UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

As some of you may know, I have been prototyping a patent pending rear upper control arm on my 350z. After thousands of miles have been put on the arm on my daily driven 350z, and great reviews from Car Make T&E Japan, the time has now come to make the piece officially public.

Let’s just straight to the pictures as they surely speak for themselves.















This rear upper control arm (RUCA) is made from billet 6061-T6 aluminum. If you are not familiar with aluminum grades, the 6061-T6 grade is comprised of aluminum, magnesium, and silicon which allows the end product to be both strong and corrosion resistant. The billet aluminum has also been thermally treated and artificially aged for additional strength.

When I look at these arms, I immediately notice how strong and well built they look. They remind me of the quality that is seen with the 350EVO front upper control arms.

The best part about these arms lies in the hardware that is actually used. While many other manufactures are using heim joints on their suspension pieces, this arm actually utilizes real balljoints and spherical bushings! So what does this all mean? It means that while heim joints are ok for track cars or for individuals who are looking for a product that will simply do the job, this arm is built with OEM quality products. Heim joints will eventually fail and cause noise and vibration issues while these OEM quality balljoints and bushings will be exactly as described, like OEM.

Also, if you want to adjust a heim joint, how exactly do you make sure that your arms are equal length? Counting threads? Measuring center to center? Well, if you noticed in the pictures above, the arm I am running has an adjustable camber plate with tick marks for easy and quick adjustments. Best of all, the camber settings on these arms can be adjusted with the car on the alignment rack without having to remove your wheels.

This arm is built to satisfy every kind of user out there. From daily drivers to serious track users and everywhere in between. Camber settings are basically infinitely adjustable. Whether you want to get your lowered car back into spec, you want to run some negative camber for the track, or you want to run some serious negative camber for your VIP style car, this arm can accompany anyone’s needs.

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

Some notes:

• The pictures above are of the actual arm from my car. So if the ball joint collar is a little dirty, please don't worry!
  
• The final version will not have the deep pocket on the ball joint carrier piece. Instead, it will have a matched crevice throughout all the edges.
  
• The final version will have a second hard anodized coat on top so you will not be able to see the tooling marks on the main arm or any of the pieces.

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

Misc. pics of the arms being born:















The last picture was of there being minor adjustments made on a manual mill. The actual arm is made on a CNC. Also, if you did notice that there are different bushings in some of the bushing housings, please ignore it. The end product will ship with the nicer, spherical bushings

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

Reserved for future news/updates.

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. With this design, this is how real camber adjustments should be made to the suspension. Not through the "camber arms" that most people sell and install. With camber adjustments being made through the RUCA, there is very minimal toe change. For most people, toe can be corrected once again through their stock eccentric bolts or with the simple additional of toe bolts.

And as far as weight is concerned, this piece is almost identical in terms of weight as the stock arm

JCZ33

Beauty.

Russ@Z1

iTrader: (65)

It looks great, but this stuck out at me. I like the idea, in fact, I REALLY like the idea. However, I don't like the idea THAT much. Hopefully you'll sell some of these to help the cost of R&D and then you'll offer a lower price eventually that's a little more reasonable for some of us.

Nice piece though. Only thing that crosses my mind other than the price would be the adjustment points. Even though you say you've put on several miles, it still makes me wonder how much it can handle.

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

I really wish there was a way to have a lower price. In reality, this product is not marketed to be used by everyone.

When I was at the machine shop, the machinist logged in 26 straight hours of machine time to build the first original pair for my car. Figure the machinist gets paid about $40-60 an hour and you will see where the cost comes in. The arm also has about $150.00 in hardware in it alone.

Oh yeah, not to mention the other 24-26 hours logged in to program the CNC machine.

But most of all, billet aluminum is not cheap

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

Your concern is duly noted. But, take for example how McPherson camber plates look like.



Basically it's just held together by four bolts. And on top of that, there isn't even a large surface area meaning the main contact point are those four bolt heads against the top plate.

Also, forces against those McPherson plates are a lot greater than on the 350z RUCA because all of the lateral forces pushing against the wheel is magnified by the leverage ratio on those plates. They're usually about 2' above the axle centerline whereas the 350z RUCA are only like 6" above axle centerline. So imagine that huge lever magnifying all that force, yet those camber plates still hold just fine, even in race applications.

The bottom line is that the clamping forces on the 350z RUCA balljoint carrier is spread over a greater surface area vs. just those four bolts on regular camber plates as seen on McPherson setups. And then you take into account the whole leverage ratio comparison...blah blah blah

It's strong and won't budge unless you want it to

HyperSprite

iTrader: (6)

Real ball joints, camber plates, full billet, all I can say is... wow.
I'm impressed.

