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Excellent. Good job.

Here is a pic of the first completed control arm. 7 more to go

Beautiful

Thanks

Great job, you guy's should be proud of yourselves.

Nicely done, but check your clearance with the tie rods, many builders that used miata uprights ran into a problem of the LCA and tie rod trying to share the same space.
There are ways around it though, FYI.

Moti

Yes, I originally made a similar design. I had to change it and move the ball joint housing to the top of the plate(to lower the main tube angle) to clear the tie rod. My tie rod made contact with the control arm tube when at almost full lock and a lot of bump.

So, its not something that would be resolved by putting the plate on the bottom?
I'm guessing that the front leg of the control arm would become the interfering object if you only relocated the plate to the bottom?
I don't know, I've not looked at the issue because its not hit me yet.
What about of swapping sides to put the plate on the lower face of the control arm instead of the upper?
Assuming that the bolt holes would still line up of course, I'm swingin' with a blindfold on here.
I'll steal your results quite happily. ..

What ways around it?
What we had in mind was raising the steering rack and tie rod, with the ball joint on the upper side of the steering arm instead of the lower. That will mean a different ball joint, and machining a new taper into the knuckle. Has anyone done this, or found a better way?

We are going to re-machine the ends of the tie rods to connect on top of mount so it will not hit when at full lock.

Yes, that's what I did. See my build log. Also here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4050&p=41050&hilit=steering+taper#p41050

Thanks, Dave.
Where did you find your taper reamer?

I took mine to a local machine shop and had them doing it for $60 which is less than the cost of a taper reamer.
The problem is that the outer tie rod doesn't work anymore because of the reversed angle, forcing you to buy another set of outer tie rods... I'm using ones off a 93-95 RX7, I believe Dave H. is using mazda 323 units.

The other way people were able to get away with it was to relocate the LBJ to sit on top of the arm rather than in it like you have it.
Doing that, apparently, gives it just enough clearance to work with the tie rods.
What makes this a preferred solution over the other is that you can keep using your miata tie rods as-is and more importantly - you avoid changing the ackerman geometry like you will if going the route of the first solution.

Moti

Some kind soul loaned me one. Search for "borrow reamer" and you'll find the thread. I bet you'd be able to solicit a similar arrangement. Or, your school may be able to acquire one...seems they are very well equipped.

Yes, I switched to Mazda 323 outer tie rod ends. They're pretty cheap.

-dave

They are the same part...Moog ES3251RL. http://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MOOG-ES3251RL



$17.99 shipped for (2) on ebay for Chinese made/quality parts.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-OUTER-TIE-ROD-ENDS-MAZDA-PROTEGE-RX7-323-MX3-90-96-98-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQfitsZMakeQ3aMazdaQ7cModelQ3aRXQ2d7QQhashZitem1e613637cbQQitemZ130479962059QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories