I was fortunate enough to get the first SPC A-Arm set in Florida from IAPdirect.com for testing on my 2004 G35 coupe. I finally met Peter, the owner of IAP, and he's a really nice guy with a clean operation.

The A-Arms were part of a project to swap out the springs (350Z S-Techs), shocks (Tokico D-specs), brake lines (Goodrich stainless), brake rotors (Fast Brakes custom drilled/slotted rotors, 15.2 front, 13 (stock size) in rear w/ caliper spacing bracket for the Brembos), SPC camber arms, and SPC toe bolts. So some of the pics will show some of those parts being replaced too.

The design of the SPC A-Arms allow more positive camber adjustment than with probably all of the A-Arm kits out there due to the inclusion of hub spacers in the kit that go between the steering knuckle and the hub. My drop on the S-Techs isn't severe enough to require the spacers. The A-Arms gave enough adjustability.

I forgot to weigh the SPC A-arm to compare them with stock..

Also, the SPC units allow adjustment of the caster of the car using a notched cam type of spacer, but I left them at zero caster.

OK, now for the install: You need 14mm socket, 17mm socket, and a 27mm socket (for the adjusting nut). A 1 1/8 inch socket or wrench will also work for the adjusting nut. Keep in mind that this unit is an initial production sample. Peter assured me that the production units will be finished better. We installed them in my garage and needed no special tools, except for the spring compressor, which wasn't entirely necessary.

The install was pretty simple and could be done within a couple of hours or so.

First some pics of the kit.

































After you remove the wheel, remove the cotter pin holding the stock a-arm bolt onto the steering knuckle. It's 17 mm. I was doing a brake rotor upgrade so I went ahead and removed the rotors and calipers at the same time.





The threaded shaft spun on the A-arm as we tried to remove the nut, but we were able to remove the nut once we got the other two bolts holding the A-arm to the chassis out, spun the A-arm around, and pushed down on it to apply pressure to the shreaded shaft that the nut is on.

However, before we could swing the A-arm around to apply pressure to the threaded shaft and remove the nut, we had to remove the bolts holding the A-arm to the body. The rearward bolt (14mm) came out easily, but the front bolt doesn't have enough room to com all the way out because of the position of the shock. We used a spring compressor to drop the shock down to shift the shock over slightly to give enough room to remove the bolt.

On the other side, we simply slid down the boot on the boot on the OEM shock to allow enough room to slide that front bolt out of the way.

We have since done another A-arm swap on roncfpz's 350Z with Tein CS coilovers. We simply removed the three nuts holding the coilovers to the strut tower, dropped the coilovers a little toward the back of the car, and removed the frontmost bolt. We reversed the procedure to reinstall the A-arms. This should work for stock shocks too.



This pic shows us applying pressure to the A-arm to remove the nut.


Next, we oriented the caster to 0 and tightened it down with a 27 millimeter socket before mounting the A-arm. Double check that you have the caster cam (?) oriented correctly before installing the A-arm. I had to go back and set both sides to zero caster after they were on the car, BUT, it's really easy to change caster once the A-arms are on the car. Just remove the 17mm nut, swing the A-arm down, and correct it.





It took a little rubber hammering to get those bushingsto fit into the mount location of the strut tower. Insert the 14 mm bolts and tighten.

Lastly, insert the OEM conical bushing onto the SPC kit where the steering knuckle goes onto the A-arm. Then, put the 14 mm nut onto the threaded shaft (red rubber boot) and tighten it. Reinsert a new cotter pin into the nut. The photos show the wide range of motion of the shaft beneath the red rubber boot.

 

Finally, the finished product.






I have had the A-arms on the car for about 5 weeks now. They have been to the alignment shop and the alignment guy had no problem adjusting them to get the alignment within spec. They have over 2500 miles on them now and I have had no issues with them. They don't make any noise, like some do. They are easy to install and they are a well built product. They do weigh more than stock, but all aftermarket A-arms will likely weigh more than the stock aluminum units. For those the want to adjust caster or that have extreme drops, these are the only choice on the market right now.

