Gauging interest: Suspension parts

[Wiisass]

So I've been looking at my brother's car and trying to decide what parts it's going to need for the coming season and I wanted to see if anyone here would also be interested in them.

I am planning on designing adjustable arms for the whole suspension. They would all have rod ends or spherical bearings in them and would be as adjustable as they need to be to set your alignment at any ride height. I know there are rear arms available or at least they were. One of my good friends is the one who designed the original A1 arms and he will be working with me on this project. I would also like to do front upper arms and tie rods at least in the front. I have no idea on pricing yet, I just need to know if it would be worth doing a run of the parts needed for these or if they're only going to be going on my brother's car.

Also, I am redesigning the solid sway bar endlinks that I made for my brother's car a couple years ago. I will be using Aurora rod ends and they will be easily adjustable on the car. I have just been thinking about it more based on the sway bar testing I've been doing. The stock endlinks aren't bad, but any uneven loading in the suspension will cause the car to not handle as well as it should. And these endlinks will make it very easy to dial out any preload in the bar as well as raise or lower the bar overall for any clearance issues.

So that's the plan for now, I just need to know if people would be interested or if there's anything else you guys would be interested in for suspension parts.

Tim

 

[TRACKMKIII]

I would be very intersted in suspension pieces. I don't have anything specific in mind right now (Because I am still focusing on the motor build), but I am looking for as much adjustablity as possible. I think anythihng is better than going to the dealer and buying 12 year old technology and paying a premium for it. Well that is my two cents and I hope some others will chime in as well.

 

[CTsupra]

Interested!

 

[cuel]

I'd definitely like to have adjustable end links.

 

[ms07s]

I would be very interested.

 

[Supraholics]

I'm in. I haven't purchased the A1 arms yet, so if you design something as good or better, I'll go your way.

 

[Poodles]

I'd be interested in arms like the A1's, but that can be adjusted without pulling on end of the arm...

 

[Wiisass]

Awesome, I'm glad to see some interest in this stuff. My brother and I will be pulling the suspension off the car tomorrow so I can start designing the parts and building the jigs.

Poodles, that was one of the things I was talking about with my friend the other day. He said when he designed the A1 ones the first time, they tried a bunch of different parts and ways to do it and they finally had to make a compromise. I don't want to have to make that compromise and I have some ideas in the works. I just need to make sure that my way will be cost effective otherwise no one will buy them.

Tim

 

[Halsupramk3]

a1 camber arms are adjustable on the vehicle.

what about front upper pillow ball mounts that are adjustable. i dont know of anyone who makes those. that way when the car is lowered you could fix the problem of how the lower ball joint angle is out of spec. the angle on it wont line up with the camber i think it is. since the lower ball joint angle is not adjustable the upper pillow ball joint will have to be.

I think a company makes these adjustable upper pillow ball mounts for corollas. would they fit the mk3 too? the hks UPBM is not adjustable. ( i have all four).

the front upper suspension arms for a reasonable price sounds great too.

 

[Wiisass]

The camber arms are adjustable on the car, it's the toe rod that isn't, the arm that the sway bars mounts to. You have to unbolt it on one end and adjust, then put it back together. I'm working on a design that will allow you to keep the arm bolted in place, there will be a sway bar mount that will need to be loosened so you can rotate the bar, but it will be very easy to use and adjust.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with front upper pillow ball mounts? Are you talking about the upper control arm? Or are you talking about what the shock mounts to? If it's the upper control arm, I am working on them. If it's where the shock mounts, there is no reason to have an adjustable mount on the Supra. On cars with struts, you can adjust camber by shifting the upper strut mount. But on cars with upper and lower control arms, an adjustable pillow ball mount would do nothing useful.

So most of the arms are off the car now. Some were a pain in the ass due to frozen bolts in the bushings. One on the front LCA and one on one of the rear lower control arms were really bad. The front arms is still on there because we didn't have time to get to it today, but the rear arms are all off.

I'm going to make the 3 lower rear arms and the front upper first. I think that's where a lot of gains will be seen. I need to look closer at the rear upper arm, I might be able to use a lot of the same parts on that one as the front upper arm and if so, that one will be done too.

Tim

 

[shaeff]

interested.

 

[kjj512]

So any new info on this or is the lower front a arm still stuck on the car? And are the rest of the arms still in the trunk?

 

[shaeff]

yikes, you guys are going through the classic seized cam bolt B.S. ? fun...

 

[Poodles]

Dr. Jones has some custom adjustable upper control arms from the front that would be pretty interesting...

Though i dunno how he'd feel if you started producing them...

 

[Wiisass]

Chris, yeah, that's what we're going through and it sucks. But everything is off the car now except the front lower, which I'm not going to be doing too much with.

Poodles, I saw Dr J's arms, they look similar to something that HRP sells. What I was planning on doing with the front arms is similar. I want to have adjustable arms rather than an adjustable ball joint like the JIC arms. And with both legs of the upper arm being adjustable, you could also adjust caster with the arms. So they'll probably be something similar to what Dr. J has, but it's not like what he has is anything new, at least in motorsports.

I was also thinking about roll center adjustment for the front. I doubt many people will care about that, but with supras as you lower the car, the front roll center drops quicker than the rear, increasing the cars bias towards understeer. Bringing the roll center up would help to balance out the car. It would be a piece that you would have to weld to the cross member.

 

[jugodegolf]

Interested also.

 

[noah89t]

bring it on

 

[Ckanderson]

Just remember Wiisass, 90 percent of the people who are "interested" in your product will never buy it.

 

[Wiisass]

Chris, I know. I'm just trying to decide if the arms are going to be something I put some design work into so they're easier to have made or something I will make custom for my brother's car so I can play with it this season. Based on the interest so far, I will be designing them. And probably have a group buy or sale or something when I'm ready to have everything made.

Tim

 

[shaeff]

tim, will these be instead of the pieces that A1 produces? (those lower control arms are a PITA when seized!) i ended up using an oxy/sett torch to cut the bolts in half, as well as a grinder, and sawzall. it sucked!