Kenny Brown upper control arm -- broke!

[DSF]

KB break

Coleman,
looked at the car this morning, also have a crack in the lower control arm on the same side! Dont know what happened, have already been on the phone with KB, will let you know something asap!

 

[coleman]

Originally posted by jordanvraptor
What did it feel like when it broke?

it felt like the rear end was turning on me.
accelerate (even slowly) and the car would want to steer to the right like a cotton picker (rear steering). slow down & it would turn left. i very weird sensation.

like DSF said, they're working w/ KB now. hopefully, this was just a defective part... & once again, i'm glad it broke the day before the race @ motorsport ranch.

upper & lower control arm :cryying: ... luckily, i'm going on vacation for a few days!

 

[i8u]

Glad you are okay as it could have been much worse.....

Keep us updated. You should have no problem getting a refund or a new part.

 

[03Sssnake]

not suprised with Kenny Brown parts, they suck. Go out to corner carvers forum, there are quite a few negative kenny brown comments/post.

 

[i8u]

Originally posted by 03Sssnake
not suprised with Kenny Brown parts, they suck. Go out to corner carvers forum, there are quite a few negative kenny brown comments/post.

How is their customer service?

 

[Cobra-R]

I know another guy that broke a KB rear a-arm also, KB did stand behind that. Hopefully it will work out for you.

Brian

 

[toofast4u]

Coleman it sounds like you are planning on keeping the control arms just having the broken one replaced. I think you should take this as a warning and put your stock units back on and not replace them.

I don't believe you are achieving any geometric gain using them. As for running coil-overs with stock LCAs several people here are running MM with the stock LCAs including myself without any issues. As said before the stock units are not really heavy and at least the LCA are aluminum. What purpose do you think these are actually performing other then making your car more dangerous on the road and potentially deadly on the track?

 

[toofast4u]

Originally posted by i8u
How is their customer service?

Does that really matter when your car is in a wall?

 

[i8u]

Originally posted by toofast4u
Does that really matter when your car is in a wall?

Nope. I would just hate to see him get short changed.....

:beer:

 

[03Sssnake]

read this thread a CC forum

http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=564&highlight=kenny+brown

Griggs or Maximum Motorsports are the only aftermarket suspension parts going on this car. If you guys wanna put Kenny Brown garbage on your cars thats fine by me. Know why? Cause those KB parts are NOT going on MY CAR! ;-)

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by 03Sssnake
not suprised with Kenny Brown parts, they suck. Go out to corner carvers forum, there are quite a few negative kenny brown comments/post.

well of course there will be negative quotes there, they are a bunch hooked uip with Maxim Motorsports.

http://www.kennybrown.com/News/OpenTrackChallenge.html

check out a car with kenny brown suspension winning The Open Track Challenge in 2003.

not bashing ayone, but they do make a proven product. Everyone does have their own opinions, guess thats why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors!!!

 

[03Sssnake]

Originally posted by DSF
well of course there will be negative quotes there, they are a bunch hooked uip with Maxim Motorsports.

http://www.kennybrown.com/News/OpenTrackChallenge.html

check out a car with kenny brown suspension winning The Open Track Challenge in 2003.

not bashing ayone, but they do make a proven product. Everyone does have their own opinions, guess thats why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors!!!

Corner-Carvers has no vendor affiliation/sponsorship

MM and griggs both have a long running list of accolades

tidbit here-http://www.maximummotorsports.com/aiwest0303cal.asp

Baskin robins has 31 flavors to satisfy all of the fatasses :coolman:

 

[toofast4u]

Originally posted by DSF
they do make a proven product.

Yea proven to be crap. How many people here have these rear control arms? I would be very surprised if it was more then 4 and would have never guessed coleman was one of them. Lets see one major failure out of 4 you tell me what that proves. I know for a fact that a very large number of people here have MM and Griggs full suspension and I haven't heard of 1 real failure out of them. KB product is well known and proven to be poorly designed and of questionable quality. There front LCA will decrease your track width by almost 1" tell me what that proves. As Pontiac states wider is better. There subframe and strut tower braces are a joke.

