Firm feel upper control arms

[shawge]

Yikes! Where did that come from?

[farmboy70]

Are these firm feel?

[Slotts]

Are these firm feel?

Hey Dave,
It used to be. 

Jim

[72bluNblu]

That's not a Firm Feel UCA.

That's a UCA made by a now defunct company called CAP. They had several failures in a short period of time because of poor welding and quality control. That's a faulty weld, 100%. It's not a reflection on well constructed UCA's in any way.

How many ball joints have popped out of factory UCA's? How many have been bent? No manner of construction is fail proof.

[HP2]

Yea, that picture has been making the rounds for a few years now. They are not Firm Feel arms but CAP arms as 72bluNblu points out. CAP was bought out by QA1 and the entire product line was suspended while it was reviewed and re-engineered.

[1 Wild R/T]

Whether it's a firm feel part or to isn't really the point... Welded parts have points of failure that aren't present on a stamped part.....

Yes I've seen ball joints pop out of OE arms, it happens when they are installed incorrectly... But when it happens it's still contained, the wheel angle may change but it won't collapse or fail catastrophically...... 

And yes I've seen OE control arms bend... Why? Because the car hit something that didn't move...... Guess what... It still didn't break.... Which means even though the handling will suffer you shouldn't lose control which is exactly what happens when a tubular control arm breaks.....

[HP2]

There are numerous new cars that use cast aluminum control arms that will shatter on impact and similarly render a car inoperable and out of control. Designed, gusseted, and welded properly is not an automatic pathway to a failure simply because of the welding. The CAP design was poor out  of the gate. The welding was an additional problem.

Understand what you have, the risks you take with that parts, and ask the manufacturer questions accordingly.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

There are numerous new cars that use cast aluminum control arms that will shatter on impact and similarly render a car inoperable and out of control. Designed, gusseted, and welded properly is not an automatic pathway to a failure simply because of the welding. The CAP design was poor out  of the gate. The welding was an additional problem.

Understand what you have, the risks you take with that parts, and ask the manufacturer questions accordingly.

I agree.

Any modified Wrangler out there has dozens of welded parts holding control arm ends, track bar mounts, control arms, tie rods together, etc. All of our cars use a weld to hold the rear axle to the spring perch...Comes down to the design and quality control.

[72bluNblu]

Whether it's a firm feel part or to isn't really the point... Welded parts have points of failure that aren't present on a stamped part.....

Yes I've seen ball joints pop out of OE arms, it happens when they are installed incorrectly... But when it happens it's still contained, the wheel angle may change but it won't collapse or fail catastrophically...... 

And yes I've seen OE control arms bend... Why? Because the car hit something that didn't move...... Guess what... It still didn't break.... Which means even though the handling will suffer you shouldn't lose control which is exactly what happens when a tubular control arm breaks.....

A properly designed and welded joint shouldn't fail in the manner you describe, the tube should bend first. If it doesn't, the weld or the design was substandard. In addition, even if the UCA was to break, the wheel remains attached to the spindle and the LCA. Which means there's no catastrophic collapse, just an angle change. If you have torsion bars, all the weight of the car is supported by the LCA anyway. The UCA just locates the top of the spindle, it does not support the full weight of the car.

A bent UCA can result in just as much damage and loss of control. If the wheel changes angle substantially it can be wedged against the body or suspension, and in either case you lose control.

If you want to stick with stock UCA's that's fine. But tubular UCA's are not nearly as risky as you imply. Driving your car with the marginal alignment numbers that you end up with using the stock control arms likely poses just as much of a risk for losing control of your car.

There are numerous new cars that use cast aluminum control arms that will shatter on impact and similarly render a car inoperable and out of control. Designed, gusseted, and welded properly is not an automatic pathway to a failure simply because of the welding. The CAP design was poor out  of the gate. The welding was an additional problem.

Understand what you have, the risks you take with that parts, and ask the manufacturer questions accordingly.

Exactly so.

[70Barracuda]

Hey all,
Just got my car aligned  with Firm feel UCA,boxed LCA, 1.06 bars, adjustable strut rods and 11/16  steering parts.   

The guy I used is a one man shop, he was most impressed with the adjustable strut rods.

[shawge]

Hey @70Barracuda, would you PM me the shop's info?  I'm close to Beaverton.  Sounds like you are happy w/ the numbers you got?