I need some help. lol

Suspension setup:
Skunk2 sport shocks
Ground control coil overs
Skunk2 F/R Camber kit
Hardrace lower extended ball joints

I recently bought the hardrace extended lower ball joint kit and installed them a few days ago. After installing them I raised my car up a little and adjusted it so that I had nearly no camber.

I then realigned it, so now my problem is.. while driving every time I hit a bump that my car used to handle fine, it hits hard. I took a look at my shocks and there is no clearance. The bump stop is the only clearance between the shock tower and the shock.

What do I need to do to fix this? I did a bunch of reading on the extended ball joints before ordering and everything I read was good. No one running into problems like this. It seems that adding these took away some of my shock travel.

 

63 views and no one? lol

 

Suspension clearance issue with no pics? lol

 

Well first of all, adding more length to the bottom of the knuckle (which is what an extended ball joint does) will lower the car by itself. However the shock's position should not change. Then you say you raised the car up some, so you should have more compression travel than before. You're saying you have less?

What will change is you will have reduced clearance above your upper control arm. However you said you raised it up, so you should be back where you were.

Or the fact that you have zero camber could be causing clearance issues. IMHO zero camber is never a good thing. I would go back to stock upper control arms and see if you have any issues.

 

Yes no pictures it was dark when I discovered this.

I raised it up because I put coil overs on a week ago from the lowering springs I had. The shocks position didn't look like it changed after the install, just the rod stroke clearance. All you can see is shock, bump stop, then mount, and maybe a half inch of the rod. The control arms are also pretty close to the top of the strut tower. I did raise it up, but I did it looks to sit lower now that everything has "settled" I guess. I am tucking about an inch of tire in the front on a 205/50/R15.

Hopefully I can get it on the lift at work tomorrow and check it out.

My plan is to just adjust my upper control arms. I don't have the stock ones anymore and the ball joints were shot. I figured the zero camber was a bad idea after I changed it.

 

are you sure you are haveing clearence issues with the UCA and shock towers?

By what you describe, you pretty low, with a camber that is taller then the stock UCA. That could be causeing some interfearence issues.

Also, what are the spring rates? You may not have enough.

 

Yeah The UCA's are riding pretty close to the shock towers and I was sitting too low. I'm not sure of the springs rates, I just bought the coil overs off of here about 2 weeks ago and was just more worried about raising my car up a bit.

I did raise my car up 2 turns today, and put my camber negative a little bit and it seems to ride much better.

 

I am not 100% on this, but I have seen a few times where people say that RCA's lift the knuckle a little bit, which would raise the UCA. Possibly creating your issue.

Look at the spring, what are the numbers? Mainly the last 3.

 

That's exactly what they do. The RCA's effectively make the knuckle taller. If you install them and don't change anything else, they should not change the LCA or shock/spring position relative to the car's body. But the wheel bearings on the hubs are now higher up on the knuckle (measured to the end of the ball joint) which makes the car sit lower. It's the same principle as drop spindles used on trucks.

So then if you have coilovers, you're supposed to raise them up to get you back to the same ride height, which gives the LCA's a better angle with respect to horizontal. That's the benefit of RCA's - better LCA angle and also more shock bump travel. But the tradeoff is that you have reduced clearance between the UCA and the shock tower.

 

So I raised the car up.. Rides much better for the most part, but now I am running into another problem. I thought it was an axle, but have replaced the axle and problem is not fixed.

When I go to take off the car shakes/vibrates a noticable bit. It was also clicking and grinding when I would come to a stop. The axle that was on there was less then a month old. Replaced the axle last night and the problem seemed to fix until I went to drive this morning. The shaking is back, but not as violent and the grinding/clicking is there, but not as loud.

 

are you adjusting your toe after you do all these adjustments?

and lose the balljoints. theyre not helping you or are needed. and pretty much the source of your issues, most likely.

 

I have been adjusting toe after this. I have not found anything negative on the ball joints and did notice a difference, but If it doesnt fix after a real alignment then I may just go back to the orignals.

 

the knuckle could be hiting the spring had that happen when i decided to lower my crx allot and use allot of camber to have wheel clearence ended up cutting this nib off the nuckle and its ben fine also integra lower control arms are longer and space it out a lil more just some things to be aware of

 

you might check clearance between the lower control arm and the brake rotor. Mine was hitting going around corners and over bumps. I had to modify the lca for clearance (grind the end a bit) but that solved it for me. good luck