Chris

21112

iTrader: (2)

Looks good to me, a little steep on the price, but you have to pay to play.

I just wonder how this piece will compare to SPL's piece in both quality and price once both are fully developed:

http://www.splparts.com/Parts/Z33/Su...rmultilink.asp

zrebel

iTrader: (4)

definately looks like a beauty and very quality wise. i wish i had the money =X

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

Ultimately the real sealed ball joints and spherical bearing bushings are vastly superior to regular open rod ends/heim joints. They will offer the same "performance" without the drawbacks of a limited life and the NVH that inevitably results from using rod ends. So they will work well in a race application, and last long in a street application. And with the welded arms, you'll always have the possibility of a weld crack/failure, while a part made from a solid piece of aluminum... well... yah

On another note, one of the major benefits to the arm I am running lies in the fact that it can be easily adjusted and aligned on the alignment rack. When I spoke to SPL about their arm and asked why their arm had not been released, they replied back with, "The reason why we held off on producing the RUCA is because there was no way to align it on the car, to adjust the RUCA will require taking the rear wheels off, because the axles and wheels are in the way. We thought that this will make it alot less desirable as a consumer
product, so it was assigned a lower priority."

Simply put, that's what happens when you run heim joints. They are cumbersome to adjust. Real balljoints on a adjustable camber plate is and always will be a winning design

Not to mention, you are now basically comparing welded tubes to a piece that was crafted from billet. I don't know about you, but the billet arm I posted pics of sure as hell looks a lot nicer than random tubes

eagletanggreen

iTrader: (40)

Very, Very nice but $1400 is def for a selected few!

Gsedan35

iTrader: (10)

My 2 cent's.

SPC isn't the only one that didn't make this part, EVO350 never uttered a desire to produce one and they brought several things off their Grand AM cars to market suspension wise. BJ did make mention of bushing bind in all the control arms as something that effected ride quality and the Unitech team went with a twin tube shock design vs monotubes because of issues not present on their Grand Am car what was equipped with sperical bearings throughout. But, 4 total bearings in a ocean of compliant bushings else where still doesn't justify the cost. I'd much rather see if EVO350 still has their whole car sperical bearing kits on the shelf.

How is it so bad to run SPC elongated toe cam bolts to get greater toe control vs spending $1495 so you don't?

Granted the part your pitching is hand made, and uses quality parts which does explain it's cost. But, I don't see anything close to a trend reguarding helm and ball joint issues with 350Z's here, in Grand Am or SCCA to say their is justification on that front.

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

I'm trying to figure out what exactly you are concerned about. Do you mind clarifying your post a little so I can make a reply? Is it the cost, bushing binding problems, toe adjustments, the need for the arm in the first place?

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but when I read the post it just goes all over the place

MrWatchDawg

iTrader: (4)

and what does this do

sorry im a n00b

-Mo

JisNis

iTrader: (18)

Im thinking COST.

kuah@splparts.com

iTrader: (10)

There is no real difference between balljoints vs. heim joints, they are all articulating joints that is basically a metal ball in a housing. A "spherical bearing bushing" as you call it, is the same thing.

We use heim joints because they are:

a. easy to replace
b. standardized so it is easy to source with many aftermarket alternatives

So our customers can easily service our products many years down the road, even if we are no longer in business.

The reason why our upper arms cannot be adjusted on an alignment rack without removing the wheel is because the axle is in the way, preventing access to the adjuster. It did not matter if we use a sliding/camber plate design. In fact a billet/camber plate design is one that we evaluated as well. In your design you have a novel solution to the problem by offsetting the adjuster so the axle is not in the way, it is a good idea -- but in doing that, the usual lateral loads now also generates a torsional load on the arm. I hope you did a thorough strength analysis on that.

As for the "patent pending" thing, I would argue that there is nothing substantially novel about your RUCA. We had publicized an adjustable RUCA for over a year now, and a sliding/camber plate adjustment mechanism is not new. The offset on the arm is new, but certainly not a major invention by any means.

That said, this is a nicely made product, the price is certainly inline with the complexity of how its made. BTW, if you are trying to sell a product, I think you should sign up as a vendor.

UrbanTacticZ

iTrader: (7)

The arm is a rear upper control arm that allows true camber adjustment in the rear. It's perfect for daily drivers and people who track because camber can easily be adjusted in literally just a few minutes.