I have a 65 special and was about to pull the trigger with umi .9 taller ball joint control arms. I figured I'd give them a call to check on availability. The tech there said they no longer recommend their non adjustable control arms with the .9 ball joint. He told me to get the .9 ball joint adjustable arms. The non adjustable are apparently hard to align, he said. I guess that means they aren't the shortened to work with the .9 ball joint? I don't like the idea of the helm joint in the adjustable ones, seem like your asking for problems. The spc arms also seem less than ideal with all of their threaded adjustability, relying on the contact of a few threads doesn't seem like it gives you a very stiff part. Does anyone have experience with these ball joints?
I ran the SPC upper arms with tall Howe ball joints for a few years but the lack of a bumper constantly bugged me. I had no issue with the sturdiness of them and they handled well. I changed to some tubular arms off of ebay that had +3 caster built in and I installed the proforged .5" taller ball joints in them. They didn't offer the .9" taller ball joints when I ordered mine or I'd have done that. I told the shop that aligned it what I'd done and asked to be notified if anything odd showed up. They put it at +5 caster and -1 camber without any problem. It is about .5" stack of shims on both sides, front and back. It handles like a new car now. I like to corner and hated the way it used to howl at the slightest hint of a corner. I no longer scrub off the outside of the front tires and if it howls now, I'm really doing something I shouldn't be.
Thanks for the feedback. Were your arms advertised as 3 deg caster? There's so many eBay arms to choose from.
To be honest, it was so long ago that I think that's what it was but can't be sure. CPP has a set on ebay that look very similar to what I used and advertise they correct the geometry of the A-body. If I get another Buick, this is what I'll use and swap out the ball joints. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tubular-Per...d=100033&prg=10035&rk=2&rkt=4&sd=161213094254
