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I will preface this post with the first BIG fact. I purchased these a-arms in April of 2007. Never installed them until about 2 weeks ago (August 2017) so these are 10 years old and spent all but the last 2 weeks in a box because of life (house, economy, jobs, moving etc etc)
As I am now in a good spot in life to start throwing money at cars again I installed these arms and a k-member.
Long story short, I took the car to get aligned and it couldn't be done. Not only that, the front tires were badly contacting the fender/ground effectts in front of the door. Previously the tires would barely rub on the front inner fender liner plastic.
Got the car back home very slowly and pulled the Spohn chromoly tubular a-arm for coil overs off and laid it over the stock control arm.
Crap, the balljoint is 3/4" farther rearward than the stock a-arm ball joint. Well that explains that.
Called Spohn and explained the situation, was told I would get a call back as the gentlemen on the phone would have to ask a higher up.
To Spohns credit, they called me back the next day. I was told since the arms were too old and that nothing could be done. I was also told that Spohn is having a sale in November.
Really?! Holy crap I know it was 10 years but a little help would have been nice. I have a Spohn torque arm, trans cross member and front and rear coil overs, LS swap engine mounts and wonder bar. That's over $2700 I've spent with them.
Would have been happy with "well send you a new set if you pay the price difference from old to new" or "sorry, here's a coupon you can use now so you don't have to wait until November."
us guys/gals who purchased spohns parts..it would not matter if you just got the parts last week..you are stuck with them..they will give you Nothing!.. the nice thing is you lost the money 10 years ago....so the sting is almost gone....put them up for sale.like we all do.. and move on...
sphon K member
sphon A arms 3 diff sets. all diff styles (DID Keep one set of A arms) Fully adjustable so they can be made to work
sphon Coil overs
sphon Cross member
all new in box test fit only! and dumped on the market for $150 less then I paid..(Junk in my book)
replaced with UMI K member and founders/Viking coil overs.. there are a lot better made parts out there...
Last edited by articwhiteZ; 08-24-2017 at 07:49 PM.
....put them up for sale.like we all do.. and move on...
If those parts are truly made wrong and unsuitable for use , as the pictures do appear to show , why would you want to sell them to someone else whose car they also will not work properly on ? Wouldn't the right thing to do be to throw them in the scrap metal bin so another third gen owner won't have to go through the PIA of installing , and then having to replace them when they throw his steering geometry off ?
they fit and work with small wheels and tires... as sphon will tell you..they will also tell you.. they don't make junk..and after 10 years of them for sale in the market place..and still selling parts/IN BISS..its buyer beware!!
some guys don't mind if parts fit so so....some guys will even buy used parts...
all one has to do is.. RESEARCH.
remember...some guys will be ok with spohne parts..after all sphon is selling the parts!! nothing is diff from 10 years ago till today! they still sell the same off spec junk....nothing new!
I sold my sphon stuff 2 years ago...so I know they still sell the same old off spec crap...it was snatched up with in a few hrs of posting...so some guys love that stuff...post it for a few dollars off and it will fly off to a new home..
some of there parts are not bad... steel plates / bolts..
Last edited by articwhiteZ; 08-24-2017 at 11:18 PM.
Thank You ArticWhiteZ , I appreciate your answer .
So , this is a case of the manufacturer being OK with the 3/4" difference since the difference works with smaller (presumably factory) tires but causes larger tires to rub , correct ?
If so , they are darned lucky they sell automotive parts and not parts for aircraft , which have "no matter what" tolerances of thousandths of an inch with absolutely no deviation allowed . Were the Spohn company mine to run I do believe I'd have corrected* that 3/4" on the very next production run after I was made aware that there is a 3/4" deviation from stock , for legal if not moral reasons . Let's say for instance one of those 3/4" wrong arms was to snap , with "factory size" tires on the car resulting in a horrific accident involving much litigation . It then comes out in the litigation that the component did not meet the factory specifications for size and that the manufacturer of the product was plainly aware that there was this 3/4" deficiency (as evidenced by the discussion here , among others) and chose to ignore rather than to rectify the incorrect manufacturing of the component . It would then be argued that the 3/4" deficiency caused abnormal loading of the suspension due to the altered geometry , and that putting this excessive loading on the component lead to it's failure . That manufacturer would almost 100% certainly be held liable for the incident !
That covers the legal reason and of course the moral reason would be that if folks are spending lots of good money on a product I'm making you can bet your Butt I'm gonna want that product to be better than the original in ALL regards , and the 3/4" thing just blows that right out of the water .
In closing , I guess it's one of those "the cult of the name" things that keeps folks buying these parts ? I wouldn't personally care if these things were manufactured by the most respected name in all of the automotive aftermarket world , if they are dimensionally incorrect they have no place on my (or shouldn't be on anyone else's either) car no matter how many folks worship the name Spohn .......
* "corrected" includes recalling ALL of the 3/4" wrong components and replacing them free of charge with ones that have the proper dimensions .
Last edited by OrangeBird; 08-25-2017 at 10:21 AM.
Its a shame but Spohns customer service is awful and this is/was a common issue. The k member/a arms have been a mess from.day one and they will never admit fault. Its always your problem, your car was wrecked ECT. Its a load of bs really.
