B16CRXT

Hey guys, I just wanted to share some info on these A arms for the EF chassis. I ordered them about a week ago through Tony at Skunk2. Packaging was good overall. I thought that maybe it could have used something to keep the actual arms from moving around in the box, but no biggie. They arrived undamaged. I'll be installing them in a week or so when it's a bit warmer. I'll update the thread with install pics and stuff when that day comes. For now here are the pics of packaging etc. Another complaint I have with it so far, is that there were no instructions included with them. I need to know how tight to tq the bolts that go through each end of the a arm to hold the mounting bracket on.





Ignore the header. It has nothing to do with this shipment. Just got it the same day.

lee0149

bump i like to know to. getting some when tax comes in and plus the exact header.

B16CRXT

Just found the torque specs in my Haynes manual.

Upper Balljoint: 32 ft/lbs
Upper Arm pivot bolt nuts: 22 ft lbs

B16CRXT

Okay, I finally installed them today. They installed VERY easily and I set the camber plates all the way negative since my car has about -3.4 degrees of camber anyways. gonna run it to the alignment shop tomorrow. It was a pain in the *** to torque the pivot bolts, but it's that way with any upper control arm(OEM included). One beef with them I did have though is you can't put the ball joint nut cover thing back on because the threaded part of the ball joint is too long by about 3-5mm. I was very disappointed in this when I saw it. Makes it look bad when you can see all that crap. here are a few pics of the problem.

Driver side



I made score marks on the passenger side that should approximately be where the end of the OEM ball joint was. As you can see there is a noticeable length difference. This won't effect the funtion of the A-arm at all, just more of an annoyance.

Ryan239

Hi
I installed these about 3 weeks ago myself, although I bought them from King. One complaint I had is that they didn't come with nuts for the upper bolts that poke up through the strut tower. This wouldn't have been a big deal if the stock nuts fit, but the pitch is off. The pitch on the Skunk2 studs was an oddball, 12x1.25 (1.75 is a standard pitch for 12mm bolts), which took me a trip to three places to find. King was absolutely no help, but my hardware store guy was great I also had to remove the studs and the stabilizer arm from the a-arm and bend them a bit to get them to fit, as the alignment was also off just enough that they wouldn't fit through the holes in the shock tower cleanly. Once I did that, though, it was easy.

B16CRXT

the nuts from my stock one worked fine. Dunno why they would be any different. Mine was angled outward as well. All I did was shimmy them in opposite directions and it got them in the right position. At first I thought I was going to have to bend the plate a little, but luckily I just had to move the mounts. Alignment coming tomorrow. Gonna get them to set the camber to -1* and toe to zero as usual. I raised the front up a good bit while I did the install because I'm installing my RMF slim replica in a day or so.

B16CRXT

hmmm, today while driving, one side slipped out to full positive(my neglect to tighten the small bolts fully), and it gave me the chance to get back under there and tighten both sides. Only the driver side slid out. Passenger side was still tight when I checked it. Both sides had this little problem...Should I be worried? The hub hits the back support of the camber plate frame. This is with a 3 finger gap from tire to fender too!

TunerN00b

I would be seriously worried about that contact.

I suppose you could either grind down the knuckle or the UCA in that location to provide a little more clearance. I have no clue what doing so would do structurally, but I'd rather roll on "reduced strength" (slightly cut down) parts than knowing there's a "failure from impact" waiting to happen.

TheSauceSpot

Interesting.. I wonder if anyone else is having this problem. its happening on both sides? Is there a Right and a Left? maybe you got them on opposite sides... im in to find a solution!

B16CRXT

One arm has an L on it and it's on the Left side. yea, both sides have this problem. I am also curious if anyone else has had this problem...Maybe it only does it when the plates are at full negative(where I have them now, so my alignment isn't completely out of whack)?

iheartteal

im sure you probably know this but im gonna say anyway because there are people that dont know, left is the driver side and right is the passenger side, sorry if this reply comes off as me being an ***

TheSauceSpot

I didnt want to come off as an *** either.. good way to put it. I would just call up the place you got them from or even skunk2 direct. i doubt the completely negative setting would have anything to do with it.. and you said you torqued everything so you know its all tight. hope you get it figured out. please post up the results.... even if its just flipflopped sides!

