control arms
hey out there!
i'm researching rear control arms for my mcs. h-sport, alta or steve's....
feedback from direct experience will be appreciated. i am currently running with h-sport competition rear bar and springs; they are great.
i was going to go with steve's one piece bar... still looking at h-sport and have just looked at the alta control bars on their website...

 

Did you do a search?

I can tell you the H-sport are nicely made but the supplied bushings did not hold up for me on the track. Either they suffered complete failure, ie the bushing fell to pieces. Or, they deform and hence who knows where the camber ends up. Ok for street use for sure.

The only other choice are those with heim joints. That would be my choice for the track.

 

I like the H-sport control arms. Well made and they feel good on the street. I have pushed mine and they have never had any problems. If it is a track car, go with heim joints, but if it is a street car with some track every now and then, you need to go with a rubber bushing to keep your arms from killing your back and themselves.



I would like to see what Steve’s look like. This is the second time I have heard about them this week and it might be a good product. I just don’t know what they look like. Hope that helps.:smile:

 

This is vastly different than my experience. I have a multitude of track, autox, and Dragon days on my H-Sport control arms, with no sign of degredation from the rubber bushings. Yes they won't be as accurate during high load, but they're also much more livable day-to-day. They do NOT fall apart though. If they did, I'd have another product on my car in a second.

 

I like my H-Sport control arms, I have not had any problems with the bushings. I have seen Steves control arms, they are nicely made and are similar to the H-sports.

 

I use the Altas. I have replaced all four arms with the Altas and I’m extremely happy with them. Slightly more road noise, but that's all the negative I can say about them.
Rear end is very stiff (not to be confused with shocks and springs type stiff) and the handling is much nicer.


I have heard of quite a few instances were the H-Sports bushings have failed under aggressive driving.




Some photos in my link below.

 

Well that was my experience. LOL. I like the product, but as we all know, some of us had bushing failures and the H people replaced them for free, which is what I would expect.

The replacement bushings seemed to be holding up better than the original ones did.

Whatever. I think you can buy the arms with confidence, as is true of all the H-sport products. A good company.

 

Monkey-Boy,

My H-Sport control arms bushing have just fell apart. What did you end up using instead of the bad ones?

Thanks

 

This might seem like a dumb question but I am full of them. What exactly will aftermarket control arms do for the handling of my JCWS?

 

control arms basically is to adjust rear camber, with both you can adjust toe...

i love my alta, more road noise, but it does make the rear very responsive...

 

What type of wear effects do control arms place on the tires and other components?

 

Several people have metioned increased noise with control arms, what type of noise? Is it more tire noise? If so why? And does it reduce tread life?

 

they really don't add much wear if you retain stock settings, however, some people, when lowering causes excessive negative camber, which speeds up wear, that's why people put them on to put them back to stock settings

as for noise, for me its intermitt squeaks

 

So based on what you said kyriian, if I don't lower my car and I put on Alta's or H Sport's and keep the factory settings what benefit do control arms provide? Do they stiffen the rear end allowing for faster turns?

 

i cant really explain it well, but it makes the rear a bit more responsive, because you replaced the flimsy factory rubber with more stiffer material, more of the road is transferred into your control...

 

He'll show you a "track" bent Hsport!












-for what it's worht, it could had been a visegrip, but I went with his because they were lighter.....

 

kyriian, that makes sense now I understand what to expect and I can decide if I need it. If I think about it long enough I am sure I will believe I need it

 

i was at steve's website lookin at the control arms. how big a difference would the ride be if ussing the track control arms compared to the street control arms?

here's a link to steve's site:
http://www.stevesautoclinic.com/PROD...rol%20arms.htm

 

I've got Steve's and, while I can't say I have any experience with any other control arms, I believe in Steve's products. Of course he has a vested interest in selling his own products, but I also know that the control arms he sells were developed in response to a need he saw in his business of modding and repairing Minis. It's a good, quality product.

 

I took a look at Steve's control arms and noticed if you have them installed at Steve's, his installation costs include wheel alignment. Is a wheel alignment a good thing to do after installing a set of control arms. I am asking because if I do an install myself I want to make sure I take it some place to get the wheels aligned if needed, thanks

 

I installed the control arms just to get the proper alignment after adding lowering springs. Alignment is a necessity after installing "adjustable" control arms. You can probably get it close, but it won't probably be right without alignment.

 

Okay supergimp so I will put "alignment" on the list of items needed when doing a control arm install, thanks

 

Say here's another thought regarding control amr install/alignment. Are there various types of alignments that can be done? What I mean by that when having the alignment done can you ask for "toe in or toe out" settings and if so which way is better and why? Or does it matter what type of drivving you are going to do? If my car is 90% on the street with 10% track days doe sit really matter Thanks

 

Somewhere here on NAM someone posted a link to an excellent explanation of the interaction between suspension components, especially how anti-sway bars work in relation to camber settings. I did a cursory search and couldn't find the link, but I'll keep looking. Does this ring a bell for anyone else?

 

Good idea supergimp, thanks