Front A-Arm Assembly

[Pony DNA]

Pony: Nice looking ride!! Mine in current form isn't quite so "discrete."

<<SNIPPED>>

Sorry for the crappy shot, it's the only thing I have that's really current. You'll have an absolute BLAST with that E36, just be careful not to "money shift" the thing, the valves REALLY don't like to be over-revved.

Hi SGDave,

Pull off the numbers and it's pretty lowkey. Yeah, I do like them German cars a lot. The only American cars I've had have all been Mustangs and this is the first new American car I've ever purchased. All the rest of them have been made in Germany. German Fords, VW, Porsche, BMW and Audi are all I've ever owned and loved until the S197 Mustang. But something about the M3's suspension, revvy engine and modest size has always just really worked for me. They can get pretty good milage too if driven reasonably!

Cheers!

 

[Kaldar142]

same story here pony, except i was into JDM cars... civic, 240sx, WRX all some wild builds too lol.

i LOVE the E36 M3s, but you know what i love even more than that? E30s ! I will be starting work on my E30 this winter

 

[Pony DNA]

same story here pony, except i was into JDM cars... civic, 240sx, WRX all some wild builds too lol.

i LOVE the E36 M3s, but you know what i love even more than that? E30s ! I will be starting work on my E30 this winter

Kaldar,

I would love to have an E30 M3 but GEEZUZ the body and engine parts are impossible to get for rebuild here. I guess I could pull some German strings but the stuff is just cost prohibitive. The E30 BMW M3's are like G-body Porsche 911's with air cooled engines, freaking HOT cars! I would Love to have like a '73 Porsche RS but they are even worse then E30 M3 engines to source parts for. The big problem is that E30 M3's still need to pass smog here in California and it's easier as far as I can tell anyway to make an E36 M3 pass smog inspection even though they are subject to stricter emissions limits and inspection. May be I should move to Nevada where a man can still pollute and carry a gun with out being harassed by the authorities.

Cheers!

 

[Pony DNA]

Ahhh.... there's the link I was looking for!! That's the Whiteline ADK bushing that I was talking about! Would Steve be the customer you're referring to? If so, I saw his car out at Putnam, and it looked pretty flat in the braking zones. I'm replacing my arms over the winter, and I don't know if I'm going the FR500C route or not, but if I do, and the WADK is compatible, then that's going to be a winning combination...

Hi SGDave,

I have yet to figure out how that bushing can make more than the very slightest change in caster. I don't think there is any problem using them with the FR500S front control arms as these arms are just stock S197 arms with taller beefed up ball joints without the big-ass squishy liquid bushing pressed on the end.

But IMO for that kind of money if I was looking for more caster I'd install a set of Maximum Motorsports strut mounts before I tried the the Whiteline bushings. I'm not convinced that the S197 chassis needs any more caster cranked into the front end anyway. If you have a good adjustable strut mount like Steeda's or MM's and a set of Steeda billet camber plates you can dial in more camber than is good for you so I don't know why you would want any more caster. All more caster does is slow down the steering by making the car not want to turn as quickly due to the mechanical forces working on the tires and struts. If you need high-speed stability you may have some other problem, probably rear axle roll steer or insufficient slow speed damping control.

The Whiteline Anti-Dive kit's name is very deceiving! When you install this kit you are actually going to get INCREASED brake dive due to lowering the rear control arm pivot point. To increase anti-dive in the S197 front suspension you would need to lower the front pivot point. So If you want to geometrically increase anti-dive you would need to raise the rear pivot point or lower the front pivot point of the front control arms. I can't recommend increasing the anti-dive of the S197 chassis very much as you may start to get into some undesirable side effects. If brake dive is an issue you should probably just increase your front spring rate. But of course you can't really do that unless you have coil overs.

HTH!

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Pony: Oh, I'm with you... Plans for the winter season include a set of GC coilovers (pending a re-write in the TT shock point assessment), and I HAVE to take care of the front roll center issues I'm having. I can't relocate the control arm mount points (too "expensive"), but I do have the spare points for taller ball joints. I also have a cracked front bushing in the front-left lower control arm, so... Bushings are "free," particularly since I already "paid" for Heim joint usage, so any material is viable. I guess I'm trying to throw in as much front-end stability as I can. I already have the MM plates, and I'll try to get GC to use them rather than their own, camber-only product. As for revising the caster angles, the FR500C does add additional caster, and I seem to remember a tech bulletin for the FR500S that advised extra caster as well. I know my front and rear roll centers are too low, and my rear anti-squat is trash. Driving the car hard, is like riding a see-saw, and I'm positive some higher-rate springs will be an enormous help, but I want to start the season with a pretty solid package that I won't have to go into too often. Since I'm replacing bushings and ball joints on the fronts anyway, I just figured on replacing the whole arm. It's my belief (no tech to back it up) that the rear bushings on the front arms are part of my dive problem. I use the harder of the two Steeda inserts, but there is still a fair amount of "squish" to the front end.

Any thoughts or suggestions you may have will be more than welcome!

 

[SD07GT]

Pony: Oh, I'm with you... Plans for the winter season include a set of GC coilovers (pending a re-write in the TT shock point assessment), and I HAVE to take care of the front roll center issues I'm having. I can't relocate the control arm mount points (too "expensive"), but I do have the spare points for taller ball joints. I also have a cracked front bushing in the front-left lower control arm, so... Bushings are "free," particularly since I already "paid" for Heim joint usage, so any material is viable. I guess I'm trying to throw in as much front-end stability as I can. I already have the MM plates, and I'll try to get GC to use them rather than their own, camber-only product. As for revising the caster angles, the FR500C does add additional caster, and I seem to remember a tech bulletin for the FR500S that advised extra caster as well. I know my front and rear roll centers are too low, and my rear anti-squat is trash. Driving the car hard, is like riding a see-saw, and I'm positive some higher-rate springs will be an enormous help, but I want to start the season with a pretty solid package that I won't have to go into too often. Since I'm replacing bushings and ball joints on the fronts anyway, I just figured on replacing the whole arm. It's my belief (no tech to back it up) that the rear bushings on the front arms are part of my dive problem. I use the harder of the two Steeda inserts, but there is still a fair amount of "squish" to the front end.

Any thoughts or suggestions you may have will be more than welcome!

There is caster adjustment in the G/C camber plates , theres the same amount that is in the M/M ....about a 1/2 degree. I was trying to do the same thing with mine (M/M PLATES) but when I talked with Jay he said it was going to be more problems than its worth .

you should look into the Steeda race bushing they work well for a track car but to much NVH for a d/d....they go for 219.00 a set . Like I said before I went with the g/c coil overs ,x-5 ball joints @ bump steer kit and passed on the Steeda relocation kit , If I thought about it I should of got a quote to put them in when the control arms were off , but I know now I'm looking about 600.00 + 85.00 for the kit to do it wright now.

so my roll center is technically off 3/4 of an inch because I have the ride height set 1.5 lower than stock and the x-5 ball joints only raised the roll center about 19mm or 3/4 of an inch . I was able to do this because of the shorten housings form G/C and kept my full travel at the reduced ride height which is so nice, no bottoming out also that was another reason for not using crazy spring rates in th front .

I just know one thing now ,when its all apart try to do everything once (lol)!..we also need to pry more info out of Pony DNA about his watts link ...I have still a hard time believing its that much better than a Pan hard set up ?