Mike Simard

Here's the upper control arms I made for my project.
Brendan Bars!

Eliminating rubber bushings and replacing them with spherical bearings was the reason along with easier camber adjustment. Would anyone be interested in these? If so I could pump some out. I do have another set on hand but a decision has to be made about configuration. I drilled my crossmember to use 12mm bolts instead of the original 10mm, doing that requires dropping the crossmember in order to install the bolt. I recommend it but I could make mounting hardware with a smaller hole for the stock bolt.
The price for a set will be 400-500, most of that is the direct cost of high quality non-China PTFE lined rod ends. Cheap crap rod ends could save 100-200 bucks but I wouldn't have anything to do with that. Included components incude mounting flanges that have a dish to match the one on the crossmember and upright. It took some work to nail that but I'm very happy with the fit, it feels very solid.
Adjusting camber is actually fun now You don't need to chase the toe!

Mike Simard

My Sweetiepie 'helped' me install these, take pictures and post this, she wants everyone to see the 'chicken' we made so here you go

BC

You're gonna have to do some "Splainin" on the sold rear trans mounts and the welding done on the hubs.

Did you do the Brendan Bars (Its just my ego, I am sure I wasn't me who thought of them first, nor do I know if mine work) so they allow full tow movement? The only direction mine contol is camber.

I want to know what you are doing with the early car's rear tow link metal on the body. I can move it with my hand.

Lizard928

Mike,

If you can keep the cost sub $500 I will take a set.

Brendan, looking at his setup he has the shock mount on the trailing arm, so no need for that extra area, he also has the trailing arm reinforced so there is no adjustment to the weissach axle anymore.

Do you have the front pinned as well Mike?

hacker-pschorr

What is the maximum camber you can set with the stock setup? How much more can you run with these?

Loosing the rubber bushings alone makes this an excellent upgrade - just curious on the settings.

and x2 on what Brendan said......what kind of a shock are you running??

Tenshieternal

I'd be interested in a set.

Mark Anderson

I did this on my race car years ago but the links hit the chassis so I went back to the factory link which is curved for clearance. Maybe its not an issue for street cars at stock height. You might stick some clay on your stock arm and check to see how close it come after some speed bumps or hard turns.

Mike Simard

There is alot of other stuff going on in this setup like the lower arm mods, bushings, trans mounts etc. Most of those mods are pretty labor intensive stuff for a track car, eliminating rubber bushings is really a huge task although it sounds simple.

Lizard, the front isn't pinned but a machined cap is welded into the arm and a rod end screws into that. Since there's no Weissach toe going on and all points have a spherical bearings, it's OK to put a reinforement bar at the back.

Brendan, these have no part in toe, the upper control arm really doesn't do much beyond keeping the top of the wheel from flopping in and out. The lower arm is where the action is. BTW, in your avatar you seem to have something like this but yours looks like it's mounted on the other side of the upright, is that true?

Enzo, now it's shock shopping time! I've waited to finish the suspension in order to size some traditional racing shocks, they won't be compatible with stock mounting at all. It would be nice to find a specialist that could supply a shock and spring package based on racing experience, I'm all ears if anyone has a recommendation.

Mark, thanks for chiming in, your input is much appreciated and I could use your knowledge. I changed the mountings slightly from the components picture above, the inner mount is now .3 further out. I would prefer to keep mounts as close to the anchor points as possible because of the single shear. I haven't seen interference yet but will recheck everything and be sure to bring it to full compression.

I'll put the idea of selling these on hold until they can be tested.

stuartph

Mike


Those look so cool

BC

Yes, that was a trial fit that I wanted to get onto my avatar. Its changed now to the obviously better position. (Don't worry, I replaced the rusty bolt.)



I don't see a problem with these hitting anything as they can be spaced in and out as needed. Too much spacing and we'll need a 14mm bolt, but we get the idea. Also, I can put it back into the rearward position, which looks like it has free movement space. Yours look prettier than mine Mike. I am jealous. It was still 200 dollars worth of parts and some more for machining. And some of the stuff is... Not subpar, but more casty looking than machined. It will be fine with some lock nuts.

Mike Simard

I wonder if there's significant movement under heavy braking. The stock setup has rubber bushings and a fairly short distance between the mounting points of the upright on the lower arm. That would make for some forward movement at the upper arm under heavy braking, maybe enough to create clearance problems perhaps? I'm not concerned about the car in my picture but will do research for using these on a stock bushinged car. Spherical bearings could be mounted in a stock arm but IMO having camber adjustment in the upper arm is such a treat it needs to be made to work at all costs.

Bill Ball

Hi Mike:

What do you think would be the life-expectancy of those rod ends on a daily-driver street car exposed to the elements?

Mike Simard

Whoa! I just realised that it's not the crossmember that's a clearance concern but rather the body itself, a straight arm is going to hit at full bump. I feel silly for not having realised that earlier, my apologies. Back to the drawing board...

Sterling, it's not necesarry to replace the stock bolt unless you get carried away and start 'improving' everything Your idea might some in handy though to save space, that bolt is getting close to the spring.

Bill, I've seen exposed PTFE lined rod ends in control arms last thousands of miles of street driving with no discernable effects. It's a proven method and there's no reason to use old fashioned metal on metal joints anymore. The only downside to the teflon lined ones is cost. A 440C stainless/teflon bearing is vastly more expensive than a regular one.

Mark Anderson

On my race car I removed the seamed area of the chassie that was a conflict. Now even with the stock curved link I have had some occasional interference but again my application is much different than most.

Vilhuer

Making customs part it might be good idea to make it little more curved than stock.