I have Spohn A-Arms on my car. I had to cut out the inner spring retention bars out to make any of the spring sets I have work. Stupid design there in my book. Also have their wonder bar, and sway bar spherical end links. No problems there. Their 36mm front sway bar bushing really grind my gears. They are 34mm honed out to 36mm, and guess what? One wont fully close. Gonna have to sand it down or something. They have nice brackets though so willing to work with it. I recently picked up Spohn adjustable LCAs, and 2 torque arms for both my cars. One I ordered new with all the bells, and whistles. Even with 2 drive shaft loops, because race car. But man I hope they work well.
Also I forgot to mention The A-Arms DO LOWER YOUR CAR, they are full of it when they claim they do not. Car was sitting so low with OEM ws6 springs that it was almost hitting the ground. Which I suppose is a good thing if you are building a lowered car. I picked up a set of ground control weight jacks so I can get the right exact ride height I want.
Last edited by t/aws61985; 08-25-2017 at 06:52 PM.
take there K member..one design FITS ALL...not so much!!
they take and cut chunks out of there tube to fit the tie rods...LMAO..and if you drive your car..you will get the rods hitting the K member... CLUNK..CLUNK...
Thanks for the posts all. I am always leary of selling f'd up parts as even if you boldly state they are incorrect or defective, sometimes folks just see the name and price and jump the gun only to realize it wasn't what they thought it was (I've done it myself!).
I will be moving from Spohn (and already have) to another supplier of parts.
Their trans cross member and torque are setup is sub part as well. I have been fighting those parts since day one. I usually try not to just blame someone else right off the bat though. Sometimes the car is off (accident, previous owner, building tolerance etc) and you combine that with aftermarket and things don't always work out. That I fully understand and is what comes with the game of "customizing" your world.
If anyone is interested in the A-arms for a few bucks, let me know as I will not be using them... I should warn you, they aren't built to stock dimensions!
In a few more months I'll have a t-56 trans cross member with torque arm mount of Spohns for sale, too. Doesn't fit long tubes and 3" y-pipe for poop so I will be constructing my own.
I will have to say my Spohn A Arms and Bump Steer kit has worked out well. I did not take any measurements, but seemed like proper fitment. Please take a look and judge for yourself. Installed on a 1985 IROC. Running 245-50-16's.
It's possible the older a-arms would work out with a Spohn k-member. I hope for everyone's sake they fixed the issue since they no longer offer the style pictured above.
For reference, I am running 275/40R17 (stock 4th gen SS wheels and tires).
Funny thing is the newer spohn a-arms look alot more like the UMI design & much less like the older style pictured above.Which seem to be the ones people complain about in previous post.Who copied who, I wonder?
its wheel set back that been the issue..as of jan 2017 all the spohn none adjustable A arms made.. still have the same issues...the new ones are nice...but there rep sucks...so there ya go..
Last edited by articwhiteZ; 09-01-2017 at 09:53 PM.
Hey polo-94, can you elaborate on what issues you've dealt with the spohn torque arm? Also, what rear end/torque arm are you running? I am strongly considering the spohn pro-series for my T5 even though I am leery of the company, but I really like the design. I've read countless threads on the arm hitting some of the sheetmetal when used with a 9" end and too short of a bolt on the thrustator, but interested to hear your trials with it.
Keep in mind, I do not claim to be a suspension (or geometric) expert.
My setup is the Spohn double adjustable torque arm (adjust at lower pinion and at trans xmember mount). Ford 9" rear, T56, torque arm is xmember mounted (duh, right.)
You are correct on the contact of the suspension to the body, the bulky torque arm to 9" bracket has made a very good size hump in the sheet metal... sad really.
The issues I have:
Contact to body: stock ride height, I can only imagine lowered, plus next item.
Rear wheel not centered in wheel well. Axle is rearward about 0.75" or so. Not torque arm caused but leads too...
Front torque arm mount is too far forward over trans xmember mount, next...
Ran out of pinion angle adjustment on the arm.
I think the arm is too long, and if I centered the rear axle would make that even worse.
This is all their own parts not working together.
With that being said, I plan to make my own trans xmember to deal with headers/exhaust and will correct all these issues then since I will be able to move the rear axle with my adjustable rear lower control arms, recenter the front torque arm mount and gain my pinion adjustment back.
The joy of modifications and aftermarket!
I have been much more pleased with my UMI parts, of course I don't promote, that is merely my opinion.
I appreciate the feedback Polo-94Z28. That really does sound like a big headache. You get the bad with the good when it comes to modding cars thats for sure! I'll have to think about if the risk/reward is worth pulling the trigger on the spohn arm, because once I buy it I'm stuck with it and making it work.
I like that theres no poly or rubber bushings anywhere on it and can live with "making clearance" to the sheet metal, but not being centered in the wheel well I'm not okay with. I'm a stock rear end and T5, but I'm also lowered 2"-ish in the rear, so who knows how it'll fit.
UMI does make some great products. If I dont go spohn I will go definitely go with UMI's torque arm and relocation crossmember.
08-24-2017, 05:55 PM
If those parts are truly made wrong and unsuitable for use , as the pictures do appear to show , why would you want to sell them to someone else whose car they also will not work properly on ? Wouldn't the right thing to do be to throw them in the scrap metal bin so another third gen owner won't have to go through the PIA of installing , and then having to replace them when they throw his steering geometry off ? 
Thank You ArticWhiteZ , I appreciate your answer . 
