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Lower control arm extension for 240

DrZiplok

Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
After prototyping these (very roughly) in hand-cut and drilled 1/2" steel, I figured I'd get a couple machined up.

sssfZSyl.jpg


Uses a box of Dorman 610-378 wheel studs and corresponding M12x1.25 nuts, plus a suitable bolt from e.g. the set supplied with a new balljoint. A longer tie rod is required; we're using 2000 Ford Focus rods, but others have noted that 940 rods are also suitable.

-3? camber on otherwise stock struts.

Now, it's probable that steel is overkill for this application, but I didn't want to get them made in Aluminium and then discover the hard way that it wasn't up to it...

Happy to share the eMachineShop design file / DXF for anyone that's interested, though in low volume they were not particularly cheap.

edit: Added Fusion 360 drawing and dimensioned PDF below.
 
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Pardon my ignorance, but is this what I would need if I was LIFTING my wagon to bring the front alignment back within spec? My assumption being that my 2" lift on coil-overs will effectively "shorten" the distance from the control arm pivot point on the frame to the outer end of the control arm balljoint mount.

What is "not particularly cheap" if you don't mind sharing?

I am interested in the file. msgdhorn@yahoo.com
 
Good thinking to use wheel studs to secure them. I did something very similar, but used countersunk bolts and tack welded them in place. It meant that I could start with relatively cheap laser cut blanks then hand finish them. I also angled the balljoint slightly forward to gain more caster.

It worked, but form memory the steering arm/tie rod/something ended up very close to the nuts used on top of the control arm. And I reckon if I were to do it again I'd strongly consider just chopping two sets of arms and rewelding them to make an extended set.
 
Those look nice, better to be sure and reinforce the flimsy factory arms if you will be extending them.
 
Hopefully at some point I will release my adjustable control arms. Got some new equipment in the pipeline which should speed up my productivity.
 
Hopefully at some point I will release my adjustable control arms. Got some new equipment in the pipeline which should speed up my productivity.

As a stopgap, something like this would be a great stocking stuffer. Perhaps pair it with some precut LCA boxing plates (or a piece of cardboard in the correct shape, since cutting them isn't hard...) ?
 
Here are some pics from our old lemons car. Our spacers were made from sheet steel cut/welded up. The control arm failed first. Camber was significant, probably around -3 degrees or more when using stock upper strut mounts.

The trouble with the pre-cut plates for enclosing the underside of the control arm is that they interfered with the bolts for the spacers, so someone cut some of it away. We would have been better off to reinforce the top side of the control arm, and then re-box the underside.

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The inner tie-rod was lengthened with a section cut from another tie rod. :nod:

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Pretty neat, and thanks for sharing the file! And definitely reinforce the stock arms.

I thought about doing that, but then went with these for the "easy" approach: https://shop.klracing.se/sv/artiklar/bararmar-undre-240-special-.html
25mm wider per side, and the ball joint is moved forward 15mm for added caster.

For added win, the BNE QSRCs in the middle setting will work with unmodified inner tie rods and the ackermann on the v1 units will be a lit better than with stock arms.
 
Built my lifted wagon [3"] last April with the deluxe kit from Bad Decisions Works. He made the lower ball joint extensions, and the tie rod end extensions, and all the parts bushings hardware for the front and rear. Too bad he moved; he hopes to start up again. We have put now, 9K miles on it since. Saw icebergs! in Newfoundland.
 
With the board update, it looks like I can attach files here directly. The e-machineshop folks have deprecated the old file format, so I've re-drawn the design in Fusion and compared it with one of our spares off the shelf. This one looks a bit nicer, but the essentials are the same.
1696615490652.png
 

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  • LCA_Extension_v3.zip
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