04 a-arms on a 03

[livinloud]

i want to change my front bushings over to the ulmer oilite bushings but they dont work on the 03 steel upper a arm if i get 04 alluminum a-arms will they bolt up to the rest of my 03's suspension with the oilite bushings

 

[low flying missile]

A arms

I am 99.9% sure they will bolt up. The change in upper A arm length happened when the shorter Apex spindles were introduced. Just make sure the aluminum arms are RX1 or warrior A arms. Apex upper A arms are the wrong length. I'm sure Ulmer can remove the .15 doubt.

 

[Crewchief47]

You will need to modify the arm or the spindle, can't remember which one we had to do. We installed an 04 arms from Royal on an 03 and had to do some grinding to make it work. Sorry I can't recall the details. You could try Nylatron bushings from pioneer. They have a kit for the 03's under their rear suspension page.

http://www.pioneerperformance.net/

 

[jerry75]

sooo will 04 a arms bolt right on a 03?
is it an upgrade? necasary?

 

[maim]

Like Crewcheif said, the will bolt on with some massaging. If your arms are still good and straight, you do not need to up grade them.

 

[hibshman25]

03 and 04 have same geometry. Bulkheads are identical so any issue of installing an 04 arm in an 03 would likely be due to a tolerance issue in the aftermarket arm. The id of the steel arm is larger and 03 was only year they did that. This is why bushing doesn't fit 03.

To improve handling you could get an 05 + vector upper arm or 06 + apex arm and then run the shorter spindles to run with the 03 lower arms.

 

[straycat03rx1]

03 and 04 have same geometry. Bulkheads are identical so any issue of installing an 04 arm in an 03 would likely be due to a tolerance issue in the aftermarket arm. The id of the steel arm is larger and 03 was only year they did that. This is why bushing doesn't fit 03.

To improve handling you could get an 05 + vector upper arm or 06 + apex arm and then run the shorter spindles to run with the 03 lower arms.

Cool. how would that improve the handling?

 

[Purplecoffin]

I don't know, but you gotta love the help on this site!

 

[hibshman25]

Cool. how would that improve the handling?

Starting in 05 on the vector and 06 on the apex the spindles and knuckles were shortened, which helped to lower the center of gravity. The spacing between the arm mounts in the knuckle and the overall length in the upper arm was also changed as part of the geometry change to help impove the handling. These changes helped to reduce the tippy feeling of the RX-1 sleds. The shorter spindle/knuckles also made them less prone to bending which I have seen a lot of on the RX-1 sleds.

 

[stomper]

Man. This place is awsome