Seeing I took out my original at one time to powdercoat it. Here is the gist of required tools: breaker bar(longer the better), hand torch( to heat up stubborn stock k member bolts. Basic dissasembly. A cherry picker to just hang the motor if its still in the car. If your **** niw is the time to address the frame where it bolts up, remove any rust and recoat. Your going to want to search in this forum my user name a thread I posted in a link to reinstall the coil springs which I personally think are the biggest pita of the whole process. Hope this helps

 

Seeing I took out my original at one time to powdercoat it. Here is the gist of required tools: breaker bar(longer the better), hand torch( to heat up stubborn stock k member bolts. Basic dissasembly. A cherry picker to just hang the motor if its still in the car. If your **** niw is the time to address the frame where it bolts up, remove any rust and recoat. Your going to want to search in this forum my user name a thread I posted in a link to reinstall the coil springs which I personally think are the biggest pita of the whole process. Hope this helps

 

There will be installation instructions included but we only givie you a quick run down of the swap. It would definitely be a good idea to do some research if you aren't familiar with the swap. There is some pictures found in the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...1448642&type=3

Thanks!

 

++ anyone have an answer for these questions..

Any diff. on the main tube under the pan? how far forward is it away from the exh. crossover.

 

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to remove the K member. The K member is held by 3 bolts on each side that are easily accessible once the springs are out. They broke free with a 24" breaker bar and minimal effort, no heat. The hardest part for me was removing the rusted on cotter pins, I just used a cut off wheel. I didn't need a torch or breaker bar, I have them and didn't need them. I removed the K member with the A arms attached, just put a jack under the K member and slowly loosen all 6 bolts a little at a time. I highly suggest installing all new steering components at this time since they are already off.

 

On my application the main cross over tube looks to sit a little further away from the pan, not much really. I believe the Spohn K member tube gives a little more oil pan clearance but your trade off is ground clearance. My car will sit lower than stock so I think I made the wiser decision, but everybody has different cars and wants. I will try to get a measurement and a better pic.

 

I need to know how far forward of the exh. Crossover. Not how low from oil pan.

 

Our k-member offers more room than the factory k-member for exhaust clearance. Maybe this picture below will help?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=3&theater

 

My brother and I are building an 87 coupe for playing around in the autocross...we are debating on the k member swap from UMI...I am curious as to what challenges you came across installing it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'd like to know when someone is going to finely put together a power rack package (k member,arms,rack, and spindel) that has a proper turn radius, that is'nt pieced together from half a dozen different companies?

 

Took two pictures that may help understand clearance involving the exhaust crossover, k member and oil pan. My exhaust crossover is a piece made by an exhaust shop and my oil pan is aluminum with fins so your results may be different. The oil pan to K-member clearance is one inch on mine, probably 1.25" if my pan had no fins. The exhaust pipe to K Member is 2.5", probably 2.75" without the fins. The exhaust pipe is 2.65 or so OD. I also have run of the mill rubber engine/motor mounts.

Also wanted to mention that on one of the pictures you can see that there is an unclipped zip tie and wire loom that ends before the wires even get to the starter. This is because when I put the new wire harness in for MegaSquirt I could not reach my hands (let alone some wire cutters) in there to cut the wire or advance the wire loom. The stock K member would not allow me to because there wasn't enough room. You can easily see how much room there is now. I can finally fix the wires and clean the oil pan from my old leaking valve cover gasket!

Also wanted to mention that the two cross over tubes are not at the same heights, the front is lower than the rear. I wish it was the other way around or the rear tube was as low since it would have given more clearance. Still, a great product though!

 

There really are no challenges for replacing a K member unless your bolts or cotter pins are rusted in place. It is time consuming, from start to finish with an assistant I would set aside an entire day. Get a spring compressor and a ball joint removal tool, maybe a cut off wheel and have at it!

What part of Chicago are you? I'm lucky enough to live out in the further west suburbs.

 

perfect pic's THANKS !!

looks like they added a 2nd hoop for the roadrace kmember. vs the drag race kmember.
I'll have to loop up what size tube they used and calculate from there if its in the way or not.

Thanks again. Perfect pic's

 

You want me to measure something for you? Just ask.

 

Na , Im sure umi has what size tubing they use on the site.
If anything I'll have to tweek the crossover a little or notch the extra tube a little and box it in.

Thanks
Chris

 

Tibo, can you take a shot from the front of k member to see what kind of room you have from pan bottom to k member? What mm are you running? Rubber or poly? Thank you

 

Using rubber motor mounts. I'll see if I can get a direct head on shot, my pulleys and fan may prevent a good picture.

 

If you cannot no big deal. My pan has an extension not only on the sump but partway on the rest . So it is close to my factory k. Since yours has fins it may be simaler in depth in that location as well. Was the space between the fins and factory k smaller or bigger when you swapped over to umis piece? To me from pics it looks like you have mpre room to the main hoop on the umi member which is what im looking for. Thank you for any info you can give.. Take care

 

Does this help? I tried a couple but this one seemed the best...

 

As a side note, the spring perches have a slight angle on them and need to be installed so that they are angled outward, not inward.

 

Tibo, why can they be angled either way? I just spent all day taking out my factory stuff, motor and all. Will be pepping and painting on the fram where the k member will sit. So in the next few days ill be getting this in. Thanks for the tip btw.

 

The A arm is on a hinge joint which means that the spring seat of the A arm will move on a semicircular arc. The spring seat is about the same angle as the A arm, so any movement of the A arm will cause the spring seat to move at the same angle. The spring seat therefore needs to be perpendicular to that semi circular arc. Angling the perch inward will not allow that to happen. Take a look at your car and you may understand it better.

