JIC camber arms fouling on coilovers?

[ReQuieM]

Anyone running JIC upper camber arms and coilovers on their A70 or Z20? I've just been reassembling my front end and it looks like the JIC arms foul on the bottom of my tien coilovers. I don't think the base is much lower or wider then standard springs and shocks, so am I missing something?

They are marked L and R, both slightly different offset of the balljoint, tried both on the same side and they still seam to foul.

SO guru's am I missing something or do JIC upper camber arms and Tien coilovers not mix? If not, what coil overs are you successfully running with your JIC upper camber arms?

Pics:

L on the passengers side (correct way round).


Showing the offset differences of the balljoints.


R on the Passengers side


Cheers
Leigh

 

[planemos]

Doesn't JIC make coilovers? I don't have Teins but they are supposedly a wider design then most other brands. Another thought I had is that it may be possible that they are MKIV uppers. If they are please let me know lol.

 

[ReQuieM]

They sure do, but I think they are going to need to be alot thiner to make it work! Not sure WTF is going on to be honest.

So no one on here has JIC upper camber arms??

 

[ReQuieM]

Pretty sure they wern't the A80's but googled it anyway. Here's the A80 JIC's:

So its a no on the wrong model supra arms. Thing is these came off a JZA70 half cut, so go figure.

The lower control arms are the same ones that came in the car, so genuine '90 JZA70 arms. Maybe they are designed for the earlier arms? I might check the part numbers on the lower arms to see if they are different. Gonna piss me off if it is the case, I've just powder coated and added new uro bushes to my arms! :|

I have only just installed the lower control arms again, the camber bolts are just straight up and down. I'm not seeing how it will move enough to give me the clearance I need, but could adjusting the 'camber' on the lower arm move the shocks enough to give clearance?

 

[hvyman]

What shocks were being used on the half cut?

 

[planemos]

Probably stock ones. And they would be drastically thinner, at the bottom at least. All I can think of is some kind of caster adjusment. Or spacing the upper arm somehow to move it fore or aft(not sure what end is hitting) on the mount to make it clear. Or depending on how close it is to hitting you could grind it slightly to allow it to clear.

 

[hvyman]

Can you adjust the arms at all to make it clear?

 

[Poodles]

Might be why the top mounts on the race cars are angled inward, hmmm...

 

[ReQuieM]

No idea on which shocks the front cut had. I've found another guy in Australia that has a pair (two even!) and he's running Cusco's and Aragosta's with no Issues so I'm going to ask him to measure the widths for me so I can compare. If they are a decent amount different, then BINGO!

Sucks cos now I have to go through the issue of choosing new coilovers. Another large expense I don't need. Up side is I can flog of the Teins afterwards I spose.

Anyone wanna recommend a coil over brand that wont cost me the earth? There is a guy on ebay australia claiming he can custom order any coil over for you, price starts at $810 aud then goes up depending on the options you want. Sounds good, but it worries me, buying suspension off of ebay...

Hvyman; nup, if you check out the pics its actually one of the arms on the upper thats fouling not the over hang from the ball joint. So no luck there. I haven't adjusted the cam on the lower arm but I've been told it wont do shit unfortunately.

I actually can't believe if it is because the Teins are so thick, that no one else has had the problem before me!

 

[IJ.]

Maybe use an offset pillowball top mount to cant the shock inwards a bit like a McStrut car with lots of camber?

 

[ReQuieM]

Must of read my mind mate! I was thinking they would be a good edition for the next set just as a room for error.

How generic are the pillow tops? Would I have to get Tein tops if I kept my current coilovers? I'd assume that if they had the same shaft size it would work, would I be right?

Heres a link to that eBay guy, sound dodgy to you IJ?
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com.au/viewitem?itemId=110583290381&index=16&nav=SEARCH&nid=55280971770

 

[IJ.]

Wouldn't be all that hard to machine up some offset tops Leigh.

Don't know about "dodgy" as such but it's a case of you get what you pay for, are you locked into using the JIC top arms?

 

[ReQuieM]

You offering IJ?

