Rear lower control arm question...

soulassassin13 · Post by **soulassassin13** » May 8th, 2007, 3:46 pm

I have a set of Apex'i N1 springs that I pulled off my wrecked GSR... so me being the nooB that I am sometimes disassembled the entire suspension to mount these coilovers. So about a couple of hours later I get everything off the car and I mount the new upper a-arms (camber kit) to the spindles and I install the front coilovers. I thought I was in the home stretch when it came to installing the rears, but as most of you can already tell.... I was dead wrong. The rear coilovers would not fit in the lower control arm... and I was furious!!!! So I put everything back to stock minus the camber kit, smoked a half a pack of smokes and went home...pissed.

So here is my question... Will aftermarket LCA's match up like the stock LCA's do to the frame? What are the +/- of using the aftermarket LCAs?

Thanx for the input...

Erik95LS · Post by **Erik95LS** » May 8th, 2007, 3:50 pm

yes they will match up. The only realistic advantage is appearence. One of the main disadvantages though is that nearly all of them have inferior bushings in them.

so were you trying to put a forked rear shock onto an ITR LCA?

Dave_B · Post by **Dave_B** » May 8th, 2007, 3:51 pm

I'm not sure I totally understand what your saying?

The rears are either OEM style (socket like) or Fork style where the fork on the bottom of the coilover slides "over" the rear LCA...

Erik95LS · Post by **Erik95LS** » May 8th, 2007, 3:55 pm

Dave_B wrote:I'm not sure I totally understand what your saying?

The rears are either OEM style (socket like) or Fork style where the fork on the bottom of the coilover slides "over" the rear LCA...

yeah it didn't make much sense to me either. I assume he meant coilovers instead of just springs

soulassassin13 · Post by **soulassassin13** » May 8th, 2007, 4:07 pm

The OEM lower control arms are the socket type. Where the bottom of the shock tower goes inside of the LCA. The N1 coilovers are the fork type... it bolts up on the outside of the LCA.

Erik95LS · Post by **Erik95LS** » May 8th, 2007, 4:23 pm

soulassassin13 wrote:The OEM lower control arms are the socket type. Where the bottom of the shock tower goes inside of the LCA. The N1 coilovers are the fork type... it bolts up on the outside of the LCA.

right, you're mis-using some terms which is making it a bit confusing.

shock tower is the part on the chassis where the top of the shock mounts
shock/shock body is the actual shock itself
coilover is the whole spring and shock together
spring does not = coilover

Dave uses aftermarket LCAs with fork type rear shocks and he's been pretty happy with them so far. The only ones I would really consider were the function 7s or possibly the PICs, but, for both, their bushing integrity is still to be determined

1Greyteg · Post by **1Greyteg** » May 10th, 2007, 6:06 pm

soulassassin13 wrote:The OEM lower control arms are the socket type. Where the bottom of the shock tower goes inside of the LCA. The N1 coilovers are the fork type... it bolts up on the outside of the LCA.

You have GSR suspension right? And you're trying to fit it into an R? Won't fit. So I'd just get the proper setup for a Type R.

Or did I miss something?

soulassassin13 · Post by **soulassassin13** » May 10th, 2007, 10:21 pm

In the prusuit of all that is expensive I have went over budget on my car by leaps and bounds this year and I was just looking to cut a corner for once. I just cannot afford what I want right now (or this year) and keep competing.

Gross_00-0088 · Post by **Gross_00-0088** » May 13th, 2007, 12:11 am

Dont feel bad I took all my suspension off of my GSR and then tried to put it on the type R and relized it didnt fit when I first got mine too. I dont think I smoked a half a pack of cigarettes but I did throw my 4way half was down a parking lot. LOL. I was so pissed

Dave_B · Post by **Dave_B** » May 13th, 2007, 5:03 pm

[quote="Erik95LSThe only ones I would really consider were the function 7s or possibly the PICs, but, for both, their bushing integrity is still to be determined[/quote]

On that front, I just put new bushings in (the right one, no they did not wear or rip/tear) and I can say they seem to be of decent quality. Nice and stiff.