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

All the more reason to run stock upper A-arms IMHO.

TheSauceSpot

I have brand new OEM upper arms and brand new skunk2 arms.. yet to install, just got the car back from paint. ill let you know if i find any differences when i get to putting everything together if there is no resolution by then.

B16CRXT

Why on earth would you say that? The Daily Driver is going to handle a LOt better with these ADJUSTABLE camber A-arms. Because I can take out some of the negative camber my car has, it will increase my contact patch, instead of just riding mostly on the inner part of the tire.

Yea, I know left from right, lol! 'JDM' cars are RHD, and their steering wheel is on the opposite side of ours...Right Side. Also, everything suspension related on the car has an L or an R stamped on it.

I PM'd the link to this thread to Skunk2. Hopefully they can chime in soon and give us some info. I don't want to grind anything down simply because that will reduce the strength of the part of the car that requires the MOST strength. Especially with 8K springs on my ksports.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Why would I say that? Because a car with unequal-length A-arm independent suspension handles better with MORE negative camber, up to a point, because as the weight shifts to the outside tire, you actually end up with MORE rubber contacting the road if you run more static negative camber.

The closer you get the tires to straight up 0 camber, the WORSE the car will handle. Really the only time you would want to run 0 camber is for drag racing.

I said it's better to run stock UCA's because they're just simply more reliable all the way around. You don't have to worry about things slipping out of place, or POS bushings making horrible sounds, or the increased height of the arm at the sliding ball joint smacking the shock towers or any of that stuff.

Unless you need MORE negative camber for track purposes, you're better off staying with OEM UCA's.

edit: just in case you didn't know, TOE wears tires, NOT negative camber. All you need is a 4-wheel alignment with the toe adjusted to stock specs, and you'll be fine, even with -2*, -3* or even more negative camber.

B16CRXT

Oh, I know about the effect turning has on the camber/contact patch. My point is that driving normally with a daily driver, you wouldn't want as much neg camber as with a track car. Like I said, I'm going to have them take mine from -3.4* to -1*. That way I'll still have some neg camber to assist in cornering when I feel like being stupid, but the car wont be so twitchy on the highway. It will be a lot more stable on the highway with less neg camber. At least that's what a lot of autox guys tell me, and it makes sense.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

When I had GC's my front camber was around -2.8 with stock upper arms and I had no problems daily driving, highway or otherwise. That was with a 100-mile daily commute, too. Keep up with alignments and you'll be fine.

B16CRXT

Oh, I'm not so worried about tire wear with camber as I learned a couple years ago about setting toe to zero and that pretty much solving most problems. I still get feathering though. that must have something to do with the negative camber...(?) I also drive about 80miles a day on the highway.

nickrps

This makes 0 sense.

Toe causes "twitchiness," which is why your autox buddies run some toe in the rear to get the car to rotate. And what are you talking about with "feathering." I'd go get an alignment with those front uca set to at least -2, your toe at 0 all the way around and then see how it feels. I guarantee your car should ride great unless something is wrong with your suspension (bent rta or the like).

Not trying to be an ***, but so many people have their facts wrong about camber, caster, toe and the effects on handling.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I get some feathering, also, but I attribute that to my worn@$$ 15-year old stock suspension bushings. Every time I go in for an alignment, the toe is always off at least a bit, even when I have not hit anything or changed the ride height since the last alignment.

nickrps

Thanks for clarifying the "feathering" term. I track a lot and have never heard of that (typically it's "feather" the gas pedal).

I suggest to all EF owners to do what I did two years ago...take the car down for a week or two and replace all bushings (with OEM, not that poly crap) and bearings. What a world of difference.

xalents23

Damm so your saying Energy Suspension bushing are not good. I just purchased the graphite master set for my CRX. Now I'm contemplating on putting them on my REX.

TunerN00b

That isn't being an ***, its acknowledging reality. Please continue to do so, its the only path to curing ignorance.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

There are quite a few reports putting poly bushings' function and reliability into question. I have seen many poly bushings that looked completely trashed in just 2-3 years. I ran poly shifter bushings and those things were junk after 5 years, completely dry rotted and crumbling. The original stock rubber shifter bushings at 7-8 years old weren't anywhere nearly that bad. I replaced the poly bushings with new OEM rubber and it felt 100x better, and will last longer too.