Anyone notice these up on ebay? Does anyone have any experience using them?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MakeTrack=true

 

I wonder if these change ride height. I dont have adjustable ft's yet....

 

It's hard to tell from the photo but it looks like the spherical bearing takes the full load from the strut shaft. These type of bearings aren't designed to take a load like that and need additional support for the outer cage. Shouldn't the shoulder area of the strut shaft ride on a separate support that pivots with the bearing but is retained by the plate above it? Am I missing something here?

 

You're not missing anything, you've got it right.

These will change the ride height if not using adjustable spring perches by at least 1", maybe more. The best camber plates are the ones that take the stress off the bearing: Ground control, Paragon, Lindsey and probably a few others that escape me at the moment. Personally, I run the Lindsey plates. Same style as ground control but beefier.

 

My brother picked those up and installed them with Koni Sport adjustables. The car is still in the air though. They look pretty comparable to my early-style (under mount) GC camber plates, but they're a little bit thinner.

 

So you would need the ride height adjustment kit to level it out. Can you take a snapshot of the front then post up a pic?

 

Exactly. An adjustable ride height kit will get the ride height back to stock levels, or wherever you need it, but you'll loose some shock travel using the under-mount camber plates. I'll email my brother to see if he has pictures.

 

I think the people make their own coil over conversion kit. I do not see one listed today.

 

I just installed these on a friends car a few weeks ago and would not recommend using them. Outside of improper loading thay do raise the ride height and the slots cut into the plates are too large for the bolt head so the washer sucks into the groove. The mark notches are essentailly worthless and the bearing seems to bind. Outside of that they're fine........

I have the ground control units on my car and they're a hard plate to beat Especially for the price.

 

Not to gang pile on this vendor but every 944 product they advertise has something that scares me away. The suitability of any product advertised on eBay should be taken when a grain of salt. Personally I will stick with the companies that have actually researched and developed products specifically for the the 944 rather than one that thinks they can do it better for less. Just my opinion.

 

GC plates, along with the others I previously listed, use a flat needle bearing in the top hat portion (yes, they come with hats to match your spring diameter) and the top of it is concave which then rides in the convex lower section of the plate itself. This takes all of the stress off of the spherical bearing and also allows the springs to twist without binding and making popping noises.

Before I bought my Lindsey plates, I ran a set that looked similar to the ones on Ebay. Result: chewed up the tops of the hats, wore out the threads on my MO30 strut collars due to the springs not staying centered, popped like hell and made ridiculous amounts of noise from the springs binding. I was not happy when I saw the damage!

 

Thank you all for the heads up. Was not planning on using these units, but now am very glad to stear away from them anyway!

 

aribop: thank you very much for posting. I guess I didn't look that closely at the deisgn of the eBay units...

 

Good description of the failure mechanism and something everyone should keep in mind. Anyone can make something cheaper but can they also make it better?

 

I am anxiously waiting for my Dynatech plates to show up.