Also that car is a KB equipt 03 Cobra so should be making at least 600 rwhp if not more competing against other cars like the MM 87 Mustang that only makes 450 hp. It is race what you brought so if they brought a 600 rwhp car then better for them, but that doesn't prove anything about there suspension.

 

[DSF]

pissing contest

pissing contest? No wont give you the opportunity, I will be done with this thread no matter what insignificant insults you may have, everyone has their opinions, i know several people including our own car that does run the KB setup, and it does well. I guess we can prove that at the track? Yeah!

 

[03Sssnake]

Gonna race your pow pow power wheels at the track :loser:

 

[Bingo13]

Originally posted by DSF
well of course there will be negative quotes there, they are a bunch hooked uip with Maxim Motorsports.

http://www.kennybrown.com/News/OpenTrackChallenge.html

check out a car with kenny brown suspension winning The Open Track Challenge in 2003.

not bashing ayone, but they do make a proven product. Everyone does have their own opinions, guess thats why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors!!!

This same thing happened to a gentleman in an '01 at Hallet in May. He got the car off the track before anything bad happened. He thought he had a tire going flat until he looked up under the car. This is not the first time the KB rear control arms have done this and it will not be the last (until some kills themself). If there was any real merit to the effectiveness of their control arm design then I think MM/Griggs/DD and even Steeda (another story) would have them available.
This car does not need less weight in the rear, it needs to lose it up front. What were the alignment specs on the rear also? Call KB and ask them what they recommend and then compare it to what the car should be at on the track. These items are just as bad as their coil-over setups, require garage engineering to install and even more to work properly. Rant off.
Nothing personal as you have the best dealership in the area. :-D

 

[maoun]

you should see the SEVERE duty control arms that griggs highly recommends you use if you do their setup on an 03...i have em....they aren't breaking, trust me on that

i don't want to insult your setup coleman, but kb does some sketchy things man....

 

[Snake Eyes]

I think the two best ways to prove a suspension system and build company reputation are: satisfied customers, and (even more important) competition. Griggs and MM have been doing American Iron racing for quite some time, and they have been dominating.

I know for a fact that Bruce Griggs started out as a custom race suspension designer/fabricator for mustangs, and he built that in to a business. That business has one of the best reputations in the biz, to me that says they are the best. Kenny has never had that success, racing or reputation. The fact that they sell parts like the "IRS Cobra Forward Torque Brace" and "Rear Steer Kit" for $149 and $169 respectively just prove that they are trying to rip you off. Parts that perform the exact same duty can be bought from Ford for $80 and $60 respectively.

Hell there CC plates aren't even true caster/camber plates. Here is their description of there Caster Plus Kit (link), I quote this directly from there site. "Optimum caster is preset in the upper strut mount and allows for adjustment of camber settings for performance driving" So basically they are telling you that all you need in a CC plate is camber adjustment because Ford's factory spec (about 3.2 degrees not adjustable) is enough caster!!! Adding as much positive caster as possible is one of the first things you do when you get CC plates that allow additional caster adjustment, and their plates apparently don't allow you to change that. Some one correct me if I am mistaken but that is just completely wrong. From what I have been told five to six degrees of caster is optimal on a street-driven Mustang.

The only Kenny Brown part I will ever have on my car is their rear shock tower brace, because no one else makes one. But to each's own.

 

[toofast4u]

Originally posted by Snake Eyes
The fact that they sell parts like the "IRS Cobra Forward Torque Brace" and "Rear Steer Kit" for $149 and $169 respectively just prove that they are trying to rip you off. Parts that perform the exact same duty can be bought from Ford for $80 and $60 respectively.

The better part of this is we have both of these components basically stock. The "IRS Cobra Forward Torque Brace" is actually called cross member #4 differential pinion brace and both the 00R and 03 have this part stock. As far as the rear steer kit goes we have modified tie rods that eliminate the need for this kit we already have our knuckles relocated 5 mm lower which is the main purpose this kit serves.

 

[Snake Eyes]

Precisely, but I dare any one to call Kenny Brown and ask if these parts would help your car...