blodstrupmoen

My camber plates has 0,5mm free play between the thrust bearing and the monobal that holds the shocks . Is this normal?

When pushing the car down the whole strut assembly would move 0,5mm inside the bearing . And ofcourse It would make some noise when going over bumps..

KLR

I'm very interested in the answer to this question as well. How much play in a spherical upper strut mount is acceptable? Do the bearings fail? If so, what is the failure mode? How long should one expect them to last? Real life experience would be great!

blodstrupmoen

I would say no play at all.. But then again my brand new plates has 0,5mm play .. And I think that is too much.. The other set i have , has no play at all..( for different spring setup ) anyone else with some real life experience .

I`ll send an e-mail to the vendor and ask...

blodstrupmoen

@ KLR .. where did you buy the KLA monoball struts ?? Are they any good ?

aeronautica86

http://www.klaindustries.net/

look like nice pieces, but I have no experience with them

aribop

I had the same issue with new camber plates I bought. Made a racket going over bumps. A little strategically placed JB Weld and all is fine.

Trucho-951

I have been running the KLA monoball strut mounts for about a year now, they had no play when I installed them, and they have no play now. I do not have any idea how much play is acceptable, but if we think about it, the more play, the larger the impact transmitted to the spherical bearing. I would think it would be as desdructive as having a small impact gun working on it all the time until someting breaks. So I would say, if the bearings are noisy, then it's time to replace them before they fail. Besides spherical bearings are not designed to be used to bear weight in the axial direction, they are designed to work as in rod ends, to bear load in the radial direction. So the monoball is a cheap design (under-designed) system to begin with.

Strut mounts should have a thrust bearing to sustain the vehicle weight, and a spherical bearing to allow small angular variations of the strut axis for proper steering. Ground control has a strut mount design that includes a thrust bearing, but I haven't gotten around to check if they will work in our cars.

Ground Control Camber Plates

Once my KLA mounts wearout, I'll look into them....

georgeleroy

I'm awaiting (and waiting and waiting) delivery of a pair of the Ground Control strut mounts, hoping they will be "quiet".
I've had a similar experience with a pair of locally manufactured mounts on my 930, the play in the joint made it nearly unbearable on the street. I switched to Elephant Racing monoballs on that car. They're heaven. Now I can drive again.

blodstrupmoen

The camber plates I have Is similar design as Ground control .. And they are brand new. I guess I`ll have to take them apart and put in a 0,5mm shim .

My Racers edge plates don`t have thrust bearings , and that is the main reason for changing ...

aeronautica86

so whose camber plates are you running now, and do these new ones incorporate a thrust bearing?

Trucho-951

can you post pictures of these camber plates?

blodstrupmoen

yes they have thrust bearings..

aeronautica86

so what company did you buy them from, and are they readily available to the general 951 community?

KLR

My KLA mounts started with little or no play. The left side developed enough play after 6 months (perhaps 1mm) to start making some noise. KLA warrantied it and sent me a replacement, which is still free of play 3 months later. The right side, though, is now beginning to develop some play. It doesn't yet make noise, so I'm letting it go for now. Other than that, I like them. They look good and the price is certainly A-OK relative to the cost of OE replacements.

KuHL 951

This is an accurate statement. I've always wondered why they thought a spherical bearing would be great for strut mounts, totally loaded in the wrong direction...it never made sense to me.