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Has anybody sucessfully built a set of flipped ball joint lower control arms. We built a set using a Nissan Maxima lower ball joint and remachining the LCA to accept it and now the spindle is way to tall. I'm guessing we need to shorten the spindle. Not gonna happen by next weekend when the car is supposed to be on the track for it's first race.

Over here a few guys race transaxles with flipped balljoints. But they use a uniball instead of a production-car item.

Your problem is with the room inside the wheels? You need at least 15" wheels for this if i'm not mistaken.

This is their set-up.


What year and model Maxima did your ball joint come from? i'm still looking for an easy way to make this work..

Did you need to make a ring to get to the correct diameter for the LCA? What diameter is the Maxima balljoint? Would love to see pictures of the LCA without the balljoint in it..

I have also been looking at this lately and I'm glad you have posted this . As I don't want to make a mistake . I am using 15 inch rims so must check measurement before .
I have pics of a gtv from the 90s which was SA fastest track car with upside down ball joints but it's not a gtv stub axle or an alfa sei ( which I just bought only to discover it's not the same). I thinks it's from 105 series . This was the ex 600hp high boost tt Stuart Kidgell car . I did see it lap faster than an IMSA Audi quattro at kyalami - so I know it does have a good set up . ( also a brilliant driver with no fear )

the 105 series has those loose steering arms, maybe that way you can identify them? They are quite similar in shape and dimensions.

15" should be possible however, the 75 the above setup is on also runs 15" wheels i believe.

For me that's not important as i need to run 17"anyway to clear the brakes.

alfaguy35 wrote:Has anybody sucessfully built a set of flipped ball joint lower control arms. We built a set using a Nissan Maxima lower ball joint and remachining the LCA to accept it and now the spindle is way to tall. I'm guessing we need to shorten the spindle. Not gonna happen by next weekend when the car is supposed to be on the track for it's first race.

Isn't the Nissan Maxima a McPherson strut front suspension?
If it is, I would definitely not be using a ball joint from it like that as it's not really designed to take that kind of load. If it fails at high speeds, it will be very ugly!
Even with Nissan's multi-link front suspension systems from the R32/R33/R34 Skylines, I wouldn't use those lower ball joints because the spring is attached to the upright/spindle and that load isn't transferred via the ball joint so you can't really guaranty that the ball joint would survive when the car is getting hammered on the track.

Also, what are you doing about the huge amounts of bump steer that you now have?
If you check out MD's thread on his track Alfetta, you'll see the amount of change that is required to deal with it.

I'm all for dealing with the poor geometry in these cars, but it needs to be done safely, with parts that are designed/rated to do the job and any new issues also need to be addressed.

Minimum rim size for this approach is 16 inch for brakes and control arm internal clearance as I have explained many times.

The picture put in here by Giuliettaevo2: I know the setup and I can confirm that it fits in a 15" ronal A1.
And that is done with the upright is also shortened!

If you shorten the upright then your spindle position is heading back to its original position and the rate of camber change is reduced which is the opposite of what the aim is surely.

As these things are usually fitted to race cars the conversion is also usually accompanied by the installation of big brake conversions (not necessarily Alfa parts)that require extra room and as I said, the 16 inch wheels do this well with a little room to spare.

I concede that a 15inch wheel conversion is possible but all I can see is a smaller perfomance change overall but if you are restricted by rules, well you gotta do what you gotta do.

It's not the rules that restrict the use of 15" wheels, it's more a cost thing for most... 16" slicks are far more difficult to buy used and 16"tires in general are more expensive. 17" would be a better option then but that brings weight issues and the tires are also more expensive. Most cars that race with less than 200 bhp use original size brakes and callipers so clearance is not a issue.

The pictured setup is on a 200 bhp 75 TS with an Eaton M45 and runs SZ discs with volvo callipers under 15" wheels.

Yes, I would consider a minimum of 16" wheels to clear the spindles or even bigger brakes in the future. But from the looks of it, the Maxima's balljoint is quite tall and you may need 17" at the very least!

Finding this thread here made me happy, as this is currently something what is the last step for my car set-up.
And perhaps there have been some new advances regarding this.

The wishbones of my car are currently also pointing upwards due to lowering and fitting 30mm torsion bars and 60kg rsr springs. The handling has already been greatly improved and the car is certainly better to manoeuvre than before.

For a racer this has been produced.


Artracing.co.uk had something for sale, but stopped making them, as they were not sturdy enough.


Other options would be something from a Porsche. (but those ball joints are often integrated in the wishbone)
Older types of Volkswagen (Kafer perhaps?) could also provide options apparently.

Is there a golden egg yet?