My SPC A-Arm installation
 

I was fortunate enough to get the first SPC A-Arm set in Florida from IAPdirect.com for testing on my 2004 G35 coupe. I finally met Peter, the owner of IAP, and he's a really nice guy with a clean operation.

The A-Arms were part of a project to swap out the springs (350Z S-Techs), shocks (Tokico D-specs), brake lines (Goodrich stainless), brake rotors (Fast Brakes custom drilled/slotted rotors, 15.2 front, 13 (stock size) in rear w/ caliper spacing bracket for the Brembos), SPC camber arms, and SPC toe bolts. So some of the pics will show some of those parts being replaced too.

The design of the SPC A-Arms allow more positive camber adjustment than with probably all of the A-Arm kits out there due to the inclusion of hub spacers in the kit that go between the steering knuckle and the hub. My drop on the S-Techs isn't severe enough to require the spacers. The A-Arms gave enough adjustability.

I forgot to weigh the SPC A-arm to compare them with stock..

Also, the SPC units allow adjustment of the caster of the car using a notched cam type of spacer, but I left them at zero caster.

OK, now for the install: You need 14mm socket, 17mm socket, and a 27mm socket (for the adjusting nut). A 1 1/8 inch socket or wrench will also work for the adjusting nut. Keep in mind that this unit is an initial production sample. Peter assured me that the production units will be finished better. We installed them in my garage and needed no special tools, except for the spring compressor, which wasn't entirely necessary.

The install was pretty simple and could be done within a couple of hours or so.

First some pics of the kit.

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After you remove the wheel, remove the cotter pin holding the stock a-arm bolt onto the steering knuckle. It's 17 mm. I was doing a brake rotor upgrade so I went ahead and removed the rotors and calipers at the same time.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...h_IMG_5765.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...h_IMG_5766.jpg

The threaded shaft spun on the A-arm as we tried to remove the nut, but we were able to remove the nut once we got the other two bolts holding the A-arm to the chassis out, spun the A-arm around, and pushed down on it to apply pressure to the shreaded shaft that the nut is on.

However, before we could swing the A-arm around to apply pressure to the threaded shaft and remove the nut, we had to remove the bolts holding the A-arm to the body. The rearward bolt (14mm) came out easily, but the front bolt doesn't have enough room to com all the way out because of the position of the shock. We used a spring compressor to drop the shock down to shift the shock over slightly to give enough room to remove the bolt.

On the other side, we simply slid down the boot on the boot on the OEM shock to allow enough room to slide that front bolt out of the way.

We have since done another A-arm swap on roncfpz's 350Z with Tein CS coilovers. We simply removed the three nuts holding the coilovers to the strut tower, dropped the coilovers a little toward the back of the car, and removed the frontmost bolt. We reversed the procedure to reinstall the A-arms. This should work for stock shocks too.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...h_IMG_5769.jpg

This pic shows us applying pressure to the A-arm to remove the nut.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...h_IMG_5771.jpg

Next, we oriented the caster to 0 and tightened it down with a 27 millimeter socket before mounting the A-arm. Double check that you have the caster cam (?) oriented correctly before installing the A-arm. I had to go back and set both sides to zero caster after they were on the car, BUT, it's really easy to change caster once the A-arms are on the car. Just remove the 17mm nut, swing the A-arm down, and correct it.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...h_IMG_5767.jpg

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It took a little rubber hammering to get those bushingsto fit into the mount location of the strut tower. Insert the 14 mm bolts and tighten.

Lastly, insert the OEM conical bushing onto the SPC kit where the steering knuckle goes onto the A-arm. Then, put the 14 mm nut onto the threaded shaft (red rubber boot) and tighten it. Reinsert a new cotter pin into the nut. The photos show the wide range of motion of the shaft beneath the red rubber boot.

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Finally, the finished product.
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I have had the A-arms on the car for about 5 weeks now. They have been to the alignment shop and the alignment guy had no problem adjusting them to get the alignment within spec. They have over 2500 miles on them now and I have had no issues with them. They don't make any noise, like some do. They are easy to install and they are a well built product. They do weigh more than stock, but all aftermarket A-arms will likely weigh more than the stock aluminum units. For those the want to adjust caster or that have extreme drops, these are the only choice on the market right now.

I didn't install the shims between the hub and the steering knuckle. It will take more effort to install those shims, but if you need the extra positive camber, the shims will provide it to you.

Edit: I found my alignment specs. We eyeballed the alignment after installing the SPC front A-arms and SPC rear camber arms and toe bolts.

Before alignment:
Camber: LF -0.3 RF -0.4 LR -1.8 RR -1.7
Toe: LF -0.09 RF -0.07 LR -0.47 RR +0.55

After alignment:
Camber: LF -0.4 RF -0.4 LR -1.3 RR -1.3
Toe: LF +0.05 RF +0.05 LR +0.10 RR +0.09

Thanks to my buddies from the Florida G35 Club who came to my house and helped with all the parts installation - Chuck, Ian, Shermie, Jose, Ryan, and my brother, Wade.

