Sorry for being so harsh CKit,

But you would have been clearer if you would have said, "Maybe that was due to the SPC unit --slipping in the a-arm--, but there is a marked difference."

Using the term "worn" makes it sound like as these ball joints wear they will start to feel vague. Has anyone else experienced a slipping SPC ball joint? I've been pushing my car hard enough to set track records and pull the upper a-arm off the frame and my SPC's have been rock solid--no slippage in the slot or press-in joint.

I'm sure the J's part is a quality unit but the SPC ball joints have a solid track record (pun intended). Hundreds of S2000's have run the SPC ball joints without problems.

 

Strongly disagree. People need to hear about the good and the bad to make an informed decision on S2000 camber kits. CKit had an SPC ball joint failure and the more we know about it the better.

CKit, did you replace your slipping upper a-arm, or just press in a stock ball joint?

 

I figured you would have known what I was talking about... because you were the one who diagnosed our rotating ball joint problem earlier in the thread....

You could make the argument that you're so good and smooth that you put less wear on the car.

How many track guys have pulled off the A-Arm mounts? Not because I'm being a smarty pants, but because I just don't know.

A lot of A-stock autocross guys on R-comps have pulled the brackets loose. To the point where serious AP1 drivers will get them prophylactically seam welded.

And we're running wider tires than normal A-stock.

I agree that the SPC joint is fine for most applications. But I'm a big fan of simple = better. If I had known that these were the two options, I would have picked the J's originally.

I do think that the only reason these joints didn't work well for me was the rubbing of wheels into the A-Arms by trying to get as much wheel under the fender well as possible. Putting the wheel into the A-Arm in a spin situation (of which we've had many autocrossing) can't be good for the ball joints. With the stud of the joint being longer and the offset, there are two directions in which the pressed in joint can work its way loose.

Here's a picture of our old A-Arms. Note the gouge in the arm from the wheel contact. If you're not making this kind of contact, I'd think the SPC joints would hold up fine. We didn't have much of a choice without fender cutting.

I didn't mean to insinuate that the SPC joints weren't adequate for most use. Just sharing my very uncommon experience.




And you can see how the wheel could act as a lever... directly perpendicular to the ball joint and be in position to rotate it.

 

robrob,

I was actually trying to turn the conversation in a more productive direction as it was getting awfully testosterone filled. Mission accomplished I guess

 

Wow, that's some serious wheel contact. I'm running 9" Volk with 255's up front. Were you running 275's up there? And what wheels were you running? I agree that that kind of wheel to a-arm contact could help knock the ball joints loose.

 

Rob, 18x11 CCWs with 285 Hoosier A6s in front.

It's the tire and wheel combination that spaf (Uyeda) ran and within 0.5-1.0 inch width of ComposiMo, Stantaur, and Sue Eckles' CCWs.