First Gen stock UCA questions

[inSANe DIEGO]

While I was doing the g-mod I noticed that I had no rubber stops on the UCAs. There appears to be a mounting hole and even a corresponding contact pad welded to the subframe. Upon closer inspection it looks like there is a circular mark on the bottom of the UCA from a bumper at one time. My three questions are... 1) Is there supposed to be a bumper here? 2) If yes, should I reinstall a new one after doing the g-mod? 3) If installing a new one, how much should I trim off if any to accomodate the new UCA height?



TIA
John

I did a quick search for bump stop and came up with nothing that appeared relative.

[68BNUT]

I know what your talking about, My search's turned up no answers either. I actually think that what I was looking at was the stop for the steering.

[BRIAN]

There is supposed to be a stop there without a doubt. I would test fit and if needed cut off tip.

[David Pozzi]

I didn't cut mine since my car was lowered from stock height, which raises the A arm up on the balljoint end.

[inSANe DIEGO]

What effect (if any) on droop setting would an untrimmed stop have? Would the car care? Most of my racing experience is with R/C touring cars. Don't laugh, those things have A LOT of suspension tuning ability and the results are well noticed. Anyway, I've used droop settings quite a bit to fine tune my little racer and if I remember correctly... less front droop = more understeer during corner exit accelleration.

One more thing, David, I will be lowering my car also. I read in another thread that the LCAs should be "level." Am I right in thinking that means the ball of the LBJs should be level with the lower bushings? Approx. how many inches lower than stock is that?

Thanks
John

[David Pozzi]

If you lower your car even a little, or add stiffer springs, then the droop stop under the A arm should not hit during normal use, even with the Guldstrand mod. The GMod lowers the inner part of the arm aprox 1" but the droop stop won't lower much at all since it's near the other end.
My opinion is, lower the car to what you want even if it's a bit below having the lower A arm level as you defined. Very near level at normal ride height is ideal, but a bit lower won't hurt, it puts the upper arm at more of an angle, increasing neg camber gain, which is not so bad, the down side is a little more side scrub, but i'd bet it's small.

I wouldn't use the droop stops to tune handling, I'd use the antiroll bars and springs.

[Marcus SC&C]

John,higher rate springs tend to be shorter overall so their rate drops off sharply in rebound. Between that and a lowered ride height you`ll probably never even get close to hitting a rebound stop.
Don`t forget to check the UBJ stud angle at ride height AND full compression BTW. The bend in the stock arms causes the UBJ to run out of travel pretty quickly on a lowered car with the G mod. I`ve had several in the shop that required either modifying the UCAs,substituting our adj. tubular UCAs or adding taller LCA bumpstops (least desirable option on a street car). Marcus