EDIT: 1-2-08
You can buy the OEM cone shaped bushing from Nissan, PN 40173-AL500.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1557.jpg

Looks great. Time to replace those stock sway bars!

Thanks. Already done with the new Hotchkis design. I had planned to put them on at the same time, but they didn't arrive in time.

That was a very good write up, Sean. Thanks for making this...

Anyone reading this who are interested in the SPC camber kits, Peter at www.iapdirect.com is the guy to contact...

Nice Writeup Sean! Thank you for your help. :)


Ian, thanks for the post!

The kits will be here this Friday!! Only a handful of these left with no current ETA on the next batch.

Take care guys.

Great pictures, writeup, and tutorial, Sean!

Your detailed instructions and pictures could probably substitute for an installation manual.

I was especially interested in how SPC was going to provide caster adjustability with only a single adjustment bolt. Your pictures and writeup clearly explain that. Quite an ingenious method.

Can we make this a Sticky?

I can't wait for them to come in. I got the email from IAP today that they are charging my credit card for the set of arms. So which lucky FGC member is going to help me slap them on? The instructions are pretty good and i have all the tools needed to do the job. maybe we should do an install day for those getting the sets.

Gilley,

Is it possable to use just the shims, if only droping a small amount ?

And if this is a option would you be willing to sell the shims/bolts/brackets?

You can't use just the shims and the stock A-arm because there would still be no adjustability. You would change the camber for certain, but you would have to live with whatever you get. That may be better or worse than without the spacers.

The hub spacers are for those with cars that are so low that the normal adjustment range of the A-arms are not enough. Add the spacers, and then there is more adjustability.

FYI, SPC FRONT CAMBER/CASTER ARMS ARE IN STOCK!! :) They arrived a couple days early so anyone with a preorder, your kit has shipped out. We have a handful left and no eta on the next batch. Get yours before they are gone.

The spacers will induce a ton of positive camber on the vehicle with no ability for camber adjustment. Doesn't sound like a good idea. Just my .02

So when is the next install party? I have toe bolts and front A arms to install!

and a brain

Adrian

Same here, i have to install both sets as well. Hell i'll offer my garage for it if need be.

Nice write up Sean !! Car looks great as usual:D:D

very useful, thanks!

anyone can help me with installing the shim, those are kind of confussing me. not really sure where they go.

ok i tired installing just the arms. and it's been a disaster. the problem came when i was putting pressure on the rubber ball joint and the thing like "smashed" or "shrunched". but in the pic in the write up the rubber thing held up. is it suppose to smash? then as i'm trying to un-shrunch it the whole rubber thing comes off along with the gold ring that held in on the joint. and all the grease is everywhere. AND the red rubber thing now has a small rip in it. seriously wtf!
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...7-0762_IMG.jpg
the thing shrunched
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...7-0763_IMG.jpg
red thing off and ring off, and rip.

Please contact me on this. The balljoint boot will "smush" up depending on the way you have it in. As for it going back on, it will definitely reinstall just fine. PM me if you have any questions.

Installed mine yesterday. I had -3.4 R and -1-7L for camber; looks straight now. I will have it aligned today and post my results.

The only problem I ran into during my install was removing the black metal bushing from the oem a-arm. I went to autozone and borrowed one of their tools, came right off. I forget the name, but it looks like this one. http://shoptoolsshoptools.com/images/sch65100.jpg

any of you guys with the spacers installed have abs, vdc, and slip light on?

^ why? do you?

not sure if its the camber kit, but those lights came on after the install.

edit:
shop told me to come back monday to have it checked out. i'll put up an update once everything is resolved.

other than that, my front camber looks awesome.

you could have bumped on of the sensors on there which could cause the problem.

update?

i've been getting no calls back from the shop.........hmmm......

im sure SFLG35 is right. whether the abs sensor was misplaced on the mount, or just mishandled, i don't think it's the camber kit that is causing this problem.

so, ultimately, IMO, the shop will have to pay for this fix, like it or not.

^ probably, i just installed one side (taking a break) and i tried as much as i could to avoid bumping the abs sensor around, hopefully it won't go off.

fyi- the situation with the red boot: i got the ring and everything back on with the help of peter? at IAPDirect, and i used 100% silicone around the whole thing, and its holding up fine. i feel like wrapping a condom over the boots, like some guys did with other camber kits. for added protection.

I had my alignment guy install my kit with the spacers and my light came on and he readjusted the sensor and everything was fine. He said when he torqued the sensor down that it got tweeked and he just straighten it and the light went out.

I had both front and rears camber kits installed and noticed that it raised the my car about .5". Did any of you notice this happening.

^ no i didn't notice that, how much are you dropped? after installing my front camber look very good, but my back is still has a LOT of neg. camber.

