Modify stock A arms for caster

[RJ Squirrel]

Tacked the short side, and called it a day!

 

[R/T]

i lov it.

Don't b a victim, create your own reality....

 

[RJ Squirrel]

That is a nice setup you have BeepBeep I bet it handles nice, what caster are you running? I think I will drop my lower ball joints too after I get my caster situation worked out.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Finished tacking one together and mocked it up on the car yesterday. Set for full caster it is at 8 degrees, so once adjusted for camber I should be able to get around 6 degrees easily.

 

[Kern Dog]

I'd like to see the welds and if you could, take some measurements.
If you would measure from the centerlines of the bushings to the Zerk fitting on the upper ball joint, that would help.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Just completed a lengthy test drive oh man what a difference. Here are some pics of the new arms. I added 1/8 angle doublers top and bottom to the
repaired areas. spent a lot of time welding a little at a time and keeping things cooled down as much as possible using heat sinks.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Layed driver side on its back for this sketch, out to out on the bushings and center of grease zerk. It also works as left or right arms. If I somehow had arms that were built backwards from the factory, that would explain what was wrong. If simply switching sides would work I could have done that.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

I did the alignment up on the lift with high horses holding the LCAs at ride height, torsion bars unloaded of course. Magnetic laser pointers on the rotors and a digital level. I can post some pictures of that if anyone is interested. I set it at 3* caster .5 camber and 1/8 toe. Drives great.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

All witnessed and verified by Lenard dog himself.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Oh and also needed the rear axle shimmed to square it up- that was contributing to the problem.

 

[Kern Dog]

PLEASE go back and use an actual steel or aluminum plate as a spacer for the leaf spring, not a stack of washers.
I couldn't make out what the differences were between the stock UCAs and the modifications. I'm guessing you added to the front sections and took some out of the rear sections? The picture shows a difference of 1 1/4" rearward of the upper ball joint, right? That is great but it would help to know how much to modify to get there.
I'm happy to see that this worked for you.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Yes I moved ball joint aft 1 1/4". Cut out 1/2" on aft leg and added 3/4" to forward leg roughly, ground a little to fit. Making proper spring hanger spacer now after the successful test drive.

 

[Kern Dog]

This is great. I had the same idea several months back but didn't follow through with it.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

I did my alignment over today and cranked the caster up to 5 1/2 degrees. Love it, self driving car, Elon would be proud.