I have an 81 with a 90 front suspension. I've been working on this car for several years now. rebuilding the front end now with pretty much new everything. this is literally the first time I've had the suspension tightened up. problem is my lower balljoints are bad. is it true you can't rebuild the later arms like mine? I've seen the replaceable ball joint control arms. Is there a difference in geometry between the two? I'm running 10 inch wide rims on the front and will probably go through ball joints. any help would be appreciated!

Here is a pic of my current setup.

 

The 86-88 arms have the same geometry, they just have replaceable ball joints.

I wouldn't replace them until you need to though, Ball joints won't really get worn any faster with larger wheels. (I run 18x12s)

also, the normal 2nd gen section would have been a better place for this thread. This isn't really a build thread...

 

Most people use the S4 lower control arms with the replaceable lower ball joint, there is no difference in the lower control design between the two. I believe there might be a way to press out the S5 lower ball joint for a new one, but I don't know where you can source the replacement ball joint, that's the tricky part.

FYI, I have a 91 coupe and swapped out my lower arms with S4 arms with no problems.

Edit: Just realized someone posted while I was typing and I forgot to hit send. Anyways, good luck on your project.

 

just make sure the balljoint boots are okay, if theyre worn out just replace with s4 ones.
nice looking car btw

 

Thanks guys, that's exactly the info I needed to move forward with this.

 

Wow! This is a great idea! The next first gen is getting this swap!