Alloy front control arm fitment

[tydon]

so i bought a pair of v4 sti front control alloy arms being told that they would be direct fitment to my gtb so i go one side out and went to fit the alloy arm and it wouldnt fit in one spot heres a picture of my old one and the alloy one

do i just bend the opening where this slot into more to fit it in?

[loner]

Your picture isn't very useful. But bending things to make them fit doesn't sound like a good idea when talking about suspension parts.

[Guest]

So what Im getting here is the front inner bush steel insert is to wide? Do not bend that mount. The insert piece is solid steel so short of cutting it I cant see a solution if it is actually to wide.

[tydon]

Everything lines up all right kinda the sway bar link is really tight. I hacksawed the inner steel bush insert that didn't slot in to fit to match the old Gtb one and filed it its all in now but i don't think it's supposed to fit. I had to unbolt the struts from the hub to put the sway link on then had to force the hub up to bolt to the strut up ..

[Kiwi_Fozze]

I had the opposite problem, mine had to be packed out. The alloy arms are wider so it'll have to preload your shock to seat the bottom bolt, but nothing obscene

[tydon]

yeah thats weird i did my other side and itl bolted up sweet after trimming the inner steel bushing to fit. i decided to drop it down to see if it would sit ok and seemed ok. i then returned to the first side i did the alloy arm swap and took the bolts out holding the strut it didnt move at all and seems to be sitting all good again. some one was saying that i need to change sway bar links to fit properly but so far no issues. just wondering if im gunna notice any handling differnce with these or not

[gotasuby]

2000 on alloy arms have a thicker bush. so to fit them to pre 2000 you need to grind them down a little. then they work fine

[tydon]

anyone know why car would be quite floaty in the front after installing do i need to get some aftermarket sway bar links?

[tydon]

also just changed front springs at the same time

[Koom]

 tydon said:

anyone know why car would be quite floaty in the front after installing do i need to get some aftermarket sway bar links?

Possibly springs are under damped. Need better shocks?

[tydon]

hmm shocks seemed to be in good nick they are going to be replaced in a few weeks . can you explain under damped springs?

[Koom]

 tydon said:

hmm shocks seemed to be in good nick they are going to be replaced in a few weeks . can you explain under damped springs?

By that I mean the stiffer springs may be too much for the existing shocks to dampen. So the car can feel floaty or bouncy. I had that with a set of king springs on original rs shocks and it felt pretty horrible. The shocks were probably a bit old at the time too which wouldn't have helped.

[tydon]

Not sure it's my shocks car feels really bad to drive now it shudders turning and the front end wobbles in a straight line and it squeaks

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Bushings are f**ked.

[Scoobydoo]

Slight hijack, but if you're after some aftermarket front links, I have a set of these Whiteline ones

$85 shipped

[tydon]

 kwi_fozze said:

Bushings are f**ked.

which bushings?

[boon]

 tydon said:

which bushings?

Hard to say over the interwebs.

Jack the front up, take the front wheels off then use a pry bar to give bits and pieces a wriggle.

[tydon]

I'll do that see what I come up with for now I'm gunna take them out and swap them back to oe . And look at replacing all the bushes

[tydon]

couldnt pinpoint what was doing it so i removed them and put the old ones back in and its driving sweet again im guessing it something to do with the bushes i trimmed down that and the sway bar links i noticed the alloy ones were 10mm longer than the gtb ones

[Kiwi_Fozze]

I'd replace all the bushings in the arm with the nolathane equivalent for your particular year sti, should make all the centers the right length. Possibly also worth picking up some forester caster bushes (or an anti lift kit, does the same thing) or getting new bushes there too. You'll need the sti swaybar linkages too, or you'll break something

[tydon]

someone sent some pictures of some adjustable sway bar links i could possibly use? pictures above somewhere

[kamineko]

probably the wrong style swaybar links as mentioned on the identical dobc thread. are the springs captive?

[Scoobydoo]

They will work on alloy arms, they came out of a legacy which had the arms converted, and bought them for my own legacy as well, but my plans changed

[kamineko]

your ones yep they will work fine. i'm talking about the plastic dogbone style that are fitted to the steel arms

this issue:

 scooby-wrx said:

Hey guys,

If you have a GC8 / GF8 and have fitted a set of aluminium front swaybar links, please post pics. I recently bought a set off trademe, but they look too short to me... ??? I haven't got around to bolting them up to check yet, probably do it this wkend. Thanks.

[tydon]

ive just chnaged the springs back to original springs as the dobi ones sat higher than factory... anywho i was talking about the ones scooby was selling anyone know why the wishbone style ones are shorter?. the alloy arms came with the balljoint type links and were very hard to fit to the swaybar.