I wanted to see how much I could lower the upper control arm without a bind .. trust but verify.  Figured new manufacturing techniques and these brand-new control arms I got from Dynacorn looked to have some updates.

So today I got the car sitting on the rear wheels up on cinder blocks and leveled things out to get it sitting close to an estimated ride-height.  I assembled the control arms, strut rod, and spindle, but no spring or shock.  I also bolted the shock tower cover on.  These are all oem type replacement parts mounted in their factory locations.  I am referring to a 1 5/8" snubber which I think is the stock dimension.

Here is what I found from my estimated ride-height of 13", I had -2 3/8" of rebound and 1 7/8" of bump before the control arms were bound by pressure from the ball joints, a whopping 4 1/4" of total travel!  I was moving the suspension by hand, and the stops were very definite.  I took all measurements from the floor to the spindle and just showing the ranges.

Sound absurd? It gets better.  The upper control arm never touched the bump stop, not even close.  I put the jack under it and jacked it up till it was starting to lift the car and got it to just touch the bump stop.  I got another 1.25" out of the spindle, but it also jacked the car too.  I had the spindles snug, but not torqued, so may have had some flex there too.

So I loosened the top/bottom separately and checked the travel with just one arm at a time while trying to hold the spindle in alignment.  It appeared the bottom ball joint was dictating the bounds, but the upper still couldn't be pushed into the snubber.

The alignment of the upper could be off, I just estimated with 3/8" front and 1/4" rear shims when I put it together.  That should give a little positive castor but camber might be +/-, but should be in the ball-park.   Even if it was off, the lower ball joint was controlling the stops, and disconnected, the upper couldn't reach the bumper without being forced.  Disconnected completely the lower could move in an extended range, but only because the ball-joint angle could extend past the limit of what the spindle would have allowed.

With a standard 1" drop of the uca, something else would have to give before it reached the snubber, and it would likely reduce the free travel by another inch down to 3 1/4" which seems totally unusable

As I write this I still question if thats what I really saw, it just seems a little surreal.  I don't see what I could do any different to change the outcome.  I did this pretty carefully because I was doing some looser checks last week that raised concerns.

Is this a unique case?  How many people actually checked their free travel?  What did you find?  With a drop? Numbers?  What control arms/joints?

Which ball joints have the most range?  Moog?

I guess I will swap with my other lower control arm to see if it changes, but the upper is not suitable for a 1" drop, nor a 0" drop.