norcalz28

iTrader: (13)

Hey guys. I want to know what you all think. I have always wanted to throw tubular arms in the front, but after considering the price, and the fact that my car will be mostly street driven with some very light track use, I am leaning towards just rebuilding the stock arms with new poly bushings and new ball joints. Any opinions? Aside from the nice clean look, I really can't justify the 400+ dollars vs. the less than 75 to rebuild the stock units. Please reply with your thoughts on the matter. Thanks guys

Will

Tidbit

You are not going to gain any noticiable benefit on a car without extesive other modifications done also. he advantage to tubular arms is better geometry and mainly lightness, but the better geometry part comes into play with the use of rodends which require coilovers and that opens up a whole another can of wroms on a 3rd gen. Any weight savings in unsprung weight is good, but it takes a whole combination of exotic very expensive lightweight but very strong parts to make a difference in hundreths or even tenths maybe on a race course. Driopping the frist 3 seconds is inexpensive, dropping the next one second cost probably 5 times as much as the first 3 seconds.- How far are you willing to go? Just change the bushing in the safe tried and true arms you now have- they work, and the new bushings will give you the same exact feel as a chnage to no coilover tubular A-arms would. I could change just your bushing and put your old arms back into there (but tell you I put tubular ones in there) and you would tell absolutely no difference as if I did put tubular ones in there for you. You drop maybe 1lb of unsprung weight on each side- thats unnoticible. You need at least about 5-8 to feel a ride difference from my experience on these cars. One simple change to 18" rims and wider to 9.5" will increase that unsprung weeight right back up to + aprox 8-10 lbs on each side- the change would be useless in this example (so you can see how changes are relevant to what your overall goals may be- everyone has different dreams and ideas- you know yours and need to decide for yourself if you intend to do what esle it takes to render these arms worth wile and ALSO weight the safety of which ones you choose. I feel personally that Spohn makes a great product strength wise, but the conventional arms he sells are not really any advantage over stock ones unless you have built an extreme car where every pound counts ratio wise.

ALLTEC-Z

Well put Tidbit! Basically, unless you plan on motor crossing or draging like nuts you can just rebuild your current A-arm. Hows its condition? stock control arms do wear out from flexing. If its in good condition, just rebuild. (Ball joint & poly bushings)

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i run a tubular kmember and stock a-arms since they are so light already. Just put in quality moog balljoins and poly bushings and went about my business like normal. They can't save 10 pounds of weight since each arm probably weighs that much maybe.

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

JamesC

CrazyHawaiian

Here is my take: If you got some money burning a hole in your pocket then go for it. If you want bang for the buck rebuild the stock ones.

Dr G

To be perfectly honest, speaking as someone who has the tubular Spohn A-arms installed, I would say get them if money is no object and you want great looking A-arms. However, if money is an issue at all then simply weld/box the stock A-arms, paint or powder them, then install new poly bushes and ball joints. In some ways I wish I'd done the latter option.

Viprklr

iTrader: (5)

I agree with everyone. I also have the Spohn tubulars. I had to get them though since one of my stockers was bent and the K-member where it mounts was cracked 75% through.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

Welding (boxing) a brace in the a-arm can help. I haven't done this (yet), but I stole this picture from someone on here.
It adds some strength, and helps keep you from destroying the a-arm when you're putting the new poly bushings in.

Tidbit

Those are my a-arms Sonix.Tidbit= Dean

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

haha, usually I can spot you based on your writing style, but Tidbit didn't jump out at me, so I was ignorant.
Any comments on it then? Do you notice any strength difference? Lack of deflection? Is it worth doing? (or have you found out since you've done it that there has been little gain, sorta thing?)

5678TA

just rebuild.. with drop springs, poly bushings, etc, my car handled like no other.. but the other was only an 03 s-10 extreme..

rik89gta

I just rebuilt and repainted my stock a arms gloss black. I used all energy suspension bushings and moog ball joints. The car is nowhere near running but at least everything went back together easy and looks good. I cut my front springs almost a full coil (front end sat like an SUV) and installed Lakewood 70/10 front struts as well. I thought about the tubular a arms myself, but I just couldn't justify spending 400 dollars on a stock suspension style car.

Oh yeah, thanks again for the good deal on the slotted brakes.... They are working out really well for me!