Any Negative effect of raised lower ball joint?

[Rusty G]

First, my car is a true daily driver (Gbody) that I want to lower the front about an inch.

I have good springs that are not going to be replaced.

I have a extra set of stock upper and lower A arms that I am going to "rebuild" and install.

My idea is to combine a raised lower balljoint along with a raising the mounting point for that ball joint to drop the car 1".

I looks like with some minor trimming/welding raising the mount should not be hard at all.

From my limited understanding of suspension dynamics, I think this may slightly help the stock camber curve. Yes?

Also planning on adding a tall upper balljoint at the same time.

I "think" these will compliment each other, correct?

The true goal is the 1 " drop without hurting handling, any improvement will be a bonus.

[deuce_454]

a taller spindle/tall upper balljoint "spreads" the UCA and LCA to give a different and in the case of a g.body yields a greatly improved geometry... raising both yields nothing and is no different than installing shorter springs..

a taller balljoint will improve geometry, for the lowering.. get some specific springs.. my advice is to contact SC&C (www.scandc.com) and have a talk with marcus... he will get you steered on the right track and not feed you bull s#it, he is not a man of few words, but he is awesome to talk to and i recomend his stuff...

[Rusty G]

Thanks for the responce.

Funny thing SCandC is about 20 minutes from my shop. I just don't like to bug people when they are working. If he (Marcus) sees this post and replies on his "own" time that would be cool.

I am sitting here eating lunch and made a very crude drawing of the idea and think I will still get "some" benefit of the taller upper.

This is not to scale or the angles right but you should get the idea.

The Black line is stock.

The Red with "raised lower"

The Yellow is "raised lower and upper"

With the raised lower, it appears the the lower pivot point is the same and it "pushes up" the Upper, so the distance between the two is greater.

Adding the raised upper, moves them apart further.

Keep in mind, I am doing this all in my head ( scary place too be) and am trying to learn here.

Thanks again.

[deuce_454]

if marcus is only 20 minutes away id swing by and get a ride in the shop car...im sure it looks beat and dirty... but it will shock you how it handles... give him a call, tell him jakob said was ok!

[Marcus SC&C]

Dr.Deuce is right,tall lower ball joints can be very beneficial in the G chassis. BUT you`re not working in a vacume and there`s a lot more at play here than just ride height and camber curves. Roll center height, roll center migration, FVSA length and especially bumpsteer are all greatly affected as well. If you just want to lower the car trimming the springs is the quickest and by far the easiest way. If you want to greatly improve the handling and steering characteristics and lower the car some give us a call and we`ll fix you up with the proper height taller ball joints for your application. Expect roughly 3/4" of ride height reduction. Interestingly ride height reduction and ball joint stud height increase are not 1:1. NOTE: If you make a substantial improvement in the geometry using tall ball joints the stock upper A arms will have to go. It will physically bolt together but you won`t be able to align the car even to stock specs let alone good performance specs and you`ll have limited bump travel without binding the upper ball joint in the arms so expect to change the arms as well. Basically the end result of doing what you want to do and doing it right is this http://scandc.com/suspensions.htm#streetcomp2 Mark SC&C

[terryr]

Adding a balljoint with a longer shaft will help. Simply moving the mount of the ball joint up does nothing for geometry. It still pivots in the center of the ball.

[pro-tour79]

if you move the lower ball joint mount it will certainly affect geometry because you change the relationship of the lower ball joint and tire contact to the inner lower and upper pivot points

[terryr]

Yes, I should have said nothing good. The Roll Center and camber curve would get worse.

[deuce_454]

Originally Posted by terryr

Adding a balljoint with a longer shaft will help. Simply moving the mount of the ball joint up does nothing for geometry. It still pivots in the center of the ball.

that is exactly what tall balljoints are... cylindrical shaft before the taper.. moves pivot in relation to spindle,