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| The SPL upper arm in place and ready to rock. Solid, fully adjustable and devoid of flexy bushings, our suspension is full of performance potential. |
To make our suspension more adjustable we used some of SPL Parts Version 3 adjustable links. Like our front upper arm, we feel that SPL’s links are some of the best on the market. SPL’s Version 3 links are made of large diameter thin wall DOM steel tubing, a massive 1.25-1.5″ in diameter. DOM tubing means drawn over mandrel, a process that cold works the steel and makes it stronger. DOM is a good choice for links because it is relatively heat insensitive and welding heat does not weaken it much. The DOM tubing is TIG welded; TIG stands for tungsten inert gas. What’s good about this that you need to know is that the welding arc is shielded from the atmosphere by a cloud of inert argon gas. This prevents the metal of the weld from oxidizing while hot. This allows for the strongest welds possible. The large diameter makes for a stiff part while the thin wall thickness means that these parts are still light.
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| A closer look at the rough camber adjuster shows it's solid, slip free and easy to adjust nature. |
The SPL Version 3 links are full of features that are functional and make them more practical for use. The links adjustment points for instance are right and left hand threaded. This means that they can be adjusted by simply loosening a lock collar and rotating the adjustment sleeve. Most other links require detaching the end bearing from the spindle or chassis mount and rotating it, then reattaching the end link to the spindle. Anyone who has tried to align a car's suspension between rounds at the track or even in a shop has probably been slowed and frustrated by such links. The SPL links can be adjusted several times faster, just the thing to reduce stress when the heat of battle is on or when you just don’t have much time.
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| We replaced the toe and traction rods in the rear suspension with these SPL links. With a large diameter and thin wall construction, the SPL links are lighter yet stronger than stock. We like the single Allen bolt adjustment lock. |
SPL’s adjusters have other pretty cool features. The end bearings feature a lock collar with a single Allen bolt instead of your typical jamb nut. Anyone who has aligned a car has felt the frustration of the bearing getting cocked sideways and banging the chassis bracket while syncing down the jamb nut. This also can cause the setting to get thrown off. With the SPL part, you simply set your adjustment, get the spherical bearing lined up and lock down the collar with a single Allen screw. This is way faster and more accurate. The SPL arms also feature high quality self-cleaning teflon/kevlar lined QA1 Endura chromoly forged spherical bearings. Anyone who has actually tried to race on fake Chinese knock off links with spherical bearings of unknown quality can attest to how fast these cheapo bearings develop play.
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| More SPL vs stock. Bearings vs soft rubber bushings and plenty of quick to adjust movement available. |
We used SPL’s toe link and traction link, we decided not to use SPL’s super trick and adjustable billet lower arm because it is not entirely necessary as we did not need a huge range of camber adjustment. On the Z the toe link adjustment also affects the camber to a degree. The stock camber adjuster with the additional range of adjustment on the toe link would allow us to get our camber into a satisfactory range without using the super trick lower arm. Other details include toe arms fabricated with a 10 degree offset for more chassis clearance on a lowered car. The arms have enough toe adjustment range for any ride height and set up imaginable.
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| We used SPL's lock outs to replace the stock eccentrics in the toe adjuster. This eliminates a possible point of slippage and the link has plenty of movement for adjustment. |
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| The lock out in place. We originally had them in both the toe and camber locations but we went back to the stock eccentric in the camber location so we could further reduce negative camber. |
