I talked with him back in 06 and they said the K was right around the corner lol.

 

yup. Its the elusive unicorn

 

Gentlemen,

I started a thread for a "petition" for the UMI K member here

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...-petition.html

UMI chimed in and said they have a designer back on the K member project and should have some pics in the next 1-2 weeks.

Feel free to "sign" the "petition" I am holding out for a UMI K member for my LS1 swap. If not, I ll just use my stocker in the meantime.

 

Yes, the K-member is almost completed and I will be posting some pictures next week.

If anyone is attending the Fall Carlisle swap meet next week we will have one there to show as well.

Thanks!
Ryan

 

I'm looking foreword to this!

 

So, when will the non ls1 k-member be ready?

Early spring?

 

Why there be 2 different K-members? The smart way to build would be just 1 design & the buyer chooses to put on standard SBC motor mounts or LS1 motor mounts adapters (like you use for a LS1 to stock crossmember) on.

 

If i'm not mistaken that's what they are doing.. One k-member with either SBC or LS mounts.. Awesome idea by the way for the people wanting to one day swap in an LS engine.

 

UMI said they were coming out with the LS1 k-member first.

 

This is what was posted by UMI in response to a guy asking if they would make duramax motor mounts for their k'member:

"Unfortunately the K-member at this time will only be available with standard motor mounts and LS1 motor mounts. Sorry I couldn't help."

I understood that as it having SBC and LS1 motor mounts?

 

I, personally, wouldn't buy a LS or SBC specific crossmember. I'd rather buy the "basic" SBC crossmember & put on the bolt-on LS adapter brackets if I chose to go LS.

What happens if you drop in a LS, it blows & you have a LS-specific crossmember? You couldn't toss in a SBC just to get to going temporarily if needed. Or if you (or the next buyer of your car IF you sell it) ever wanted to go BBC, you couldn't with a welded up LS-specific crossmember.

Universal crossmember + motor mount adapters = win-win for everyone for all time.

 

Exactly! That would actually sell alot more for them!

 

The K-member will be the same and the motor mounts will be bolt on, so you can switch mounts or buy the k-member and choose what mounts you want.

We have done the same thing with the spring perches. They are bolt on and can be purchased separate.

The one completed now is standard SBC motor mount pads. Next we need to build the LSX mounts next to bolt to the K-member.

I hope that helps,
Ryan

 

Good news, except for the spring perches.. I would think those need to be welded on to be strong enough for street or hard cornering abuse :s

 

What portion of the K-member could/would be modified for springs? Unless somebody is running coilovers, the spring pocket isn't an issue, right? Shouldn't the spring pocket on the K-member always just be the same? Use it for standard springs or not for coilovers. I don't see the benefit of losing the spring pocket, even in coilover cars.

 

I guess what they're doing is that they're going to make it removable so that people can take it off if ever they install coil-overs (less weight on the k-member is the only reason to do this).

My question about durability still troubles me.

 

its like what bmr does, the upper spring perch is removable. After everything is sandwiched and bolted into the car, there is no place for the perch to move, its BOLTED IN, and resting against the frame, so i dont see any issues with strength. FWIW, if it bothers you so much, you can always just weld it on...

This is actually good news for me, since i would be adding weight jack plates to the pockets, and iif they are removable, that makes re-coating easier.

im looking forward to seeing these. There is a chance i will be at the carlisle swap meet, so maybe i can check it out there, and when nobody is looking, run away with it

 

some people are weight ****'s, and the extra couple pounds of metal removed for the spring perches will make them happy....

 

Ballpark price?

 

i dont understand why the a arms wouldnt be good for the street? i stay in the ohio valley so there 5 toilet loads of pot holes and i dont want to buy something that would brake so easy what is the plan for road racing a arms they would take some hard beating but would it hold out

 

Street racing a-arms? Just stay with stock. For your usage, there is no reason to upgrade.

 

even more so, the stock arms will survive that kind of use much better than most aftermarket arms.

 

yup, stamped from a single sheet....no welds that can crack.

 

Not to be a pain, but welds in mild steel don't crack unless there are other problems, but lets face it, the sheet metal that they're pressed out of is thicker than what most aftermarket tubular stuff is made out of, with smooth bends (instead of the hard angles where tubes are welded together), everything about them is stronger.

 

So all that advertisement about the tubular arms being stronger is bull?

 

Stronger is relative. Its quite possible they are stronger with loading, twisting forces and whatnot. However, the question brought up here is durability, not strength. Welds can fail and welding can fatigue/weaken base metals, where failure of a single piece of formed steel is less likely. So it is likely that a tubular will be damaged by impact/loading before a stock piece would.

Im not an engineer, but i dont see any way a part like this could fail under normal circumstances unless them were improperly welded. And if you hit a curb hard enough, you can break anything.