I didn't install the shims between the hub and the steering knuckle. It will take more effort to install those shims, but if you need the extra positive camber, the shims will provide it to you.

Edit: I found my alignment specs. We eyeballed the alignment after installing the SPC front A-arms and SPC rear camber arms and toe bolts.

Before alignment:
Camber: LF -0.3 RF -0.4 LR -1.8 RR -1.7
Toe: LF -0.09 RF -0.07 LR -0.47 RR +0.55

After alignment:
Camber: LF -0.4 RF -0.4 LR -1.3 RR -1.3
Toe: LF +0.05 RF +0.05 LR +0.10 RR +0.09

Thanks to my buddies from the Florida G35 Club who came to my house and helped with all the parts installation - Chuck, Ian, Shermie, Jose, Ryan, and my brother, Wade.

 

Excellent write-up Sean. Looks outstanding!

 

Gilley, nice write up. The car looks great. Its also good to hear that the product is up to standards...after all I am waiting for mine to come in. Anyways, you said that there are little spacers and shims that come with the kit. Will I be needing to install those if my car is going to be lower? I have the Stance coilovers, but I am waiting to get my a-arms to install them all at once. Thanks.
Clint

 

great! this is exactly what i need. is it smart to just install the shims anyway if you think you might need them, and let the alignment shop worry about it?

 

I figured I wouldn't need the shims for a mild S-Tech drop and that there would be enough adjustment in the A-arm alone. From eyeing it, they look to be as adjustable as the Cuscos on the arm alone. I figured I'd have the car aligned and if I needed to add the shims for more positive camber, I'd do it then and have it realigned.

I didn't want to dismantle the hub to install the shims if I didn't have to. I already had enough to do with the springs, shocks, brake lines, pads, and rotors.

I can see people with non-SPC arms buying unneeded SPC spacers to get more positive camber if they are lower and still don't have what they need to be in spec. For instance, guys that are slammed and have their A-arms maxxed out could get the shims from an SPC kit and use them with their existing equipment.

Maybe SPC should sell the shims separately. They seem to be well designed and well made. They would go with any other kit. (I have dibs on this idea, so PM me for the address to send the royalty checks. )

 

nice...glad to hear you like the product..and nice car btw

 

I have about 1" of drop in the front of my car right now and my camber in the -1.7 & -1.8 range. Do you think if I installed these arms w/o the shims I could get my camber back to -1.3? I'd really like to have my camber at -1.0 in the front, but I don't like the idea of shims.

 

Great write up Sean! Thank you for your help.

 

Yes, you can install the shims during the installation of the arms and then let the alignment shop perform the alignment as usual.

 

You shouldn't have any problem attaining those numbers with just the arms installed.

 

how much heavier than stock?

 

i don't exactly know what and where the shims go. when i get it, does it come w/ instructions? or is there going to be another write-up with the shims?

 

The kit comes with instructions on how to install the shims. If you install them, you can do that writeup.

 

haha sure. hows the clearance above the arms? if you're really slammed, will the arms rub inside the fender?

 

Clearance is fine. I can't see in there when the car is down but nothing hits. It's a little thinner than the stock A-arm, so maybe there is a little more clearance.

If my thinking is correct, lowering the car will keep the upper suspension in its stock location. Someone chime in here and let me know if I'm correct or not.

 

Great write up.

 

FYI, SPC FRONT CAMBER/CASTER ARMS ARE IN STOCK!! They arrived a couple days early so anyone with a preorder, your kit has shipped out. We have a handful left and no eta on the next batch. Get yours before they are gone. www.iapdirect.com www.camberkit.com

 

yay i got mine in today. the look great, but reading the directions and looking at the shims and the bag it come with, i don't know what the hell i'm suppose to do. something about the brake calipers? what am i doing and why? it would be great to see a write up about these shims, becasue idk if i can really figure it out.

 

Are you so low, or want so much positive camber, that you need the shims?

The whicker part of the shim should go up top on the hub mount so place the top of the wheel farther out relative to the rest of the suspension.

One guy on G35Driver, Jamaica 2g, apparently put the spacers on his car already. Maybe you can PM him.