STROM E46 Billet Upright Set

Now in stock!

E46 Billet Uprights (or Knuckles, depending on your vocab flavor) with 25mm of geometry correction to the control arm and tie rod mounting points. 

Installation Instructions

TLDR Points:

• Designed to be simple to install, easy to align and incredibly strong and reliable
• Corrects roll center and allows for correct or better geometry with low ride heights
• Negates bump steer resulting from extreme tie rod angles
• Corrects suboptimal force vectors transmitting through the control arms 
• Car can be run lower overall for better CoG (Center of Gravity)
  
• Manufactured from one piece billet 7075-T6 aluminum.
• Fits E46 M3 Factory Control Arm and Tie Rod OR E46 330 and E36
• Standard E46 M3 strut diameter 
• Utilizes a stronger E9X or F8X wheel bearing or similar (many options).
• E46 M3 mounting points for brake calipers
• Factory E46 M3 steering ratio
• Works with MK60 or similar ABS units
  
• Save approximately 1 pound over the E46 M3 upright (with all bolts and wheel bearings) but twice the strength

Weight Breakdown (depends on brand of wheel bearing):

• New Billet Upright with chromoly inserts: 6.16 lbs
• F82 Wheel Bearing with bolts: 6.94 lbs
• E60 Wheel Bearing: 8.06 lbs

• Total - 13.1 to 14.2 lbs depending on bearing

• E46 M3 Stock Knuckle: 9.37 lbs
• E46 M3 wheel bearing with nut and cap: 4.98 lbs

• Total - 14.35 lbs

Wheel speed sensors and brake backing plates should be equivalent.  Other options are available but we have not weighed them all. In the end our upright complete is about a pound lighter. 

Color Choice:

These come anodized black or clear. The pictured upright that is aluminum color was not anodized and was a raw part so we could verify tolerances. The clear anodized version will look smoother. The black anodized upright pictured represents the final product.

Control Arm an Fitment:

These are designed to work with the factory taper of an E46 M3 or E46 330 and E36 M3 control arm and similar so select which size of arm you are using. For the tie rod you must use an E46 variant. E46 M3 and 330 use the same taper. E36 M3 is too small. 

Includes:

1. Set of left and right uprights
2. 4340 Chromoly Sleeves sized for factory E46 M3 ball joints on the control arm and tie rod. More sleeve options will be come available to fit different control arms. 
3. Includes all hardware needed for install: Bolts, washers and nuts for brake caliper, wheel bearing, control arm, tie rod, wheel speed sensor, and strut. 

Parts not Supplied in Base Kit:

• Wheel Bearing - We are using the E9X M3 wheel bearing (31 2 26 765 601) - You can also use many other version like from an F8X or E60 but we so far we have only been using the E9X M3 bearing. 
• E39 Wheel Speed Sensors (34 52 6 756 375)
• Brake Rotor Backing Plate - we were unable to use stock E46 backing plate mounting points so you can go without or use our non-ducted or ducted ones.
• Optional - we recommend using these with the Z3 rack (AAE 3310N) which is widely available for optimal feel and linear steering.

More Info:

These uprights were designed to solve a variety of problems with a stock upright. Many geometry correction kits exist on the market and each have their pros and cons. Some are complex and extremely adjustable, others are simple but unreliable (breaking bolts) or involve welding to the knuckle to install. We have seen a number of cars get binned due to parts breaking in certain geometry correction setups. Our uprights are meant to be the simplest and safest solution for a lowered street or track car to correct the geometry. Bolt them in, perform a normal alignment, and be on your way. This is the part we wanted for our B46 race cars as we think it is the best all around solution to a lowered and modified E46. 

The Strom E46 Billet Upright improves a number of other aspects. First and foremost they move the mounting points of the control arm and tie rod down by 25mm. This corrects the arm angles when the car is lowered. This has many positive effects. It removes bump steer from extreme toe changes under braking and hard compression. When you lower the car you lower the Center of Gravity (CoG) which is good but you also often move your roll center down and away from the CoG. The difference between these two points is known as a roll couple and the larger your roll couple the more the car rolls when it transfers weight. Tons of info online explaining this so feel free to explore before reading further. By both lowering the CoG and moving your roll center back up closer to the CoG you reduce the roll couple and the car not only takes a set into a corner quicker - so it feels more responsive - you also get less overall suspension movement so force vectors are aligned correctly through the arms, further reducing suspension compression and extreme toe and camber changes. 

They are much stronger than a standard E46 upright which we have bent many times in racing conditions. While its normal to bend a tie rod in contact and you do want something cheap to bend instead of breaking your subframe or worse, we often find ourselves replacing the upright and tie rod which also means new wheel bearing and swapping wheel studs etc. 

We stuck with the standard standard M3 steering ratio built into the upright and this was done for a number of reasons. The way our B46 race cars or E46 street car feels with a Z3 rack and M3 uprights is just right. Too quick of steering and the car becomes darty and annoying to drive which large curb strikes being aggressively transmitted through the wheel as well as the steering assist not being able to keep up in rapid oversteer situations due to there being less leverage at the upright We also kept the offset the same as the M3 to keep these as universal as possible for various applications.

The new design allows for the use of a variety of stronger wheel bearings as well as inherent options for M14 wheel studs (F82 wheel bearing). While we are currently utilizing the E9X M3 wheel bearing with the modular design you can use a huge variety of other bearings. We will update the part number list as we test various types.  

Lastly we utilize press in steel inserts for the control arm and tie rod holes. This allows us to machine simple inserts in the future to fit a large variety of factory control arms as well as aftermarket race control arms. As we test these on other cars like the E36 we will be releasing more parts. 

Let us know what information you feel like we are missing and we would be happy to update this further! info@strommotorsports.com