SPL Traction Arms, any experience or knowledge
 

Basically as the the title states. Looking to buy and want to get the best suspension handling out of my car. So has anyone had experience or know how to get the most out of these?

I have a set but haven't installed yet. I do have other SPL pieces installed. Very nice stuff. Allows for easy alignment. I personally believe other two arms are more critical. Especially for us guys running true coil overs in the rear. Nice clean way to delete that ugly stock arm with spring holder.

Benefits of adjustable traction bar? I'm still figuring that out. Trying to think what it will do? Guess it would impact toe and maybe caster? Not sure. I went more for the solid bushings and high quality design. Won't know how it impacts alignment until I have it on the car and start dinking

You should be able to limit the toe change during travel by measuring toe at different levels of travel and adjusting the length of the traction arm so that you can keep the change as small as possible. I don't think it's possible to eliminate toe change completely, but you could get it pretty close. Since your car is lower the stock length may or may not be ideal... this will give you the ability to fine tune it.

Since they have rod ends I'd also look at getting some good rod-end seals (not sure what they come with) or some rod-end boots to keep them greased nicely and as quiet as possible.

But like Grant mentioned the solid bushings are going to make the biggest difference over stock.

After spending 10 minutes on the phone with SPL the other day the best answer given was your deleting the mushy bushing that induces some bumpsteer to a solid machined bushing that helps reduce this action. Which I'm thinking of ordering there hole bushing replacement kit. Costly but I feel it's worth it.

Yes it is. The performance diiference in my Porsche Boxster from stock bushings to monoballs was astounding. Anything that holds alignment better and frees up suspension rotation at pivot points is good.

I just wish SPL would do a front arm! please please pretty please!

Eventually all bushings On my car will be replaced with spl parts. It's about half the cost of my Boxster monoball conversion too!

Where did you get these parts?

All most all the major retailers of aftermarket 370z parts sell SPL stuff. Pick your favorite.

http://www.the370z.com/suspension-br...ments-now.html

I did talk to the guy at SPL on the phone the other day for about 10 minutes. He said they have sponsored two Z's that are racing in the continental tire sports car challenge this past weekend that are running there front camber arms and will be waiting on there report to make the decision if those will be the ones they put into production in the next month. Which I did reply you've said that before and that day hasn't come. But we'll see. I told him there is a market for them on the boards.
THMotorsports has the best pricing on all these parts with free shipping.

Got mine from THMotorsports too! Best deal I could find as well.

Just to be 100% completely clear...Doran Racing DOES NOT run SPL front control arms.
When we first got the car we had a conversation with them and received their parts... after seeing them and talkin with Grand Am we decided to go another direction and make our own parts.
At Barber Motorsports park we ran Hotchkis front and rear sway bars....
After running he car for the first time.... we designed our own sway bars as well.
The Hotchkis sways are a great product ... we were in need of a much higher range with adjustability.....
Again.... We do not run SPL front control arms.
Dwnshift

It's probably these guys, they were racing two Z's at Mosport this past weekend.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...cbc25523_z.jpg
IMG_6508 by J M Gale, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8008/7...9efd7581_z.jpg
IMG_6506 by J M Gale, on Flickr

They were good guys to talk to. I got a crap ton of pictures of their cars :tup:

Yea must be. But who ever comes out with good front control arms first is getting my money that day. I'm reworking my hole suspension.

Galeforce,
Great meeting you and your family this past weekend! I hate that your son didnt like sitting in the car. That would have been an awesome pic.

You are correct, SFR Enterprises is sponsored by SPL Parts Pro (Sean Farrah).

Also to be clear, we are a SPL Dealer as well. I do not think we have the SPL 370Z components listed on our site YET...I will need to double check. Otherwise we can also obtain any of their parts as well.

Hi Dustin :hello:It was great meeting you. It's a shame my little guy was afraid of sitting in the race car, thanks to you and the team for the offers.

I'm still working on the photos from the weekend. I'll send you a PM with a link to the photos for you and the team to look through when I'm done.

subd

bump, does spl or whiteline have any pushings out yet for our car? except spl's front inner control arm, knuckle ball, and subframe ones.

I'd like to see spl front control arms!

Here's a pic of the one's that were being tested on the #51 World Challenge Z.
Attachment 54887

what about them bushings, i believe mine are wearing out :|

That would probably be around $700 if there was one available. There is one for the 350Z for that exact price.

interesting! i thought they would have a design similar to the 350z front arm using the shim system

:icon23:

Ok I'm confused. Spoon asked about traction links (arm that runs from the front of the car to the rear per say). You seem to be talking about toe links which replace the aluminium arm that holds the rear spring. Or am I missing something? Before I found this in a search I thought toe was adjusted by the eccentric bolt in the mid link arm or the traction arm if you bought an adjustable one. I guess I'm wrong. Unless I spend $728 on the spl mid link or buy true coils and then buy the spl toe arms, at the moment I have zero way to adjust rear toe because I installed a lockout bolt.

Bump.

Mine are installed. I've adjusted some for toe. Till I get on an alignment machine, I don't think I'm adjusting toe correctly. But I'm not worried about toe. I want to know what I spent $300 for? Anyone learn something about these?

You will not need to adjust toe with these. Keep them as close to stock length as possiable and equal on both sides. These traction arms just help maintain stability under load of the suspension to aid in keeping the toe at postion. Then the fact of you removed another OEM rubber bushing. They also can help with bump steer.

A suspension is like aero dynamics. It works better when all parts come together.

I adjusted one side and it did have crazy bump steer. Now they're both OEM length and equal. But the issue I have now is the drivers tire is like 2.5" away from the rear bumper while the passengers is like 3".

I wouldn't use the rear bumper for measurement. As long as there equal length from side to side and the alignment is good. Your good.

You mean wouldn't use it?

I just spent an hour redoing everything. Made sure each traction arm is 10 5/8 like OEM center hole to center hole, flipped my lockout plates and ground down one side since the top to bottoms where longer than the side to sides, so now the plates are 0.13" shorter on one side than the other, and had to redo camber because of the plates changing toe.

Now I'm -1.7 degrees each side and 0.25" toe in. Toe is still out of spec but its better than 0.69" toe in then when I started. I think I need to make new plates. I can't grind down the one side anymore because then it will be to short and will flop in between the slots in the subframe. If you look at this pic of where a guy made new plates, my holes are in between the centered holes and where his are. So with new plates and moving the hole more to one side like his, I'm sure I can get another 0.125" each side.

However tires to bumper I'm still 2.5" drivers side and 3" passenger.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psdec2770b.jpg

Whats the difference, when you measure the wheelbase??

I haven't. Should I do like center of front wheels to center of rear wheels?

Seems even with the winter wheels.

If the rods are equal, and your wheelbase is equal, youre good.

Then your fenders shouldn't be used as a gauge.

Guess so. Still waiting on alignment. Need front arms!

So question is, will these parts work in a stock suspension? or is it not worth buying unless you add other components to the mix.

It's one of those things that's really the last piece of the puzzle. Do it last after you have done the bigger suspension mods from spl