Possible Custom Upper Control Arms 71-74 Javelin

Check with Al at Control Freak:

Why reinvent the wheel (or arm)? We already have these on the shelf and ready to go.

Al

I think a 66-69 ( and American) lower control arm with more caster built in (moving the lower ball joint forward 1"?) would be more useful at least to me. I'd also like to come up with a way of eliminating or relocating the strut rod to eliminate the bind and free up room for the exhaust. An adjustable upper would let you set caster without an adjustable the strut rod. I know there are rod end strut rods available, but they must be nasty on the street.

The existing upper control arm on the 1970+ AMC front suspension is not a problem.  At least a problem that needs a solution. It has no adjustment because all adjustment is done with the lower control arm.   Which frankly is a weak point.
It is built into the car with anti-nose dive brake geometry and it is basically rugged in it's present form.
And it's function while simple is all that is needed to get the job done
If anything a lower control arm is needed.  One that no longer depends on a strut rod for part of it's movement thus eliminating the monkey motion it goes through while performing is job.  One that has better control at the the single pivot point where it attaches to the front cross member and one that does not depend on warping the lower bushing or the end of the control arm to adjust caster.  The pivot point depends on a single interference fit for the lower control arm bushing and the flex of the bushing AND the flex of the control arm to actually function.
It does not take too many disassembling of AMC front ends to notice all of the tore up lower control arms to make the comment that it is a real weak point in the front suspension.
It is the same piece that gets major re-design work on the Mustang II suspension which works the same way except the strut rod goes forward towards the front bumper rather that to the rear of the car.
The basic difference which makes the MustangII front suspension so popular is that when you re-design the lower control arm so it has a triangulated mounting system eliminating the strut rod that it becomes both versatile and rugged and adaptable for multiple installations in part because Caster adjustment is done with the upper control arm on the Mustang II suspension.
But for AMC to benefit from it both the upper AND the lower need a redesign, or just redesign the lower to get rid of the strut rod.
And call it good to go.

"Due to complexity I am thinking around 300$ for bushed versions and 350$ for heim version. For this price I would like to get a minimum of five sets. I would use 1.25" OD .125"wall DOM tubing. As for the ball joint mount and coil spring pocket I can have those laser cut and CNC formed. 

What would you do to alter - improve front end geometry? Increase caster and turn in camber gain?"

Edited by bulletpruf - Jul/11/2014 at 8:00pm