control arm failure........

For many months now my shop has been working on manufacturing control arms.Part of my job was to investigate other shops failures,parts supply and general needs.The reason I posted this thread is in regard to byc upper s10 failures.
I have come to the conclusion that s10 ball joints are produced and sold with no consistency standard and you can order 20 joints and get ten different pieces.I have tryed every company and they are all inconsistent.The problem with this is the excursion difference between them can cause a binding problem on the short throws and result in failure.This is what happened to the arm pictured.The ball joint binded and bent the arm.the reason it bent to the side is the caster angle forced the arm to find a lower resting place.I intend on inspecting all my joints before they ship and I suggest anyone with aftermarket arms does the same.

Grip of Form&Function //NC\\OKC

HEY LOOKY THERE...THATS MY OLD CONTROL ARMS

HERES THE ONE I PULLED OFF THE OTHER SIDE.

i WOULD LIKE TO THANK BYC FOR THOSE CONTROL ARMS

Thats pretty sweet.

YES. THEY WERE VERY SWEET. IN FACT BOTH CONTROL ARMS HAD CRACKS IN THE WELDS WHERE MIKE BUTT WELDED THE ARMS TO THE BALL JOINT PLATE. I ESTIMATED THEY HAD ABOUT 200 MILES LEFT BEFOR THEY WOULD HAVE SANPPED GOING DOWN THE ROAD.

Uh Scott you didn't by chance save the broken parts did you?

NO....I WISH I DID. THEY GOT THROWN AWAY WHILE I WAS "REDECORATING" MY GARAGE SPACE]

James you guys gonna make arms for mighty maxs?

I beg of you please make some for us Mazda & Nissan owners!!!! I have one of each so any help would be nice!!

Jay I have jigs for the mighty max but they are not set up to bolt on and require a lot of fab.I built these jigs a long time ago before people really needed or bought controlarms.Back when a 17 was baller.people used to bring me there trucks and fab was done in house.People want bolt on nowadays and my old jigs are pretty much worthless unless you want to bring me your truck.I do however plan on adding to my selection in the future.The best thing you can do is go to my web page and post what you want to see built next in the questionare forum.The website however is in the process of going up and won't do so until 12-01-06.I just posted this topic so people would pay attention to there balljoints and lesson the chances of someone getting hurt.

Originally posted by SMURF



I beg of you please make some for us Mazda & Nissan owners!!!! I have one of each so any help would be nice!!

That is why it has taken us so long to get going.We wanted to take a pole of what people wanted hence the questionare on our site.You the people will vote for what you want to see built.We also wanted to improve on the supply and demand issue along with offering something a little more trick.i could be selling parts right now but we are working on back stock to lesson delivery time. Form&Function..