Boss 302S A Arms on a 2006 GT

Alright, so here are the Boss 302S A arms I got in the mail. Of course they're nice an pretty unlike my old rusty ones that are the originals. I'm sure these will look the same before long. But I must say, I do like the new arm design and it seems like it would be stouter.



In any case, the ball joint at least is BEEFY.



And it is a screw in type which will make it a LOT easier to replace when it goes bad.





The grease fitting for the front bushing was a pleasant surprise.





The only problem now is this whole.

Old Arms

This is my old A Arm I had to practically destroy (and indeed did on one) to get the bushings off. As you can see, I was only partially successful. The sleeves for both bushings are utterly impossible to remove short of cutting them off. So if you plan to replace the bushings, I recommend going ahead and breaking out the saw.




The stock ball joint








And the side by side comparison












I'll be contacting a few machine shops tomorrow to see if anyone can bore out the hole on the spindle 1 MM. Stay tuned.

Perhaps it's the angles of the photos or maybe it's my foggy brain from this terrible cold, but...

To me it looks like that bore you're talking about enlarging isn't going to be your only problem. See how much is "cut out" of the ball joint stud to allow your pinch bolt to pass through on your stock arm/initial replacement ball joint versus the stud on the 302S arm?

Anything in the instructions mention anything about the zip-tie holding the boot on?

I had noticed that there was that cutout all the way around on the stock and X5 ball joints and only on one side on the 302S one. I'll be examining this some more this morning.


No instructions. I guess because its a service replacement for the racecar they expect there to be no questions.

Yeah, I would do a mock up install while everything is apart and see what it's going to take. Not sure but you may be better off buying the spindles to go along with the a-arms.

I believe I remember in one of Vorshlags posts they were talking about them upgrading to the Boss 302S A-arms so it might help to shoot them a PM. I wish I could be of more help to you though.

Oh I will most definitely be do a bench install of all critical components. We'll see...

ford20 said:

I believe I remember in one of Vorshlags posts they were talking about them upgrading to the Boss 302S A-arms so it might help to shoot them a PM. I wish I could be of more help to you though.

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I could call them. But since they're running a 2011, the install should have been much more straightforward than for me with the 2006.

That Boss 302S ball joint is taller than the Steeda X5?

Yep.


EDIT: Im unsure as to whether the Boss ball joint is actually taller than the X5 since I think what matters is where the cutout for the bolt is. If anything, they're the same.

Cool post, I look forward to seeing your results.

The only downside I can see with "opening" up the 18mm hole to 19mm would be the integrity of the piece, but I am unsure of the 2011+ design being altered for more strength because of this.

As for fitment, I am pretty sure that you are on the right path. I am also pretty sure I have had a few customers do the same thing with their 2005-2010.5, but utilizing our 2010.5+ A-Arm with the larger 19mm ball-joint. It shouldn't take much more than rheeming that hole out a little, and possibly enlarging the cutout for the through-bolt.

you could always just put the newer style spindles on the car and be done with it .

STEVE_POE said:

you could always just put the newer style spindles on the car and be done with it .

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I could.... but I kinda exhausted my bank account for now and I need the car. I might pick up a set just to have around if I notice and fatigue on my spindles. Besides, knowing my luck, I would get new spindles and realize the old hubs don't work. lol

BMR Tech said:

Cool post, I look forward to seeing your results.

The only downside I can see with "opening" up the 18mm hole to 19mm would be the integrity of the piece, but I am unsure of the 2011+ design being altered for more strength because of this.

As for fitment, I am pretty sure that you are on the right path. I am also pretty sure I have had a few customers do the same thing with their 2005-2010.5, but utilizing our 2010.5+ A-Arm with the larger 19mm ball-joint. It shouldn't take much more than rheeming that hole out a little, and possibly enlarging the cutout for the through-bolt.

Click to expand...

I agree. As for the issue of integrity I don't really see there being an issue with 1 MM diameter or .5 MM on all sides.

If you look at the pictures of the ball joint, you'll notice the very tip is smaller than the rest. That tip fits perfectly in the spindle hole, but the shoulder is hindering it. The difference between the two is what I'll be trying to compensate for.

5 min on a mill and 5 min on a lathe and your done. Very simple. How much were the arms? Why didnt you just go with the GT500 arms?

1mm = .03937" which is right at .019685" off each side. You shouldn't have any problems as long as they ream it straight.

I was trying to install the whiteline bushings onto my stock A arms. When I put on of the arms into my press to try and push the bushing out, I stressed the arm and decided it was trash.

So rather than get stock replacement arms with the bushings already on it and have to go through the same headaches, I wanted arms without the bushings. I could've bought either the FR500C arms or the 302S Arms. When deciding between the two, ignoring the 200 dollar difference, I picked the 302S for the new arm design and the fancy balljoint. This was, of course before I knew all about the shit I was going to have to go through...

I don't think taking the material away would be hard. I think the consideration here is that the ball joint is taller. That means it applies more force as a lever. Then on top of that, you take supporting material off of a part that has had failures. I'm sure the issues that could happen are probably dependent on a few things, primarily the type of tires on the car.

If what I said is silly, by all means, someone correct me.

Yea I had the same concerns on the Whiteline bushings for my arms. I found a write up somewhere on this site that you cant press the stockers out. You have to use a hole saw and take the majority of the rubber out then score the outer bushing that comes in contact with the inner part of the arm with a saw. You then use a chisel to pop the outer metal bushing out then clean everything up with a wire brush. I have a set of the 500C arms and need to buy the Whiteline bushings to install.

The taller ball joint shouldn't be an issue, it's been a common fix to restore the front roll center after lowering for quite a long time. The Steeda X5 is simply a stock replacement that increases the effective stud length, and we haven't heard of any wholesale failures there. Also, the spindle failures (assuming you're talking about removing "supporting material" from the ball joint hole) that we've seen in the past were at the strut mount, and were also fatigue driven from loose hardware. I have my own concerns about weakening the structure around the ball joint stud, but as has been pointed out, 1mm really isn't that much. This thread could get interesting...