micro Cellular Jounce Bumper" article which is from H&R's web page:
http://www.hrsprings.com/site/frametechnical.html

Now, when I said use longer bumpstops, I did not mean fill the suspension travel area with a full solid stiff bumpstop, that would be pointless, you might as well weld a solid piece of steel from the hub to the car. To prevent the control arms from bottoming out, use enough of a bumpstop to just keep the control arms from contacting the frame on incredibly large bumps or road irregularities. Unless you are running spring rates of over 1000 in/lb, you need to use bumpstops in order to keep the control arms from hitting the frame if the car is lowered in any way. There are many type of bumpstops you can use. I use the oem bumpstop in full trim with H&R race springs and it gets the job done and functions like its supposed to. Koni has bumpstops of various lengths and stiffness in their catalog, I believe its on page 27, but I'm not too sure. It's definitely in there though. At the bare minimum, the bumpstop should be keeping the control arms from hitting the frame and they should be keeping the shock from internally bottoming out.

 

My bumpstops are fine, they're stock, cut to half-length.

When the bolt hits the top hat (before the modification that I originally wrote about) the bumpstop isn't compressed... so it wasn't even playing a factor in the need to do this modification. However, even if I had a longer bumpstop and it compressed enough... the bolt would still hit.

 

I have this same problem with them bottoming out on my EG. It's low but come on man, enough to put a nice size dent in your shock tower when you open your hood. I currently took them off and I'm back to the skunk2's. I'm wanting for the new low profile upper controls arms that SPC have comming out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 93Civic_hb &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I'm wanting for the new low profile upper controls arms that SPC have comming out.</TD></TR></TABLE>

They're due out September 15th, or that's what I was told by one of their engineers when I called earlier this week.

Austin

 

Are you looking into getting a set Austin?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Austin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

They're due out September 15th, or that's what I was told by one of their engineers when I called earlier this week.

Austin</TD></TR></TABLE>

are those the cast aluminum silver ones that someone posted a pics of (from a show) on this board a while ago? Ingalls makes some really pimpy low profile UCAs, but they're very expensive!

 

anyone got a link to these new products? what do you think of the skunk2 uca? i asked them to make them for 88-91 crx and they said no..whats up with that?

 

I personally back to using skunks uca on my EG, but I'm waiting for the new uca from SPC to come out because I don't want to keep replacing ball-joints.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LX4CYL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

are those the cast aluminum silver ones that someone posted a pics of (from a show) on this board a while ago? Ingalls makes some really pimpy low profile UCAs, but they're very expensive!</TD></TR></TABLE>

These ones?

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=820846

 

yeah. I'm not sure if those will work

 

why doesnt anybody make adjustable uca's for 88-91 crx???????..is it just cuz you may have to shave down that seam or whats the deal?


Modified by spaceman at 7:15 AM 8/9/2004

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I'm having a problem with the SPC adjustable balljoints for a 92-95 Civic (I suppose 94-01 Integra, too). There is a popping sound whenever a significant lateral load is placed on the wheels. It's not bottoming out, like the control arms here, since it happens while barely rolling if you turn the wheel more than one turn. Does anyone have any experience with this? I've inspected/marked/cursed it over and over, to no avail. I called SPC and they claimed to have never heard of this problem...

 

What brand are the other upper control arms in that attached thread(not the spc's)???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Spade Racing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What brand are the other upper control arms in that attached thread(not the spc's)???</TD></TR></TABLE>

these? They look VERY good, and it appears as though it wouldn't be too hard to make them for different applications! Who makes them and how much?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Those SPC parts look great. When are they available?

Here's the arm for those who are concerned that the 1-nut theory isn't a good one...

</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LX4CYL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">these? They look VERY good, and it appears as though it wouldn't be too hard to make them for different applications! Who makes them and how much?</TD></TR></TABLE>

They are A-Sport camber kit, with spherical joint and adjustment thru the threaded part at the legs attached to the chassis. The locking mechanism is like the toe adjustment on the tie rod. In addition this piece is very compact so it won't have the 2 big problems that the Skunk2 has: slippage and interference with the shock tower.

Sounds really good doesn't it? Front and rear come in an awesome deal of $800 + shipping.

 

well, if that means the fronts are $400 for both sides, then its not that bad when compared to the $550+ retail price of the ingalls low profile UCAs they make for my Accord

http://www.ingallseng.com/parts/39201-39204.htm


However, I doubt A-Sport makes anything that will replace my front UCAs, since 98-02 Accords have straight-through shock tower bolts, not the anchor bolts you Civic/Integra/older Accord guys get...

I can tell they would be a real b!tch to adjust, but since I now do my own alignments and enjoy working on cars as a hobby, I wouldn't mind

does this company have a website??? (A-Sport)

 

someone hook up a group buy on a-sport UCAs! then whoever buys them in socal we can all go to the same alignment shop and get a group alignment discount

BTW I was serious about the group buy if we could get them for a reasonable price