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Not building anything yet, just gathering ideas and planning.
As with many builds Miata front uprights/spindles seem ideal. Circle track control arms, while on the heavy side are available really cheaply and (for the price) of outstanding quality, certainly better than I could make so are a bargain even with the weight penalty. I don't seem to be able to figure out what the standard GM ball joint taper is compared to the Miata taper. Does anyone know?

TIA

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A dangerouse dreamer.
Current rides:
08 Volvo C30. Picked it up in Sweden June 08, 4 days later I ran it in by lapping the Nurburgring
13 Mustang Vert. The V6 hairdresser edition that is somehow faster than my old V8 with a 351!?!?!

You'll need to buy a reamer.
The other thing the the Miata knuckles do not have vertical balljoints. You would need to modify the dirt track arms to angle the balljoint inwards at which point you will do best to just make your own.

I've gone this route and would suggest upper ctrl arms are cheap/easy from dirt track stuff, but the lowers you will want to make yourself.

Cheers.

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Build log: viewtopic.php?t=9291

If using Miata spindles, this is probably the closest thing available to an 'easy button':

http://www.kineticvehicles.com/ControlArms.html

I believe the Miata has a relatively common 7* taper angle, but has a smaller diameter (and length?) used for the tapered section than the circle track stuff. The wall thickness vs difference in ball joint tapered shaft diameters needs to be taken into account before reaming it out as well, since the more the spindle needs to be reamed out with a taper reamer, the thinner the load bearing walls around the ball joint shaft will get.

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-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

Both excellent points. Thank you.

I like that with the Kinetic uppers you can specify the length.

I didn't realize how much of an angle the lower ball joint was on until I just went too look. I wonder if there are high misalignment joints that may work with limited wheel travel and a long swing arm length. Probably not though.

_________________
A dangerouse dreamer.
Current rides:
08 Volvo C30. Picked it up in Sweden June 08, 4 days later I ran it in by lapping the Nurburgring
13 Mustang Vert. The V6 hairdresser edition that is somehow faster than my old V8 with a 351!?!?!