 

Tibo, but stock has no adjustment like this. Why is it different on this k? Is the design different?

 

This doesn't have adjustment either, well nearly 0 adjustment. You just have to bolt the spring perch in because you could use this K member with standard stock style spring setup or a coil over setup that wouldn't need it.

 

Okay been along time since i bought this. Installing it today. Tibo can you post pics of the spring perches? Just want to clarify how they install angled outward. Sorry for the loooong delay. Long stry short pulled the 355, built a 421.

 

I'll look through some pics and see what I have. I believe that there was a picture at the UMI website to, though I had to zoom in to tell.

 

Just installed a UMI LSx kmember and was wondering about the spring perches aswell. I assumed both perches were the same, and that the end with the gussets was to be pointed towards the rear. My perches seem to be pointed inward though. Guessing the perches are side specific.

Gusset shown in first pic:

 

The spring perches are indeed side specific. They need to be installed so that they point outward as opposed to inward.

 

Appreciate the help.

 

it was not a k-member it was the tubular a-arms. It broke on the tube, not a weld. They got their money back and bought a k-member and new a-arms from aje i believe. Never saw online how everything fit or handled.

 

Hmm that doesnt seem to be the way the picture shows in umi's instructions?? I have mine like yours, which seems slanted in somewhat which did seem odd to me but i followed the pics

 

One of the ways it slants inward more than the other, you want the way that slants it inwards the least amount.

 

I havent installed any of the front suspension yet but looking at UMI's website picture it shows it slanted towards the outside. After switching them around it seems to look allot more like UMI's picture.

 

Bingo!

 

Revisiting the upper spring perches. I just got my engine and trans set in the car and the car sits like a monster truck. I jumped on the nose a few times and car came down about an inch or so but still has a 4-5" front lift.

I know it needs to settle in and the springs arent quite indexed at the umi a arm stops, but looking at the angle of the upper mounts vs lower pockets, i am not sure the tops are suppose to be angled outward on each side.

I have a pic but havent uploaded it yet. Basically looking at the spring assembly, the lower pocket slants towards the wheel side. Meaning, the part of the lower spring pocket thats closest to the engine sits higher than the side of the wheel. To match that angle up top, you have to have the upper mounts slanted IN towards the motor. I have mine outward because of what was said above.

Anyone from UMI able to comment on correct geometry? For future sales can you include left and right specifics?

 

Although I dont have everything in as of now. But I examined the perches and swapping them from your install they dont angle much towards the motor they are almost parralell with the frame just a slight pitch towards the motor. I think thats how they install, because unloaded when you push the a arm up its a straight shot to the perches. Angling them outward doesnt look right when you work the a arms up amd down. Umi could you chime in as the instructions do not mention which way they go on.

 

Maybe ypu have them on right. I just looked at the upper pics...

 

There was only one way that I could install the spring perches and still install the spring. That is also the only way that made functional sense to me. The perches are side specific and and also had a specific mounting direction. If they aren't working for you the same way it's possible that one of our assemblies was "off" or one of our vehicles frame has moved from factory. At this point I agree that a clear explanation from UMI is needed.

 

I had springs installed with perches set in both directions, but never had car on ground with the first way i did it. I saw your post and it made sense in a way that the perches being out would go with spring direction at the A-arm once compressed but after seeing it on ground with weight, it looks awkward. Like its buckling the spring outward towards the wheel because its being compressed the most on the inner edges and not equally

 

I hope Im not going to have issues with mine. Alot of money and time involved here....Umi imput would quell some concerns..

 

The upper spring perches angle outward (engine side lower than fender side). You can see the natural angle of things in this photo:



Here is our test car with a 1" lowering spring. As you can see, the rear was pretty low so we trimmed 1/2 coil and now the car sits perfectly. Photo is before trimming:



The angle of the upper spring perch is an exact blueprint transferred to our jig from a factory k-member. The lower arm is the same in that we blueprinted a factory arm to get the inner pickup points, ball joint and spring bucket locations.

ramey

 

Ok that seems right. But on mine I run a sway bar and it seems to rub up against bumpstop. I heard the hotchkis lowering springs are taller going in than factory ones but with less lbs over all.

 

Hotchkis (or most other lowering springs) are shorter and a higher rate than the tall, soft factory springs.

The sway shouldn't interfere at all with the bump stop.

 

Well its good to know i have my spring perches in correctly now but boy does my car sit high. I know things need to settle but 4-5" of drop from settling? Seems excessive. I shouldnt have to cut any coils

 

Its not possible to raise the car 4 or 5 inches with a small adjustment at the spring. Something else is stlil bound or not settled yet.

 

I got it to drop another 2" or so but still sitting about 2" higher than it used to. I will keep moving it around and hope it drops in finally.

I got bigger issues. Cant get motor mounts on engine to line up with umi solid mounts on the k member. Trans lines up, passenger side is in but driver side is a good 3/4" off.

 

orr which side did you put the gusseted spring perches towards? Does the longer arm poimts towars the front of the car?

 

Well Im officially humbled. I thought when you guys were saying side specific you meant side specific the way the gussets went , not pass / drivers side. Just swapped them and now it def looks correct. Thanks

 

Yeah side specific in driver vs pass side. I have mine slanted outward toward wheels and it looks ok. Eventually figured out my engine mount issue and got motor back in car. But havent gotten it back on the ground to work springs in and settle down. It sat high on first try. Will keep you posted

 

I would love to see some pictures and how long was the installation time start to finish