upper control arm hitting body when lowered
10-16-13, 08:02 AM
#16
i knew a retort similar to that was coming justin but again that pic they posted on the website looks like a hacked cut/welding job......and even if they did it with a precise jig as they say cutting and rewelding the knuckle is not the correct way to fix this. remaking a shorter knuckle thats one piece IS the correct way to do this. as i said before, ride at your own risk, i personally will stay away from a "fix" like this
10-16-13, 03:43 PM
#18
Short knuckles are great but they change your camber angle too. If your wheel fitment is already good, your wheels will no longer clear because it will reduce your negative camber. Short knuckle + adjustable UCA is the best but most expensive way to fix this problem.
10-17-13, 10:31 AM
#20
Find the mark where your ball joint is slapping the underside of the car, use a center punch, pop a quick little mark, then use a hole saw and if you are careful you can go through the under portion only and not go through to the engine bay.
10-19-13, 01:46 AM
#21
Hey y'all just giving my two cents. Cutting a hole in your inner fender is both unsightly and unsafe.
The ball joint already reaches maximum misalignment as it hits the upper inner fender, this is as engineered by Toyota. Cutting a hole allows the ball joint to over travel which will not only quickly ruin it, but depending on the severity of the bump, can actually snap the ball joint pin in half. Especially if you're running a NON OEM replacement that doesn't have the strength of the factory Toyota one.
Another important factor is the new breed of full length adjustable coilovers which are usually improperly setup. Shortening the length (to slam the car) to the point in which the bump stop is ABOVE the point of maximum ball joint articulation, effectively now making your ball joint (or the tires on the inner fender) the new bump stop. Imagine the bending stress of approximately 2000lbs on that tiny pin which at its thinnest point is a mere 12mm thick.
Not to mention the mangled geometry with an upper arm at a 60 degree angle regardless if your running a RCA.
As for our knuckles, I know most normal people wouldn't trust nor even need them, but they are a solution to a problem that plagues upper lower a arm front suspension cars. The shortened knuckle used in conjunction with the corresponding RCA corrects the geometry to stock but at a much lower ride height, especially used with our adjustable upper arm.
Unfortunately I didn't get any photos before painting on the knuckle but I can assure you they're legit. The guy that welds them is a certified aerospace TIG welder. That means helicopter and airplane parts that need to be welded properly to ensure people don't die flying hundreds of kilometers an hour in the sky. When I brought him the knuckle to weld, he looked at it and knew exactly what was required to make it as strong as stock. Pre heat, multi pass, and post heat in our jig that has .5mm precision. A full season of abuse on a professional level drift car (and a few daily drivers as well) is our verification of this procedure, not to mention this mod is commonplace on EVERY static VIP car in japan for the past five years.
I guess that was more than two cents, but knowledge is power.
But a hole saw only costs $10 right?
G.
SERIALNINE sedankings.
The ball joint already reaches maximum misalignment as it hits the upper inner fender, this is as engineered by Toyota. Cutting a hole allows the ball joint to over travel which will not only quickly ruin it, but depending on the severity of the bump, can actually snap the ball joint pin in half. Especially if you're running a NON OEM replacement that doesn't have the strength of the factory Toyota one.
Another important factor is the new breed of full length adjustable coilovers which are usually improperly setup. Shortening the length (to slam the car) to the point in which the bump stop is ABOVE the point of maximum ball joint articulation, effectively now making your ball joint (or the tires on the inner fender) the new bump stop. Imagine the bending stress of approximately 2000lbs on that tiny pin which at its thinnest point is a mere 12mm thick.
Not to mention the mangled geometry with an upper arm at a 60 degree angle regardless if your running a RCA.
As for our knuckles, I know most normal people wouldn't trust nor even need them, but they are a solution to a problem that plagues upper lower a arm front suspension cars. The shortened knuckle used in conjunction with the corresponding RCA corrects the geometry to stock but at a much lower ride height, especially used with our adjustable upper arm.
Unfortunately I didn't get any photos before painting on the knuckle but I can assure you they're legit. The guy that welds them is a certified aerospace TIG welder. That means helicopter and airplane parts that need to be welded properly to ensure people don't die flying hundreds of kilometers an hour in the sky. When I brought him the knuckle to weld, he looked at it and knew exactly what was required to make it as strong as stock. Pre heat, multi pass, and post heat in our jig that has .5mm precision. A full season of abuse on a professional level drift car (and a few daily drivers as well) is our verification of this procedure, not to mention this mod is commonplace on EVERY static VIP car in japan for the past five years.