I'm dropped F/1" R/.6" and when I installed both camber kits it raised the fronts and the rears although it raised the rears more. The fronts raised about .25" and the rear raised about half an inch. I felt the front drop of 1" was perfect and being raised .25" it still looks OK, but the rears was not lowered enough to start with and now adding another .50", I'm back to stock height. I'm back to square one.......:confused:

Guys, how long have you driven after the installation of the kit? It is normal for the vehicle to look higher after it has been on the lift and can take a few days to settle back to normal. Please PM me with the info so I can keep a log of this information.

Thanks.

If I got an alignment after the install does that mean if the car does settle I will be out of alignment?

Mark

Another issue is when you install the spacers in the front, it takes up at least 5mm, so you need that much clearance to install the them.

I'm very surprised you did not get better numbers with this kit. Especially with the camber.:confused: Is that the best your alignment shop could do? I hope SPC is not overstating their numbers.

did u install the spacers? by clearance, are you saying u need to have the a-arm sit at the exact spot as the OEM arm?

What should the alignment numbers be? I printed them out and gave a copy to the alignment shop. They didn't tell me that was the best they could do.

The spacer or shims go behind the wheel hub which pushes out the hub. If your setup (wheel/fender) is already tight with the addition of the spacer you will lose some clearance. Hope this clears things up.

^ i agree, how much are you dropped? any rubbing with those 245's in the front?

I have no rubbing issues. I'm only dropped 1" and running 9" wheels with 30mm offset, I had plenty of room. Actually for me the spacers were a good thng because it gave me a more aggressive look.

Are these still available for purchase.

Question: Spacers that you are talking about are only for the front, right?
Does that bring out the wheel our a little?

Question 2: Can people chime in on how the quality is on these. I need a front camber kit and was planning on getting the rear as well.
Does the rear have an issues as far as spacers? I don't have any room for my wheels to come out more than they are now.

^ the quality is pretty good, however i'm not engineer. before i wasn't even aware of the spacers as a part of the kit, if i had known before i might have gone with the SPL kit instead. the spacers do make the wheel stick out maybe a 1/8 at inch. but you can just adjust the camber arms to counter that (for the top of the wheel). and unless you really need a lot of positive camber you won't even need the spacers. my concern is: will these fit on brembos? or BBK?

oh and no spacers for the rear, just arms and toe bolts.

Spacers are for the fronts. The reason you have alot of positive camber adjustment is that the spacer is thicker at the top approximately 2* difference top to bottom. I didn't measure the thickness of the spacer but it's about 5-7mm.

The rears use no spacers only camber arms and toe bolts. If you have alot of negative camber (top of the tire leaning in towards the body of the car) and you get an alignment to spec where the wheels would be straight up you could encounter clearance issues. Meaning that the top of the tire is pushed out toward the fender.

The alignment shop in my area is highly recommended by members not only on this forum but many others. He has installed the SPL's front camber kit and thinks they are also very good. After working with both and looking at how they work they both have their good and bad points but overall he prefers the SPC over the SPL. If clearance is an issue than SPL is the next best choice in his opinion.

Since the spacers are behind the hub they won't interfere with BBK. The offset of your wheels is the concern for any BBK.

That's right.

If you noticed from my pics, I have both the OEM Brembos and a 15.2 inch rotor, with no issues.

Yes, we still have a few in stock currently.

The amount the spacers push the wheel out is negligible. Looks like the other questions have already been answered but if you have any further questions let me know.

The specs are definitely accurate. I am also suprised that the shop couldn't get the alignment closer to 0 but that may have been because there wasn't enough room for the wheel to clear the fender. Not really sure on that one. Recommend asking the shop about it.

The service manual calls for the following specs.

Front Camber
Minimum − 1°15′ (− 1.25°)
Nominal − 0°30′ (− 0.50°)
Maximum 0°15′ (0.25°)

Front Toe
Minimum 0 mm (0 in)
Nominal 1 mm (0.04 in)
Maximum 2 mm (0.08 in)

Rear Camber
Minimum − 1°45′(− 1.75°)
Nominal − 1°15′(− 1.25°)
Maximum − 0°45′(− 0.75°)

Rear Toe
Minimum 0 mm (0 in)
Nominal 2.8 mm (0.110 in)
Maximum 5.6 mm (0.220 in)

My final measurements are well within specs. The car is rock solid and very smooth going down the road, even at triple digit speeds.

Well that explains it. :)

As for triple digit speeds, look out for the blue and red. They seem to be out in full force here lately.

FRICK! the other day i finished installing the spacers, and what do you know, ABS, VDC, and SLIP light all come on. but i was sure the positioning where correct. i check today, i look and see that the sensor was touching the white plastic thing. so i try and repostion it so it doesn't touch, and it can't. so i deside to use a rasor blade and shave off a little of the white plastic thing, so the sensor doesn't touch, i was sure that would solve the problem. NOPE. i'm sure i didn't break the sensors, because i was very careful. anyone know what i can do?

i was only able to get -.5 camber in the rear with toe being at maximum out to 0 . does my wheel size make a difference?