98 Frontier DIY Control Arms

Decided to make my own control arms for my Fronty instead of buying them.  Almost got the front end back together after making these.  I will post more pics as I get through.  I also decided to go ahead and tub the fire wall and replace all of my lines and re route the wiring and such.  Anyways, here are the control arms Me and dubrocker put together.  
 
 
 
 

Edited: 5/18/2009 11:02:17 PM by Texmextukin

Lookin good brah!  What size tubing you use? And where did you get the balljoint cups?

I bought everything to do the uppers and lowers from Suicide Doors.   For the uppers you need these:   http://www.suicidedoors.com/control-arms/control-arm-parts/lower-s10-ball-joints-mounting-tube   http://www.suicidedoors.com/catalog/steel-tubing-bent/180-degree-bend   http://www.suicidedoors.com/4-link-parts/4-link-bushings/4-link-weld-bar-ends     In 2in.   The bent tubing is perfect.  All you have to do is cut the center of it out the size of the tubes which is 2 3/4in.   I made my bend on the ball joint tube to match the lower so I can lay the truck out with 20s.       For the Lowers, I bought everything from Suicide doors too, and just turn them into A-arms with 1in round, and 2in bar ends, the long tabs with gussets and used the left over round bar to make my shock mounts.     Let me know if you have any more questions.     Billy 

Badass dude, thanks for the info.  They came out sick man!

Did you use S-10 lower balljoints for the upper balljoints on your truck?  Seems like thats a bad idea.  Lower balljoints are designed to be on lower control arms.  It has to do with how the balljoint presses into the arm and the type of force applied.  with the balljoint on the bottom, the force from the vehicle is trying to pull the balljoint through the tube, which is virtually impossible, but if you take that same cup and balljoint and use it on an upper, the same force no longer applies, now its trying to push the balljoint out of the cup you just pressed it into, instead of pull through the DOM tube like in a lower application.   Thats why most uppers either bolt onto a plate from the top, or screw into a cup, and lot press in.  Im not saying it wont work, because ive seen alot of things i never thought would work, auctually work.  But, the application is not what its intended for at all.   Taylor

--------------------------------------------- Originally posted by Chopped Mazda Did you use S-10 lower balljoints for the upper balljoints on your truck?     Seems like thats a bad idea.  Lower balljoints are designed to be on lower control arms.  It has to do with how the balljoint presses into the arm and the type of force applied.  with the balljoint on the bottom, the force from the vehicle is trying to pull the balljoint through the tube, which is virtually impossible, but if you take that same cup and balljoint and use it on an upper, the same force no longer applies, now its trying to push the balljoint out of the cup you just pressed it into, instead of pull through the DOM tube like in a lower application.   Thats why most uppers either bolt onto a plate from the top, or screw into a cup, and lot press in.     Im not saying it wont work, because ive seen alot of things i never thought would work, auctually work.  But, the application is not what its intended for at all.       Taylor --------------------------------------------- taylor, what you just posted would only make sense if the lower bag mount was on the upper control arm.  the upper balljoint only serves to locate the spindle for steering.  the lower ball joint holds the weight.   there may be other aspects of suspension that would cause a pressed upper ball joint to come out, but the weight of the vehicle isn't one of them.     

The natural force on the upper arm is going to be pulling down.  Its not going to be a ton of force, but it will be thare. When you truck is just sitting in the drive way, and you lift it up, the main amount of the force is applied to the lower control arm, this is true, and cant be denied. But when your driving your truck down the road, and your at ride height, with the truck going over bumps in the road, or waves in the road and your truck starts to cycle through its small amount of driving range of motion, there is force pulling down on that upper balljoint as the vehicle moves in the upward position then back down and up again, its trying to pull that upper balljoint down.  It may not be a ton of force, or even half that, but there is force thare pulling down, and that is why upper balljoints do not press in from the bottom. I know one thing for sure, at the local circle track races, there is a rule about putting your balljoint on the top side of the arm, to prevent it from pulling through.  And i have to believe that the rule is in place because they have had issues with it in the past.  Again, im not saying that it wont work at all, but there are reasons that upper balljoints mount in a certain way.   Taylor

Upper balljoints are designed to be on uppers and lower balljoints are designed to be in the lowers thats how they are engineered.  Will it work, maybe.  Using the S-10 lower BJ for the upper did you have to retaper the spindles to fit them?  If so why not use S10 upper BJ's?  I am on board with Taylor on this one.  I could see the upper balljoint pulling out of the top of the cup,(mounted upside down in an upper arrangement) due to the fact that they were never designed to see a load pulling down on them only pushing down into the cup(mounted in a lower arm arrangement),  Hopefully that makes sence.

MY CONCERN WITH THE UPPERS IS THA THE FACTORY UPPER ARMS THE BALLJOINT IS OFFSET ITS NOT CENTERED. IVE HAD TUBULARS MADE FOR MY OLD FRONTIER AND THEY ARE OFFSET...  HERES SOME PICS WITH YOURS STRAIGHT YOULL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET IT ALIGNED. AND WILL MOST LIKELY SNAP TIERODS AND STUFF LIKE THAT 

 

 

--------------------------------------------- Originally posted by Chopped Mazda The natural force on the upper arm is going to be pulling down.  Its not going to be a ton of force, but it will be thare.   When you truck is just sitting in the drive way, and you lift it up, the main amount of the force is applied to the lower control arm, this is true, and cant be denied.   But when your driving your truck down the road, and your at ride height, with the truck going over bumps in the road, or waves in the road and your truck starts to cycle through its small amount of driving range of motion, there is force pulling down on that upper balljoint as the vehicle moves in the upward position then back down and up again, its trying to pull that upper balljoint down.  It may not be a ton of force, or even half that, but there is force thare pulling down, and that is why upper balljoints do not press in from the bottom.   I know one thing for sure, at the local circle track races, there is a rule about putting your balljoint on the top side of the arm, to prevent it from pulling through.  And i have to believe that the rule is in place because they have had issues with it in the past.     Again, im not saying that it wont work at all, but there are reasons that upper balljoints mount in a certain way.       Taylor --------------------------------------------- Taylor,   I am definately listening, but if the upper is pulling down on the ball joint then I will be A O K.  These are pressed in from the top, meaning that a ton of force would have to push it up to come out.  I know that most upper ball joints are bolted in but I also seen some that are pressed in, like the corvettes.     Either way, this is my first atempt at control arms and definately taking notes while I venture into this.     Billy