I guess that was more than two cents, but knowledge is power.
But a hole saw only costs $10 right?
G.
SERIALNINE sedankings.
10-21-13, 11:14 AM
#22
As for our knuckles, I know most normal people wouldn't trust nor even need them, but they are a solution to a problem that plagues upper lower a arm front suspension cars. The shortened knuckle used in conjunction with the corresponding RCA corrects the geometry to stock but at a much lower ride height, especially used with our adjustable upper arm.
Unfortunately I didn't get any photos before painting on the knuckle but I can assure you they're legit. The guy that welds them is a certified aerospace TIG welder. That means helicopter and airplane parts that need to be welded properly to ensure people don't die flying hundreds of kilometers an hour in the sky. When I brought him the knuckle to weld, he looked at it and knew exactly what was required to make it as strong as stock. Pre heat, multi pass, and post heat in our jig that has .5mm precision. A full season of abuse on a professional level drift car (and a few daily drivers as well) is our verification of this procedure, not to mention this mod is commonplace on EVERY static VIP car in japan for the past five years.
Unfortunately I didn't get any photos before painting on the knuckle but I can assure you they're legit. The guy that welds them is a certified aerospace TIG welder. That means helicopter and airplane parts that need to be welded properly to ensure people don't die flying hundreds of kilometers an hour in the sky. When I brought him the knuckle to weld, he looked at it and knew exactly what was required to make it as strong as stock. Pre heat, multi pass, and post heat in our jig that has .5mm precision. A full season of abuse on a professional level drift car (and a few daily drivers as well) is our verification of this procedure, not to mention this mod is commonplace on EVERY static VIP car in japan for the past five years.
10-21-13, 10:23 PM
#23
im not knocking you so please dont think i am, im just having a discussion. im not aerospace certified but i am MIG,TIG,ARCH welding certified although i dont use them for my career.....so im sure he's knowledgable but cutting this arm and rewelding it still is not the safest design. i wondered why you didnt make a new arm that was shorter?
Couple of reasons we do this.
1- It is an economical and efficient way to solve a specific problem. For example. My car will have -45mm knuckles and 40mm RCAs because I have enough negative offset to clear it, as well my ride height is literally 2" off the ground. Your car may need -20mm knuckles because you don't have adequate clearance to the ball joint nut and your ride height is 3" lower than stock instead of 5" lower than stock. The needs of people differ from each other and one knuckle cannot fulfill the requirements of every setup.
2- The R&D as well as the initial investment to make a product like this profitable at this stage outweighs the demand. Were still in the stages of trying to convince people that a shorter knuckle is not only an option, but the proper way to do this.
3- IF they were available, they would undoubtedly made in China, and people would then make excuses questioning their quality. We would only sell a quality product that we can stand behind and vouch for 100% to alleviate these concerns.
These three factors alone could possibly leave me with 100 sets of knuckles that were either too long or too short or too expensive or too cheap quality.
4- The quality of the factory Toyota casting is beautiful. Properly cutting and welding a quality part to me is still better than possibly having a substandard part fail in another area NOT associated with the welded portion. Wheel bearing machined surfaces not fitting, brakes squealing due to misaligned machined surfaces, threads pulling out from inconsistent castings ball joint taper incorrect, or straight up breaking where the hub presses in Etc. These are problems the factory knuckles will NEVER have.
5- Lastly, the stresses up near the upper ball joint are much less than where the wheel center is, being almost a foot away and having the fulcrum below the wheel (lower ball joint) displaces quite a lot of force, notice how skinny the upper control arm is. The highest forces this will see are through braking, or from having a mega negative offset wheel with a ton of camber trying to bend it in half
as hard cornering will actually be pulling this outwards solely depending on the available grip of the tire. Our FD car has 265/35-18 Achilles 123 R compound tires just for reference. There are only a handful of people that will ever push their Lexus to the limits this car has seen, and the level of confidence needed to place the car literally millimeters against a wall @ 70mph is immense. Sometimes old school testing is the best way to determine safety.
That is why we CURRENTLY do it this way.
(Sorry my posts are so damn long!)
G.
SERIALNINE sedankings.
12-04-13, 08:09 PM
#24
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I have this problem as well and my hubby was thinking about installing a bumper at the point if contact on the inside if the fender to at least get rid of the terrible noise. Anyone ever tried that?
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