Shop fabbed Ball Joint Fixture for Lower Control Arm Fabrication

[astroracer]

Building the Lower Control Arms for my van project required a book matched set of fixtures to hold the lower ball stud mounting plates in position.
I designed these in 3D CAD and built them in the shop. Setting ball joint angles precisely was the important part.

This is a compound tip. 4 1/2 deg down and 3 degs in. Modeling the pieces in 3D let me measure everything very accurately. A few cuts in the bandsaw and a little time on the belt sander and everything was good.

This is the piece I am locating. It bolts into the fixture which is then screwed down to my jig table.



See next post.

[astroracer]

This is the end product. Two lower control arms for my BadAst Project.



Shock mount welded in and some paint thrown on.

Mark

[DIYer]

Thanks astroracer! We've added your Ball Joint Fixture to our Suspension category, as well as to your builder page: astroracer's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Ball Joint Fixture by astroracer

tags: control arm, fabrication, fixture

[jackman]

How did you determine the angle needed?

[astroracer]

How did you determine the angle needed?

The angles were determined with a suspension design program. Kingpin, caster and camber were all designed into the angles and setting them up in the fixture was key. There is plenty of adjustment of course but getting the angles right the first time will make for a suspension that is easily set up and easily aligned.
Mark

[Saltfever]

The angles were determined with a suspension design program. . . .
Mark

The name of that program would be really helpful. Nice idea for the fixture . . . thanks for sharing.

[astroracer]

https://www.susprog.com/
Here you go. This is about the best one out there as far as I know. Check it out.
Mark

[Saltfever]

Thanks, Mark . . . very much appreciated. Sorry for my slow response. The program looks interesting and agree that is is one of the better ones. I am still checking it out but it looks like more than adequate for what I need.