more Spohn control arm drama

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razor1

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Getting sick of spending 2+ hours every 1000 miles to pull my arms and adjust them. So, I called and spoke to Mike at Spohn Performance today. Explained the issues I am having, along with the experiences of several others on the forum. Basically he asked his boss about sending out some cups to replace mind if they are broken this time around. He replied, there is nothing wrong with the joints and they would sell me some but not just send me some. So, I would have to take them out, if they are broken, I would have to put them back in. Then I would need to take them out again later . I don't have 6 hours of time waste with this. Needless to say, they have ****** customer support. Hopefully others will call and complain, they said they have had zero complaints about the joints. LOL.
 

Ak47bravo

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Getting sick of spending 2+ hours every 1000 miles to pull my arms and adjust them. So, I called and spoke to Mike at Spohn Performance today. Explained the issues I am having, along with the experiences of several others on the forum. Basically he asked his boss about sending out some cups to replace mind if they are broken this time around. He replied, there is nothing wrong with the joints and they would sell me some but not just send me some. So, I would have to take them out, if they are broken, I would have to put them back in. Then I would need to take them out again later . I don't have 6 hours of time waste with this. Needless to say, they have ****** customer support. Hopefully others will call and complain, they said they have had zero complaints about the joints. LOL.



Yikes... from what I have read on the forums is that virtually everyone has had to do several adjustments. It isn't just a one time thing (like spohn may suggest or hint to). Clearly, if it was really just a one time adjustment and then you are set, well I don't think anyone would really care about that.

Hell, even if you had to retighten them every 30k miles wouldn't be too bad but to have to mess around with them every few 1000 miles is absurd.

Maybe you could go ahead and buy the joints check yours out and if yours are not broken send the ones you bought back for refund. If they are maybe you can send them the broken ones and get them to credit your charge?



I can not attest to the spohn arms as I only had mine on for a couple weeks (500-1000 miles).


So they had no explanation as to why you would have to be adjusting so frequently? Or state that "hmm, yea that many adjustments in that time frame is not right.... or at the very least unusual".

How long have these spohn arms been out on the market?




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moregrip

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crazy that not too long ago, many were recommending these as a "must do" modification when doing the 2/4 drop. From pics it looks like at one point there may have been a urethane joint option? (not sure) but I don't really see one now.

maybe my perception is skewed, but it seems like there is a decent shift in opinion on these now.

I know Spohn makes these type arms for many different makes/models.......I can't imagine they want to deal with or would be comfortable with products that don't meet expectations/performance; no doubt, I have been surprised before.

I like the adjustability of them for sure, mine are a little noisy which may or may not get on my nerves long term; jury still out on that one.

I guess my ultimate question is does noisy = not functioning correctly? Is the Delrin breaking or wearing out? As I understand Delrin, the metal would wear out before that material would(could be wrong here), thoughts?
 

Ak47bravo

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Noisy is annoying for sure.... right now my stock control arms are squeaking (I'm pretty sure it's the arms) when I go over speed bumps. It just makes the truck sound like a beat up crappy truck (all the trucks I have heard making sounds like this have been garbage, so I associate that noise with a ******/ poorly maintained truck). And my truck is a 2016 so as far as I am concerned it should not be making noise.

But like you said, does the noise translate to something actually being loose or messed up. I would say yes, because people are hearing noise then checking their arms and having to tighten them. Rather than, oh hey I hear noise let me check the joints and turns out they are still tight and do not require any adjustment.

Though as mentioned these are not the only arms and as far as opinion starting to sway I would guess that is because more people have them now and have had them for a period of time to encounter this "adjusting" issue.

Really for us to get an idea we would need to have a pole and see what % of people are having noise and also having to tighten the joints.


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charonblk07

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You will only get response from those that are having issues, so it would never be a reliable poll, plus we are only a percentage of the owners, and an unknown percentage at that. Personally, I never had any issues with my Del-sphere joints; I only had one end of the arms running the del-sphere joint with the other end being a normal type delrin bushing but it was that bushing that failed in the end. The del-spheres were in for almost 2 years and never had any noise issues before the other end failed. Now I'm running the same dual del-sphere joints as everybody else.

Adjustable control arms are still a must-do mod to properly align the rear axle and pinion angle after these trucks have been lowered and until another company comes up with a better option this is what we have to work with.
 

DavidRam

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Getting sick of spending 2+ hours every 1000 miles to pull my arms and adjust them. So, I called and spoke to Mike at Spohn Performance today. Explained the issues I am having, along with the experiences of several others on the forum. Basically he asked his boss about sending out some cups to replace mind if they are broken this time around. He replied, there is nothing wrong with the joints and they would sell me some but not just send me some. So, I would have to take them out, if they are broken, I would have to put them back in. Then I would need to take them out again later . I don't have 6 hours of time waste with this. Needless to say, they have ****** customer support. Hopefully others will call and complain, they said they have had zero complaints about the joints. LOL.

