heres some rencent fab work, and BIG thanks to Abe at Tool Werks for the machining of the spacer and "ball joint" The lower control arms are for my Dodge Neon should help reduce the toe out on launches at the track.

 

i like

 

awesome work, i used to have a neon before my civic, sometimes they can be a world of trouble

 

Looks great dude. One suggestion...some live by it, some say it doesnt make it a difference, but try taking some scotch brite to the 4130 around the weld areas before welding. It will take the black scale off the tubing, and to me, seems to weld much easier! Looks great though!
Kyle

 

are those camber adjustable? I've been working on some LCAs too. I was told to stay away from tubing frame because of inaccuracy.

where did you get those ball joints? and the part they screw into?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Nataku &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are those camber adjustable? I've been working on some LCAs too. I was told to stay away from tubing frame because of inaccuracy.

where did you get those ball joints? and the part they screw into?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I haven't ever built any LCA's, but I have seen many tube frame cars build suspension components just this way. For replacing a stock stamped unit, I would try to make a fixture that the stock unit would bolt into, then make a tube version using that fixture. All the jamnuts, heims joints and weld in threaded bungs for rod ends can be easily found at many online race car and kart building websites.

His specific design is adjustable, but would require the whole unit to be removed for each adjusting. With careful design, something can be built for in car adjustability using threaded rod ends with mismatched threading (left vs. right). But if you design it correctly and use your fixture, you should be able to calculate how much adjustment is needed from stock and set the rod-ends and install on car without need for an incar adjustble unit.

Here are some links to suppliers of the parts you'll need:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/....html

http://www.kartek.com/products/all/heims/heims.htm

http://www.bakerprecision.com/rodacc.htm

http://www.qscomponents.com/We....html

http://www.midwestcontrol.com/...g=225

 

i guess you could adjust the camber with these but i built them to the stock configuration the main thing was to remove the big ruber bushing from the control arms. All the metal bushings were custom one off by a close friend who is very good with the a lathe.

the ball joint was a 2 peice that uses a bolt to pinch the 2 together inside the rod end all the bushing an such are all a tight fit made.

 

be sure to post pics of them installed! looks good.

 

I'm not sure that the forward inboard joint is placed correctly for the loads that it will see. The rear one is correct, so it might be seeing most of those loads instead. I'm not sure, anyone with more chassis fab experience want to comment?

Most rod-ends are not thrust rated, and in the design of your suspension the control arm see's no verticle loads, only transverse and longitudinal loads. Suspension on a double wishbone setup like a civic, where the strut acts on the lower control arm, the rod end should be oriented the way you have it. The tricky bit is the outboard joint on a civic FLCA, because the rod end is stressed in all 3 directions.

 

I have no idea if it changes things but, FYI the neon is a strut car.