[Shawn Kelt]

Has anyone compared stock upper control arms to QA1? Installed QA1 upper arms? I find it odd that the upper arms for the Impala is the same as the caprice given the Caprice has different springs and rides higher. One would think the bump stops for upper arm travel would be a little different.
I installed a right QA1 upper arm (PN 52718) on my 96 Impala in order to get AC Line clearance. The Clear Image pro headers burned my first AC line and since I have worn holes through 2 bent AC lines with the stock upper arm making contact. Little room with the big headers. The QA1 does not have the cross webbing that is making contact with the AC line, so good with that. But I noticed the QA1 upper arm would not drop down as low as the stock arm and forced me to jack the car up high from the lower arm to get the castle nut and pin in place. So first sign of an issue. Next after the car was lowered I checked for clearance with 4 wheels in contact and no jack. Stock driver side has about 1.0" more travel available than the QA1 arm (at the bump stop location). I placed a socket 1.5" tall there for reference. Projecting that distance out to the wheel mounting hub, that may be a 2-2.5" difference in wheel travel. Finally I ran a tube from the mounting hole to the ball joint base to check for gap to the stopper. The stock arm right arm has space. The QA1 left arm has interference. So the geometry is substantially different for the bump stop location.

I know this limitation will make my suspension max out quickly when the car starts to lift up a little. (loss of upward travel).

 

[toonwarrior]

Is this upper control arm part number a component of an overall kit from QA1? I'd probably think that's why it's the same for the impala/caprice since the full coilover kit is designed to replace all the components that differentiate the impala and caprice (i.e springs).

 

[Shawn Kelt]

It is a stand alone upper arm set from QA1. I am keeping stock springs and lower arms since I already invested in dual adjustable shocks years ago. I see they also have 1" longer ball joint shaft length on the pro touring model. They may line up with the stock arm better if the ball joint seats another 1" away.... larger gap to bump stop under the upper arm. I will be contacting them tommorrow.

 

[95wagon]

How close to full extension is the shock at full droop ?
You might actually be protecting the shocks better as some cars will top out the shocks at full droop.
I think loosing a bit of droop is only going to really matter if you drag race with 90-10 shocks and are looking for max rise. ( not saying you do)

Or you are racing off road .

Longer uppers would add some droop along with more tangible benefits.

Pretty rare for the B body to hit the upper snubbers other than flying or on a hoist.

 

[Shawn Kelt]

Not off road racing. I will wait till I break the ball joint again to check for full shock travel.
I don't need extra travel, just want to keep stock travel.

I called QA1 and they offered 1" longer ball joints to give me some upper arm travel back. But that would swing the rectangular double bolted section at the bushing up a little higher. And that fat section interferes with the steering hose to reservoir.
So my next step is Speedtech version. I have an email into them. If I get those ordered I will get pics of them installed for comparison. Jegs said removal and return of QA1 would not be an issue and the tech recognized the variance from stock.

 

[95wagon]

If you loosen the lower shock bolts about 1/8th inch at ride height then jack the car up you can see if they pull up to the arms at full droop.
What I was trying to get across is the car should never hit the upper snubbers in " normal" use.
Longer upper joints , the side effect is more travel, not their purpose.
Google,
neg camber gain
Susp camber curve

Arm touching ps lines,
Aftermarket parts require modding, moving , tweeking stuff. That's life.
Much of the B car stuff is F or G car stuff that the manufacturer realized they could sell it to us.
Lots of big header B bodies with stock upper arm stampings clearing AC lines, etc.
My own car you cant really use as an example because everything was moved for other reasons.
Good luck with your project.