Ball joint extenders (REVIEW)

Hey folks, just thought id share my review of my new ball joint extenders having now fitted them to my car..

First off, fitting was a pleasure, everything came apart nicely and bolted stright back up with minimal effort. Having lowered the jacks and let the car settle the wishbones now point in the correct direction.. Result especially with how low the car is!.. So with everything torqued up and ready I drove to the end of my drive..

First thing that i noticed is that the steering appears to be lot lighter, which is a nice suprice having got used the heavier steering with small steering wheel combo!..

Being cautious as the tracking and possibly the camber was probably way out (looked to be toeing out now..) I gave it a few shallow light turns down a quiet road - to check that there was no naughty noises coming from anywhere..

With that overwith, I drove down a familiar smooth country road. The car has been transformed, even with minimal driving with them on I can tell that ii has taken the car to new level, it feels like there is double the turn in that there was, (specially considereing that the car appeared to be toeing out!?) and the car feels so much more stable. All of this making me able to corner a lot more confidently with the car..

Will try and get some pictures up as soon as i can..

Next month sees the new coilovers and Anti rool bars: Konis - re-valved by Ohlins
H&R anti roll bars
Corner weighting
Full alignment

 

Having toe out helps a car turn in, but scrubs speed in a straight line. Good for circuit but not for road.

 

Did you make any corrections to the steering arm geometry along with the extenders?

Gurds

 

glad to hear it was money well spent, I'm still not near fitting mine yet [:^(]

 

Yeah, I'm currently running 20mins toe out and 1 degree camber.. had it reset to that straight after pretty much...

 

Maybe gurds is referring to the angle of the track rods? Your wishbones will be at the right angle now, but your track rods will be pointing at jupiter and giving some pretty crazy bump steer in compression??

 

and droop for that matter...

 

Yes bump steer is a big issue after fitting these (for me anyway).

 

Yep, referring to the angle of the track rods. Need to do a bit of work to correct the bumpsteer problem associated with dropping ball joints.

Gurds

 

Agreed, I have my compbrake track rod ends on order at the moment.. then its just a case of drilling and spacing them to near level..

 

I was looking at them to sort the issue. Let us know how you get on with them and show some pics please!

 

Sure thing.. the hubs will need the taper drilling out for the new bolt, but other than that should be fairly straight forward...

 

comp brake track rod ends were pretty much spot on for my application.

 

So is drilling the hub to get rid of the taper the only mod needed to fit them? Going to order some I think if it is that easy...

Cheers
Alex

 

yes it is alex. machine shop i use charged me 5 but thats probably more because i am in rather a lot with various 'jobs' needing done.

before you fit them measure your distances etc to make sure you don't **** up the tracking to much. you should get the tracking checked asap after fitting them to avoid killing tyres.

 

Cheers Pol... I'll get them ordered then I think.

 

How did you get the track rod end off of the fixed (passenger side) track rod? was it easy enough?.. just looked at it, forgot its only adjustable one side..

 

my rack was adjustable on both sides. probably as well to fit a new arm if it's not adjustable and get both sides perfect.

 

Are both arms the same?

 

^^Anyone^^??