Uni-ball UCA's... you read that right!

[07JeepXK]

Makes sense, coming from another person with OCD. I have the old version of the JBA's that were designed around their coilover assembly. I'd like to swap them out someday for their new version.

[Matt]

I hear ya.

That ties into the other design recommendation I made for the AM arms.... they say there's 1/8" of clearance at the coil which I dont believe is enough (especially if they fix the cup angle and squeak out a bit more travel).

So I recommended getting more clearance by moving the welds further outboard like so:

[AmericanMotorsports]

So I finally can post here on the forum. Im glad you guys are giving us feed back on our new arms that were just placed on a Wk with a 4 in HD EME coils placed on the struts. The customer was having serious issues with the stock arm causing the spindle to rub on the coil isolator preventing anymore down travel. The customer was sick of it squeaking too. We were able to move the arm out away from the spindle and place a uniball in place of the typical balljoint. We found we were able to get almost 2 in of extra down travel. Matt had some really good ideas to maximize the space around the strut. We will be looking into what can be done to improve the arms. PM me for pricing, I need to get approval before posting up pricing. They are more than the JBA arms just FYI. The arms are build with offroading in mine and made from 1/8 4130 Chromoly Plate. The arms are water jet and CNC bent to maintain proper fitment. 2 uniballs with high misalignments, 4 urethane bushing assemblies and a machined tapered spindle adaptor is included with each set.

Let me know if anyone is interested in doing a long travel kit or mid travel kit for the WK.

[Matt]

Welcome! And glad you're able to finally join in the convo!

Looks like your customer is running a daystar spacer in addition to his OME HD spring. So it definitely makes sense that his spindle was hitting the perch... if he was a member here we could have warned him ahead of time*

Do you think you guys will incorporate any of my recommendations? I plan on rebuilding my suspension at the end of December when I have a lot of vacation time that I need to use.... I wouldn't mind testing the prototypes that incorporate my ideas. I'd be happy to beat them up a bit offroad as well!

Would like to hear more about long-travel ideas. Kyle's 2wd.... and a bit crazy like the rest of us.... sounds like a match made in heaven!

[oleblue27]

I like the idea of a long travel kit! Not so crazy about prices! But I love the idea and might consider it lol.


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[AmericanMotorsports]

Matt here is a question for you. Lets see how you might design them. The top and bottom plates need to be one piece design so your drawings in the pic wont work. Lets see what you come up with. Also if you remove that 1/8 inch of material and you allow for a little more drop out the uniball cup will be the next part to hit. So how much more wheel travel will the WK gain with removing 1/8 inch of material. Is it worth it? I have the customer coming in on Sat. to take some more pics and get some pis with the suspension flexed out some action pics. Oh and this was a random customer that came into my shop for these arms other than that as you can see on my website Im more of a toyota specialist. I have to say i was really impressed with the WK interior, motor and look, so Im thinking im might have to get one........

[Matt]

Im not sure I follow what the issue is. The top and bottom plates can still be one piece and can be cut to the shape I outlined.

If I was making this for where I work I would model it, rotate the cup a few degrees and get the new cut profile that would simplify the compound angle for arm-to-cup interface.

The 1/8 clearance I was referring to is distance to the spring at full drop....thats not enough to account for vehicle tolerances..... I wouldn't want my arms hitting the springs while offroading.

Right now it looks like the uniball is maxed out at full droop.... I wouldn't want the uniball to be the suspension limiter; Let the strut limit full extension.

To answer your question on if I think my suggestions are "worth it"..... for an arm thats a premium price over the JBA arms id say yes.. an emphatic yes. Leave no question in anyones eyes that your arms are merely equal (if not currently inferior) to a competitor, especially an established competitor like JBA.

JBA recently redesigned their arms to optimize them for lifted WKs. Pretty sure I emailed the link to jeepforum for you to check out. He made 4 or 5 iterations to try out until they were perfect.

Just an FYI your customer is running a double-stacked lift that isnt generally recommended. When you get it back in measure the distance from center of hub to bottom of fender.... most 2-3" lifted WKs measure about 22.5".

Edit: do you have a 3D model of your arms? Id be happy to mess around with it.... you wouldn't be able to use the file since I only have a student version of ProE at home (I get a license every year as part of a mentorship I do) but I could at least get some better screen shots than ms paint lines lol

[Matt]

Find a WK with quadra-drive 2 and go offroading. ... you'll really be impressed

[AmericanMotorsports]

On my design the top plate is one piece from the front to the back holding the 2 bushing assemblies. Your design has 2 separate arms that weld to the side of the uniball cup. My design keeps the strength of the front and rear arms together as one piece and doesn't rely on the uniball cup for structural part of the arm. Its only the joint that allows for articulation. Your arm design uses the uniball cup for structural strength which the uniball cup isnt that thick and Ive seen then rip apart from off-roading and hard hits. Which isnt a good sight. My background is desert racing. So most of the reason for my designs is because of weak points Ive have encountered during my years fabricating. Hence the reason I dont rely on another manufactured part to be the structural strength of my arms. Also you dont want the strut being the limiting factor in your suspension because when the shaft blows out of the strut you arent going anywhere. You dont want ball joints over extending which cause them early fatigue and possibly breaking them. Uniballs on the other hand are made to be run at there limit and yes i do recommend running a limit strap to stop them before they 100% max out but they can max out because they are only full max out for a fraction of a sec before the suspension compresses again. Matt you have some great ideas I wish you were in California Id hire you because you really know your stuff and I could use a good man to push my mind to my limits. I dont ever stop learning. It like put these on a customers truck with just the EME HD spring lift and see where the arms sit.

[Matt]

I'll have to take a closer look at your pics when I get home tonight. ... Didnt realize yours wrap around the bushings like that; thats pretty cool!

Though I dont think my idea relies on cup strength any more than your current welds do. ... probably a fault of trying to express my thoughts as little lines lol. (Edit: I think I see what you mean now... I have an idea ill have to play with )

For limiting the suspension using the strut isn't ideal by any means.... but im leary of the aluminum around the joint taking a beating; especially with the added leverage caused by the uniball location. I can drive out with a blown strut; not going anywhere if my knuckle breaks. Thoughts?

Keep in mind we do slow speed trail riding/crawling. .. not high speed racing/jumping.