[SoSideways]

Well, if I would have known the SPL Parts bits spaced almost 2", I wouldn't have spent the money on making my own stuff.

Way to go internet, for providing insight into a common product that everyone seem to have bought!



And yes, I am fucking pissed off, because after spending so much fucking money into this setup, I might as well make it work.

2" of spacing, ladies and gentlemen, seem to be impossible, because of the stock ball joint angle, aka the KPI.

This past weekend, I basically spend a better part of 4 hours going over everything I did up front, and making all sorts of combination of adjustments to try and make things work.

Everytime, it comes down to either the spherical bearing binding up on the FLCA, or the spherical bearing up top on the camber plate binding up.

And just so everyone is clear, I've just been messing with the driver's side front suspension, that way when everything is sorted on this side, I can just do it once on the passenger side and be done with it.

I have taken the spring off of the coilover up front, and the only thing I put back on so I could bolt the knuckle back on is the lower bracket, not even a collar to lock it down, because I wanted the whole coilover to pivot with the knuckle with the least amount of force so I could see how things are doing without using much effort, as I had to keep putting the wheel on and jacking the suspension up, then turn the wheel left and right, etc.

The end result is that, either the spacer on the FLCA spherical bearing runs into the bearing mounting cup (that has been opened up via a stepped drill to 1-3/8" and chamfered) when rotated back, as if you're trying to make a left turn, or it doesn't bind at the spherical bearing part, but the nut that holds the camber plate to the coilover binds/bottoms out on the bearing cup up at the camber plate.

I've tried to put the tension rod above and below the FLCA so that the FLCA would be tilted differently to allow for a little more wiggle room at the spherical bearing, but mounting the tension rod on the bottom, and thus rotating the FLCA back a little bit seem to give more room for the spherical bearing to rotate front to back than mounting the tension rod on top will do.

I should also mention that, this whole process has been done with the 3/4" nut tightened by hand on the knuckle, on the count that I was trying different amount of spacing by ways of using shims and washers.

I also played with the FLCA length to see if it would give me a little more breathing room at the spherical bearing, due to the shittastic ball joint angle, and thus far, it seems the longer the lower arm is, the more centered the bolt/spacers will be within the bearing cup when it's at operating height.

I'm honestly so exhausted and tired with this whole setup, and have spent so much money on it for it to not work, that I am about to commit myself into a mental institute, because quite honestly, I just don't see this setup working.

Before anyone says, "what about aftermarket knuckles like the MA Motorsports Awesometron 5000 knuckles?"

I already thought of that, and while yes, those will be awesome with the tie rods being in play, I am having issues of binding at the FLCA without even involving the tie rod!!!!

Which means, even with those knuckles, it will bind at the same exact spot.

All because of the massive KPI angle.

Quite honestly, I just don't see this setup working. At least not with the ride height that I wanted to have, which is to barely tuck the tread on some 215/40/17 tires up front, or actually, soon to be 245/35/17s up front.

And yes, I've even tried to use less spacing than 2", and it still binded at the spherical bearing. Actually, binded much worse.

Which brings me to question just how exactly was it possible for guys with stock FLCAs and stock tie rods to slam their cars and not break anything, much less for everything to still work?

Granted, I've inspected the stock front suspension components left when I took everything off, and everything was busted. Both inner tie rods were busted and loose at the ball joints, and the outter tie rod ends were also busted at the ball joints. The stock FLCA ball joints were loose as well.



I don't know.

At this point, I am really, really, REALLY DISAPPOINTED in how this didn't work out.

Unless I'm missing something obvious that I am not seeing because I'm pretty much tunnel visioned on this whole thing.

Anyone else got any ideas?