Nah not really locked in, I still have my old arms but I have on sold the uro upper arm bushes that matched my lowers. Ball joint seamed fine too but lets be honest I have my hands on one of the rarest and most sort after mods for the a70, why not use them if I can!

Plus they will match up with some rear gear nicely and I'm planing to use the supra on the track occasionally so it be nice to dial in some neg camber.

I guess it's mainly the superficial reason tho!

 

[IJ.]

You offering IJ?

Nah not really locked in, I still have my old arms but I have on sold the uro upper arm bushes that matched my lowers. Ball joint seamed fine too but lets be honest I have my hands on one of the rarest and most sort after mods for the a70, why not use them if I can!

Plus they will match up with some rear gear nicely and I'm planing to use the supra on the track occasionally so it be nice to dial in some neg camber.

I guess it's mainly the superficial reason tho!

Always thought you couldn't get them under 1.5 degrees Neg so useless for a road car?

 

[ReQuieM]

It's hard to find iron clad info on them anywhere anymore, so I'm not sure. I was under the impression they were 0 to -4 or something? When I get a chance I might line them up against a stock set of upper arms and see how they line up when set out to their furtherest. May help the decision too. Although considering I've put around 10,000 k on the clock in the 8 years I've owned it I suppose it won't make a huge difference.

Found some Cusco upper pillow mounts that should suit for ~$300aud. Not too bad, but the question has to be whether its worth just updating the coil overs instead of sinking more into the old Tiens. Always wanted a few more points of dampening adjustment.

 

[IJ.]

The Tein's if not leaking are a good shock, I'd just refill them with a WT oil that puts the available adjustments back in the middle of the range, 11ty7 adjustments is just more scope to get lost when tweaking and just not needed in the real world.

 

[ReQuieM]

Hmm, is it hard (or expensive) to re oil shocks? never done it before or looked into it. But might be an idea, that, new bushes and pillow tops might be a nice refresh. I need to check the clearances of the well tho before I commit to buying pillow tops. If I get time on the weekend I'll have a gander.

The more adjustment would be so I could actually get some decernable dampening difference! I found these Teins have hard or hard dampening! lol

 

[Poodles]

Getting them rebuilt by Tein isn't that expensive either. Dunno what the prices are like there though. Old info, but at least gives you an idea http://www.preludeonline.com/f28/tein-rebuild-custom-revalve-new-spring-rate-info-150134/

 

[IJ.]

Hmm, is it hard (or expensive) to re oil shocks? never done it before or looked into it. But might be an idea, that, new bushes and pillow tops might be a nice refresh. I need to check the clearances of the well tho before I commit to buying pillow tops. If I get time on the weekend I'll have a gander.

The more adjustment would be so I could actually get some decernable dampening difference! I found these Teins have hard or hard dampening! lol

Oil change isn't hard at all in a "rebuildable" shock Leigh!

You can buy many different weights in shock Oil it's just a matter of finding one that's mid range on the clicker so you can dial up or down from there as needed.

When I had my Koni's built they used a shock dyno to match the Oil to my Spring choice.

 

[RPSil13]

No idea on which shocks the front cut had. I've found another guy in Australia that has a pair (two even!) and he's running Cusco's and Aragosta's with no Issues so I'm going to ask him to measure the widths for me so I can compare. If they are a decent amount different, then BINGO!

Sucks cos now I have to go through the issue of choosing new coilovers. Another large expense I don't need. Up side is I can flog of the Teins afterwards I spose.

Anyone wanna recommend a coil over brand that wont cost me the earth? There is a guy on ebay australia claiming he can custom order any coil over for you, price starts at $810 aud then goes up depending on the options you want. Sounds good, but it worries me, buying suspension off of ebay...

Hvyman; nup, if you check out the pics its actually one of the arms on the upper thats fouling not the over hang from the ball joint. So no luck there. I haven't adjusted the cam on the lower arm but I've been told it wont do shit unfortunately.

I actually can't believe if it is because the Teins are so thick, that no one else has had the problem before me!

2 sets of jic arms??? any luck he's willing to sell a set? lmk

thanks
Art