Sorry to hear about the additional problems... I had the same experience in the 3-4 times that I called Spohn about the control arms and the panhard bar. Regarding the panhard bar issue they said "we are aware of this issue, we don't have a fix for it and there is nothing we can do for you..."
Regarding the control arm issues, the PU bushings on one side were too soft and clunking around, they "helped" me by allowing me to pay for new delrin bushings to fix the problem! Lol
 

DERJ

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You will only get response from those that are having issues, so it would never be a reliable poll, plus we are only a percentage of the owners, and an unknown percentage at that. Personally, I never had any issues with my Del-sphere joints; I only had one end of the arms running the del-sphere joint with the other end being a normal type delrin bushing but it was that bushing that failed in the end. The del-spheres were in for almost 2 years and never had any noise issues before the other end failed. Now I'm running the same dual del-sphere joints as everybody else.

Adjustable control arms are still a must-do mod to properly align the rear axle and pinion angle after these trucks have been lowered and until another company comes up with a better option this is what we have to work with.

You're absolutely correct - any poll results would be skewed and hard to use to convince them to Really invest in finding a solution..,

After tightening multiple times just to have the noise return in a week or two, I gave up and went back to the stock arms. I really miss the adjustability and firmness, but not enough to have my truck clunk like a beat up Pinto on ever bump in the road.

Has anyone found a good alternative? I've found several companies making control arms for lifted trucks (ex. Rukse) but nothing yet for lowered trucks.
 
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razor1

razor1

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I'm waiting to see how SKWURLZ does on his setup. Much better for lowered adjustments in my opinion and no clucking or service every 1000 miles.
20160909_172325_zpscglq4szp.jpg
 

moregrip

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I'm waiting to see how SKWURLZ does on his setup. Much better for lowered adjustments in my opinion and no clucking or service every 1000 miles.
20160909_172325_zpscglq4szp.jpg

looks promising brother, but I'll be damned if you have to spend money twice on this :emotions122:

part of the fun though, right!:roflsquared:
 

Slowpar R/T

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I'm waiting to see how SKWURLZ does on his setup. Much better for lowered adjustments in my opinion and no clucking or service every 1000 miles.
20160909_172325_zpscglq4szp.jpg

Whose arms are these?

Also, why doesn't anyone take the stock arms, cut the ends off and make them adjustable? You may not get less deflection than the Del-sphere bushing but at least you would have the correct geometry and no clunk....
 

Ak47bravo

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Whose arms are these?

Also, why doesn't anyone take the stock arms, cut the ends off and make them adjustable? You may not get less deflection than the Del-sphere bushing but at least you would have the correct geometry and no clunk....

SKWURLZ made these arms custom. They look incredible!! Super stout.
 
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razor1

razor1

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Whose arms are these?

Also, why doesn't anyone take the stock arms, cut the ends off and make them adjustable? You may not get less deflection than the Del-sphere bushing but at least you would have the correct geometry and no clunk....

rear arms are made from 2 stamped pieces welded together in a very strange way. I did look into doing that , but was unsure of the strength after that.
 

R/T_Fire

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I'm waiting to see how SKWURLZ does on his setup. Much better for lowered adjustments in my opinion and no clucking or service every 1000 miles.
20160909_172325_zpscglq4szp.jpg

I will be doing the same, I have not had the extent of issues others have had except noise, but when I tore into mine again they were all tight. what I noticed is the space between the frame mount and the rod end was slightly smaller like I need a larger misalignment spaced to fill the space up.

Tomorrow if goes as planned I will be tearing back into it checking everything cause my rear has seems to have shifted to the side. I plan to put each arm into the bench vise and use a torq wrench to set a load on each rod end and then compare in a little while to see if it keeps coming loos to try and pinpoint this issue.

My bigger issue I'm having that I have not been able to pinpoint the problem is why I keep having to adjust the Panhard bar... keeps shifting to the right.. adjust it come back later and its shifted again.... and everything is tight... maybe need to upgrade the bolts finally
 

R/T_Fire

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lightweight, cheap, and strong enough are the name of the game here I would imagine.


Whats everyone's thoughts on these? DSE swivel link

http://www.detroitspeed.com/images/041703-004-lg.jpg

Not familiar with them but have some questions on how they stay put or is it a slip joint? maybe a link to a product.... I'll see if I can find them too.

I cant find any info on how they work.
 
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moregrip

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from a little research it looks like the main joints of choice out there are:

UMI Roto Joint
Spohn Del Sphere
Currie Johnny Joints
Ballistic Joint
DSE Swivel Link

that's in addition to rubber joints, urethane joints, and spherical rod ends.

Looks like Del-Sphere = some level of noise no matter which way you slice it.
 
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