"Z"ing control arms or custom ones on a FWD? Ideas?

So I recently purchased new 6" cylinders for the front of my saturn ion so I could get it to lay subframe on 20s. When I was cycling the suspension I noticed that the control arm bushings max out and stop the car from lowering any more. I guess my main question is should I Z the control arm to raise the ball joint location and in turn lowering the angle of the control arm bushing at max drop or should I swap out to some sort of custom control arm? Maybe different style bushings and run a more traditional lower A arm. Here is a picture of a delta body control arm for reference.



Any Ideas?

On my MPV, I almost z'ed the front lower arms to get on the ground, but I discovered that my cv shafts would bind just 1/4" lower than it already got, and that they were already pushing on the wheel bearings. So, since I had already changed wheel bearings twice in 50,000 miles, I decided to be happy where it sat!

If you've got the cv angle to work with, I would at least consider lengthening the lower arms as you z them, to help keep the axles from pushing against the hubs. This will also help keep from going to positive camber as you drop.

Good luck!

I might have to do that. If I get within 1/4" I am just going to plate the subframe.

That arm looks like it would be pretty easy to jig up and build another one. A different angle could be built into the ball joint and maybe a uniball at the pivot on the right would allow some more travel if it is an issue there.

My plan was to drill out the rivets on the spindle side and space it up then bolt it back. the HHR was at the end of flex on the CVs just on an 18. I noticed the axle where it comes out of the trans flexing when i would lay out. thats hard on all kinds of stuff. i think the whole motor and lower mounts need to be raised to lay something bigger than 18s with no driveline issues

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garagebuilt said:

My plan was to drill out the rivets on the spindle side and space it up then bolt it back. the HHR was at the end of flex on the CVs just on an 18. I noticed the axle where it comes out of the trans flexing when i would lay out. thats hard on all kinds of stuff. i think the whole motor and lower mounts need to be raised to lay something bigger than 18s with no driveline issues

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I made equal length shafts a while ago for the passenger side. I am not sure how the HHR was done on the pass side but my axle used to hit the motor when it was just 1 piece. I had that flexing issue too

Its prob gonna be tough to clear a 20 with a 6" cylinder and still ride decent. Just something to consider.

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HarryBalls said:

Its prob gonna be tough to clear a 20 with a 6" cylinder and still ride decent. Just something to consider.

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Yea I figured that would be a problem, but when I drove the car around on a regular basis I never untucked the tire. I usually can get by riding just at tire height or the tire slightly tucked with no problems. I mocked up the tire and its about 2-3" of clearance between the fender and top of the tire when dropped.

Edited: 12/17/2011 4:40:56 PM by k24 rd6

My crv has a similar arm design and has the same problems. When it was static lowered, I used 1.5" extended ball joints and cut off the front bushing and welded it back on at the angle i wanted. When I did the hydros, I raise the crossmember an 1.5" which also helped out