i looked on ebay,the guy selling them says they only raise the car when you nail the gas,??(does that mean that they dont raise it when the car is static???) i did a search on the Hamb on them and there where people saying they arent good? breaking A-arms??? i'm just trying to figure how on how getting a couple inches higher on one of these tri fives, WTF?
DEATH TRAPS!!! outlawed many years ago. In my machinist class, we have a guy who wants us to machine him some. Gave us an old one to match it off of. bad bad Idea. If i can find the thread here, I will repost it later on or PM me and I will get it to you .
The concept is that they allow for that much more A frame movement to let the front end rise for weight transfer. No static height change and no static "gasser" look That was done when the general idea was that you had to get the front end up to transfer the weight on launch because the technology we have to set up a rear suspenson wasn't around then.
You have to use taller springs with the ball joint spacers to get any lift. The spacer keeps the upper control arm from being topped out against the upper bump stop allowing extra down travel with the taller springs. A friend of mine made a custom set of tubular upper control arms to achieve the same thing without the spacers. If your set on using spacers I would definitely recommend steel spacers with grade 8 hardware. Your stock control arms could be stepped to get the same effect also.
They allow for more front end lift before the suspension "tops out". They have no affect on static height. To get the front end up you would need spring spacers or stouter springs. Also, there are at least 2 different types of ball joint spacers. One is the old Ansen style that are basically a c shaped spacer that fits between the ball joint and the spindle. These ore the sketchy ones. The other style fit between the ball joint and the upper a-arm. I think these are OK if you can get the alignment right. I haven't seen any on E-Bay lately. I don't guess you have a seller or item number do you? Larry T
I've always read that they will work but using them will throw a curveball into the factory geometry wrecking havoc with caster, camber and toe. When those three factors are off handling can (and will) become a complete nightmare and you definitely will not enjoy the handling as much as you enjoy the look of the car.
I bought a really nice 56 BelAir 2dr post car back in the mid-70s. It had the upper ball joint bolt-in spacers when I got it. BOTH A-frames were cracked. I had to replace them. And that was when the car was only 20 years old.
I have run them on several chevys. If you dont reinforce the control arms where the ball joints bolt in,the arms will crack around the bolt holes.I dont recall having any problem aligning the front end after installation.
I have ball joint spacers and taller springs, I love the ride, no problems with alignment. Theres more pics on my picture trail. Jeffrey http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/listing/user/dukeofbluz
That '57 150 sedan is F'n straight! Just a clean one. Hard to believe that so many 150's ended up with Bel Air trim, as good as the 150 looked.
Dukeofbluz<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_3879571", true); </SCRIPT> Love the stance of your 57, Do you remember the coil spring that you used (what year model) ?
I'm running ball joint spacers on my 55. I was a little worried when I had the car aligned but it was no big deal. The alignment guy said everything went fine and it went to spec with no issues. There is no change in car stance when using only ball joint extensions. Ball joint spacers allow the front suspension to drop down farther, but that's about it. You will need to add spring spacers if you want to make the front taller. Pics:
On my 56 I used ball joint spacers,and c shaped spacers under the front springs .and a taller shock .all the parts I added actually helped my alignment,straight as an arrow. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
When I installed the taller springs and spacers I ended up with too much positive camber. I had to add 1/4" shims at all 4 points in the upper control arms to get it back to where it was supposed to be.
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