Heres how the plan went horribly wrong!

[SmockDoiley]

I have an 85 GT as you most know, and the plan was to install a tubular K-member,but since its an 85 I have to run either newer lower control arms or tubular control arms so I got the arms. You all told me that 95+ control arms would mess up the track so I bought the 87-93 arms. But since I wanted to go with 13" cobra brakes I needed 95+ spindles which I also bought. This meant I needed either the ball joint spacers which I feel is cheap, or get the X2 balljoints. So I got the steeda balljoints.
Now since I bought the tubular control arms I couldnt run springs so I bought the QA1 adjustable coilovers since they are the only ones that work with lowering.
Lastly, I wanted to get aluminum rack bushings for the rack.
Now that I have everything, nothing works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cant run the aluminum rack bushings because they require that you cut off the sleeve on the K-member, but I cant do that on the QA1 tubular piece because the part you'd cut off is threaded and needs to be there to attach the rack!!!!
I removed the balljoints from the 87-93 QA1 tubular control arms, which were tack welded in place@!#$$%^&, but the X2 balljoints are thinner and fall right into the balljoint hole so I cant use them!!!
Now I have to return the X2 balljoints, reinstall the factory ones which are beat to crap, and return the aluminum bushings and get prothane pieces and buy the balljoint spacers if I can find them.
This is ridiculous and nowhere from Steeda or QA1 does it say anything about these issues. In fact, the rack bushings say you can use them with a tubular K.
What a waste of time and money.

 

[tmoss]

unfortunately it's part of the program. It would be nice if guys who did this successfully put their parts list together along with some "heads up" issues they dealt with.

 

[Blandnuts]

Well, you can just imagine how many people you saved from making the same mistake . If you were closer I'd nab the x2 off of you.

Good luck!


Fred

 

[jrichker]

Your problem is one of the reasons I recommend that you buy all the parts for a project from the same vendor. That way you know they all fit. If there are problems with the fit, then you have a single source to complain to. It is more expensive initally, but cheaper in the long run.

 

[SmockDoiley]

Only steeda makes those balljoints, and the rest I got from Summitracing. I've spent 5000 with summit in the past 2 months. I blame steeda because they made no mention of fitment issues and even cited the parts being used with aftermarket tubular components. I'll scrap the X2s, and get washers to space things out. And I'm getting prothane bushings to replace the aluminum ones. Its not a big deal really, just annoying when you finally want to put everything together.