 

Nothing against UMI but why havent they said anything to this? makes me question the a arms .I would like them to tell me how much better there product is to my factory a arm, and prove it. if i was a business thats where i would start

 

Finally, here are a few pictures as promised. Final design will be very similar but please remember this is a proto-type. The final design may contain some more support and some tweaks. Also the motor mounts will have one more hole rather than three as shown.

Price will be around the $500.00 range, close to where everyone else is. Once completed we will be sure to offer an introductory offer or sale.

We have a new Engineer taken over this project, his name is Ramey Womer and you will be seeing him post quite a bit. Ramey is a Mechanical and Industrial Engineer with over 15 years of late model building and racing. He also worked on the Hooters cup team and we are excited to have him aboard.

 

Forums are hard to keep up with, if someone has a direct question regarding our products an e-mail or phone call is best.

I will be glad to help with any questions regarding our A-Arms.

Our A-Arms are designed to be a lighter item that is able to with stand the same abuse, if not more than a factory A-Arm. We have done extensive testing at the track, skid pad and salmon to insure this. Along with the robust tubular design there is a Delrin bushing option, the Delrin bushings are design to offer less friction in the suspension and smoother travel. If you want 100% benefit from the lower A-Arms I do recommend the Delrin bushing option.

If I can help anymore please ask. Thank you!
Ryan

 

thanks ryan i understand its just i want the best for my dollar and best parts for my car will give you a call tommrow to take about opitons and nice k member cant wait to see the final

 

More rigid, maybe, but I'm positive that with repeated impacts (accident, potholes...) they'll break before the factory ones, I'd trust the factory ones to get tweaked eventually where most aftermarket ones would break...

 

So I guess I will just be careful and avoid potholes and curbs as much as I can lol.. I trust myself enough to do this and be vigilant while driving, but that is just me.

 

any new news on the k member UMI

 

The k-member jig is progressing. The jig base is complete and the prototype is being tweaked and massaged as we speak. Our goal is to have the prototype on the '89 IROC by the end of next week.

This is the number one project in-house at the moment for Jerry, our senior technician...

ramey

 

any new news on k members are you giving any dates to when they will be ready for order and would like to knw the options

 

Hey iroc zseven. The k-member is going in the car today for final fitment and beta testing (that means we're going to go out and hammer it). It fits with stock manifolds of course and we're bolting headers on today to check that aspect.

Check our website during the Thanksgiving sale for details on pre-order. The first ones of the line will be for standard SBC mounts with LSx mounts soon to follow. Also, the first one will be street/strip/auto-x with road race version after that.

Here's what one customer had to say about our 4th gen K-member: http://www.umiperformance.com/news/?p=373

more soon

ramey

 

Like Ramey mentioned it is very close to being released. We will be releasing the K-member at the end of next week during the Holiday weekend.

Stay tuned!

 

Will the K-member have interchangeable mounts for LSx/SBC. Or are there going to be two separate K-members? I glanced through the thread but didn't see an answer, its possible I missed it if it was there though.

 

In the thread I started, Ryan posted that the K would be same for both with interchangeable mounts. Also was posted earlier in this thread.

I'm ready for this to be released. Engine is waiting to be installed for mockup of harness and all

 

Happy Dance.

Thats the one thing that has kept me away from them. The thought that when I switch to a Gen 3 enigne any K-member I buy would be worthless.

 

Hey guys. You will only need one k-member and any mounts we release will be bolt-in...

 

That's awesome! Can't wait for the road race version... You should do an introductory price plus offer a package deal with your new style a-arms (I have the old style but am willing to upgrade if the price is right!)

 

Do you have a weight comparison between the stock k mamber and your tubular version?

 

Hey Johnny.

The factory weighs in at 43.6 and the prototype has varied between 24 and 26 with final weight to be determined. The road race version (a few months out) will of course be a bit heavier due to the extra bracing.

Our product announcement will reveal the final weight we end up with.

Thanks

ramey

 

Thanks. Good to hear about a road race version, I would be more interested in that.

 

We are getting close everyone, we appreciate the feedback and patience.

Here is a picture of our last install with a UMI K-member and A-arms... notice the wheel is nice and centered. Don't mind the mud... it has been raining all week here.

Motor mounts will be bolt on like Ramey mentioned, LSX mounts are next.

 

Looks like good progress to me! Can't wait to see how it looks from the engine bay and from the underside with the car on a lift.

 

The K-member IROC just did a burnout up the street in front of the shop. No air under the front tires though.

Oh, and for the street performance guys it just survived a Pennsylvania pothole test.

ramey

 

LOL good to know as Montreal is infamous for potholes!

 

south west ohio as well because of the valley but cant wait for the road version of the k members and the updates