Front Control Arms ??????

[flashed]

What is the benefit of tubular control arms versus stock for my 70 C10 ? I already have drop spindles and 5 lug rotors , and the rear will have the stock trailing arms with lowering springs . Would I be wasting my money on the Tubular control arms ?

[LS short box]

Most of the aftermarket arms will allow more caster

[SCOTI]

Tubular arms will be more rigid vs. the stamped steel arms but that is subjective as to what level of improvement one sees. For a normal. everyday driven vehicle, I doubt you'd notice. If you're building a Sport-truck & plan on some auto-crossing, tubular would be better.

Many aftermarket suppliers advertise 'better geometry' but again that's subjective. One can achieve similar 'better geometry' results w/tweaks to the factory stuff & just as important, UPDATED alignment target specs. So it comes down to what physical changes were done to achieve that better geometry.

They might also advertise 'better bushings'. Again... subjective. The 70C10 arm had the rubber lined steel sleeve set-up. It was considered HD then as trucks were for work. Later model Square-body trucks got the car style bushings that were more 'forgiving' for better ride quality. The later style bushings will deflect more vs the 'Poly bushings' offered in many tubular arms. The down side? Poly bushings are subjectively notorious for:
*Noise (squeaking/popping) once in place for a while.
*Stiction/binding (allowing partial movement/rotation then binding; partial movement then binding vs a full smooth rotation).
*Transmitting increased levels of NVH/vibrations/noise.

The early bushings are on par w/Poly bushings for limiting deflection & guess what... they can do it w/o the squeaks. But, they don't give a cushy new car ride quality & they only work for the OE control arms. Even higher up are tubular arms w/Delrin bushings. These limit deflection even more but are machined so they can pivot w/o the binding associated to the Poly units. Delrin set-ups in theory shouldn't squeak & they should be bind-free which allows the suspension (coils/shocks) to do their intended jobs easier. I haven't experienced a Delrin set-up on an extended use basis so I can't comment on the validity of that statement. My 64 is going to be my first experience as that's how I'm building it now.

Some aftermarket tubular arms are offered in a narrowed configuration depending on how deep the modifications go. It requires a good effort to tweak OE stamped arms to achieve that goal.

Some aftermarket tubular arms use smaller bushing barrels for the pivot bushings which can help w/ground clearance on aggressively lowered trucks.

[theastronaut]

Scoti has really good info in his post. I've said for awhile that slapping in a 73-87 crossmember and arms is a *downgrade* because they use the huge rubber bushings that deflect and won't hold an alignment as well as the 63-72 bushings.

I'll add that arms can't alter geometry no matter what they're advertised to do, they can only alter the alignment. Pivot points of the suspension sets the geometry. Unless you alter the actual pivot points (fixed by the spindle and a-arm pivot mounts) you're not altering geometry.

You **can** use taller upper ball joints to change the upper ball joint pivot point which will add camber gain.

You can get upper control arm pivots with dropped pivots points to alter the geometry, Hotchkis arms uses this on their arms.

Narrowing the a-arms will move the pivot points of the ball joints, which should increase camber gain slightly.

You can also get arms that move the wheel forward 1" to center the wheels in the fender opening for lowered trucks.

[Baker819]

Originally Posted by LS short box

Most of the aftermarket arms will allow more caster

I've read posts on here how to modify oem parts for the same caster gain. Pretty simple too.

[flashed]

With what New A Arm sets cost I am probably just going to rebuild my stock ones and use that money for a nice LS Radiator .

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by flashed

With what New A Arm sets cost I am probably just going to rebuild my stock ones and use that money for a nice LS Radiator .

Rebuild the stockers & do the Caster Mod:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ght=Caster+mod