I am looking to get a tubular K-Member for my 3rd Gen. I plan to autox and drive my car on the street. I have been told not to go with a tubular K-member on a street driven car because of the possibility of cracking from hitting pot holes and other obsticals. So I am wondering if I go thru the expence of getting a full tubular front end or just get coil overs and tubular a-arms.

Thanks in advance.

 

Call UMI, I dont think they have theire finalized yet, but some interest may spur things along. They make a "road race' version for fourth gens and in the past ryan has stated he planned on doing one for us third genners

 

That would be awesome if they make one for third gens. All of the guys on ls1tech say that umi makes the only strong one.

 

I've never heard that. I plan on getting a tubular k-member and a-arms when I get to do an LS1 swap. Hopefully UMI will have theirs with the LS1 conversion mounts then.

 

Tubular is fine as long as it's built properly. - Most aftermarket units are designed more for straight line use, thus aren't really strong enough for continual side loading.

 

Just a FYI, all the available tubular subframes and A-arms on the market for 3rd gen's do NOT change the geometry of the front suspension and therefore will not do anything for handling. They also only remove a small amount of weight.

You can save the same amount of weight by going to a smaller battery, or swapping on some aluminum parts on your engine.

This should be the last modification you should consider for auto-x.

 

- but it does allow a lot more access around the engine.

 

Don't buy a spohn k member.

 

Care to say why.

 

i'm interested too... the delay time and overall reponse on this site has made me lean towards either bmr or aje. i already had a pa chromoly, worked great for me. just sold it on ebay actually. it was coilover, however i'd like to try something new. i called umi. no plans for one anytime soon so that means maybe next year if were lucky. i'll order another pa at that rate.

 

Hi Jeff,

I didn't say we had no plans for a 82-92 K-Member. My exact words were we have been working on it for sometime now but it is not completed yet and we hop to have it released in the near future. This isn't item you want to rush.

Thank you,
Ryan

 

Because it was suppose to take four months to get. It took six. Week after week of excuse, lies, waiting. I think spohn makes a great product. I just wouldn't buy a k member from him.

 

I like my AJE kmember a lot, but I would weld on extra gussets if you're going to road race it, but by then it won't save much weight. So unless you're running exotic exhaust configs, money could be spent elsewhere.

 

Ok, so pardon my ignorance for asking, but if a tubular k-member does absolutely NOTHING for handling, then what is the goal of slending so much money on something like this. I have been looking onto getting the Spohn TKM but now I am having doubts. I was under the assumption that it would help handling a lot along with all all of the other spohn components. ( planned to do a complete Spohn makeover underieth the car). Is this a good idea or should I now consider somebody else that might be cheaper. I was under the impression that spohn was some high quality ****. Maybe I was wrong.

 

Weight and room for mods. I know a 4th gen guy that used one to put in a 3400 boosted FWD motor and was able to lower the engine another 1.5-2". If you wanted to use true duals or huge down/y pipes it makes life a little easier.

 

They also make life easier for swapping a LS1 into a 3rd gen.

 

Are you going to be looking at side loading considerations in the K-member? I also want to end up doing some auto-x with my 89' TA and was looking into K-members both for extra space for exhaust and for better suspension response...

 

yup... and they leave alot of room for a turbo setup.

 

im getting a tubuler k-member for the fact that it will make my bbc swap a little easier especially on trying to run the exhaust. from what i hear weight is not a reason to buy a tubular k.

 

UMI makes products of equal quality to Spohn, and UMI does group purchases that save you $$$$$$$, whereas Spohn will not do group purchase discounts. I think the current UMI group purchase ends today. So start saving up for the next one. Just my

UMI also has awesome customer service

 

I have driven 2000 miles on my PA racing one I got off ebay and it looks great. I was able to install my 2210 long tubes in about 30 miuntes. Also spark plug changes take me about 45 now!!

Oh and yes it is a 100% street car. I also have tubeular A-arms. go to my CD site if you wanna see what my "street" setup looks like

 

Also the fit sucks, the Steering Linkage hits on both sides, and the motor mount pads are not quite right. See Viperklrs posts about his Spohn K member Woes. Ive had all the same problems.

Also my cars frame is Dead stright.

IROC4LIFE

 

I haven't started putting mine in yet. I am kinda dreading to. I thought maybe I will get a good one. I also thought I would get my K member on time and not have to wait like everyone else. I was wrong about that one. We will see.

 

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

even w/o the cost for many of these items, fitment/structural issues alone remind me why I fabricate things myself.

 

We make that K-member (we have them in stock) and we also have new 2"drop spindles coming for the 3rd and 4th gen. We will have our prototypes at the NMCA race in Memphis this weekend. We will start shipping spindles Nov.5. In the near future we will be concentrating on our new rear suspension products. Look forward to spending some time on this site.

Thanks, Mark

http://www.racecraft.com

 

That looks a lot like my K-member. hard to really see it since it is only 1 pic and it is black, but I have a kinda old PA racing member. Has worked great after 3000 miles of hard street use.

Happy to see more companies making parts for these cars!

 

We will update our camaro section with more picks after we get back from Memphis this weekend. It looks like PA's because we used to private label for them several years ago. Our current K-member is similar, but different mainly in the engine mount and rear buckets.

Mark

http://www.racecraft.com

 

Nice. looking forward to seeing the parts.

 

Will your K member work with aftermarket a arms like sphon?

 

I browsed your site for a while today, I am definitely plannign on buying parts in the future. Cant wait to see what you make for the rear.

 

Yeah, if you guys REALLY wanna stay on the cutting edge and get a market that no other company has, maybe an adj. TQ arm that mounts to a tranny x-member that has clearance for dual pipes. I know of 3 people off the top of my head that would by one and throw away their spohn piece today.

Just a thought.