Oh my cracked upper control arm and many questions

[Prudeone]

I finally got the car jacked up and on decent jack stands. I did this to raise the car from the low rider that it was to a somewhat decent height. The guy that I bought the car from said that adjusting the car hieght was a breeze. "Just count the number of turns"

I looked and saw that there are the adjustable coilover Bilstien shocks and Eibach springs he told me about. With the car jacked up the springs were bouncing around with at least an inch of play on the coilovers. I am imagining that this is normal. If not please say something.

I looked to see what clips and screws were missing under the car and saw that the passeneger front upper control arm is cracked. The crack the middle cut out area obviously on just one side. There was so much dirt around the crack that it stuck out like a sore thumb. A testament to how great these cars are. I will not drive it anywhere until I get this fixed.

I am planning on ordering the upper control arm new. What are your thoughts on anything else I should replace or look at when I tackle this?

Another thing is I just had 4 new tires and the car aligned on Saturday at the Big O Tires on Folsom in Sacramento. Before I took it in it was driving striaght but after the above it is pulling to right a bit. James Dunn the owner said to drive it 500 miles and see if it goes away and if not bring it back and he would unmount and switch the front tires side to side. They are Kumho 712s. He was able to get the alignment within 1994 specs despite the car being really low. James said as low as the lowest one he had had there. Another reason to raise the car is to get rid of some of the negative camber the rear wheels have.

Thanks in advance again,

P.S. I really liked James Dunn and would take the car there again without hesitaion. I think It would be easy to miss this crack if you are not messing with the springs.

P.P.S.

I also located a torque wrench that will measure the 242 foot pounds needed to properly tighten the rear axle nut back down. My little brother drives Cranes for a living and has access to these. So I will be able to replace the rear wheel studs at home.

Michael

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Michael,

Sounds like the car was set pretty low to have 1" of float in the springs. I have Eibachs and stock shocks, and there is no play in the springs when the car is off the ground.

I think raising it as stated is a good idea, you will loose most of the play and get your camber back.

In regard to the upper control arm, the challenge is separating the ball joint at the steering knuckle. There is a special balkl joint separator for that. You may be able to adapt something, but be careful, it's all Aluminum down there and you do not want to mess up the knuckle in any way.

In the rear once you get the nut off, I think you will still struggle to get the drive shaft out of the hub. I am sure the pro's use an air hammer to blast it right out. You may have to devise a tool to press the shaft out without damaging it. Maybe someone here has done this and knows a trick.

I have used a block of hardwood and a big hammer, but I have not tried this on the NSX, so I would not feel right about recommending it, until I did it on my car and it worked!!

HTH,
LarryB

 

[myf16]

John Sherk (j.sherk at sympatico.ca) probably has what you need at a good discount. I bought a lower right front arm from him, and he probably still has lots of spare totally unused suspension parts from a race car.