Knuckle cleanupHello all.
In preparation for finalizing the front suspension on my project, I decided to do something with the clunky front knuckes. I'm preparing to do some final measuring for the traction bar project, and I figured I would use the exact knuckles I'll be running on my project. The clearance issues I'm finding will be the worst with the CRC/CIVIC knuckles, so it's best I do all of my measurements with those.
Most of you know that there are two knuckles that can be run on our 1G/3G cars. The stock knuckle, and the Ingegra knuckle. For those of us who did engine swaps, we are running the Integra Hubs with the larger splines. Some of us also run the longer Integra radius arms to get almost one extra degree of negative camber. But what some of you may not know, is the two knuckles are not the same.
The Integra has a wider track up front. They did this by making a slightly longer radius arm, and then they made a subtle change to the knuckle. What they did is make the arm that clamps to the bottom of the front strut a little longer too. They did this to off-set the extra camber that would have resulted from the longer radius arm. Sort of NULLs it out so to speak. The Integra knuckle is on the left, and a CRX knuckle is on the right:
If you run stock 1G/3G radius arms and knuckles, you have basically zero camber. With Integra radius arms and 1G/3G knuckles, you get almost one degree of extra negative camber due to the longer lower arm. But if you run Integra radius arms and Integra knuckles, you are back to basically zero camber. And finally, if you run stock 1G/3G radius arms and Integra knuckles, you could have a little extra positive camber, which you don't want. Something to think about when choosing your knuckle and radius arm combinations
Anywho, it's important for my project to use the original CRX knuckles. I want to have the option for as much camber if I choose. One advantage of the CRX/CIVIC knuckles compared to the Integra knuckles is they are a tiny bit lighter. Not much, but every little bit of unsprung weight saved is worth something. I can't remember exactly, but I think I read somewhere that for every pound of unsprung weight saved, it's like removing 10 pounds of sprung weight. Not from a acceleration viewpoint, but from a handling one.
An Integra knuckle I have here weighs about 7 pounds, 15.3 ounces:
The stock CRX knuckle I have here weighs 7 pounds, 9.1 ounces. The savings between the two styles is only 6.2 ounces, but it's something:
These knuckles, be it the 1G/3G or the Integra, are crude castings at best. Lots of flash and un-needed stuff. So I spent about 40 minutes this afternoon with my 4.5" hand grinder and whittled down the junk. I mostly whent after outside sharp edges and to blend them a bit and make them look better. After a bit, I got the knuckles to look something like this:
I could have safely removed more, but I didn't want to spend too much time on them. Did I loose any weight? The new weight is 7 pounds, 1.4 ounces:
A savings of 7.7 ounces of pure unsprung weight. I'll take it!
Update: After cleaning up the seconded knuckle, I noticed it was much lighter. Mostly due to the original casting. So I spent a little more time safely removing some more cruft off the first one, and got them both to the same weight. The new weight is now only 6 pounds, 12.2 ounces:
That's a new savings of 12.9 ounces!
Take care,
David
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