dand86951

I have a set of used Fabcar lower control arms. I have cleaned and inspected them prior to installing. I have a question someone hopefully will have an answer for. Is there a recommended grease if any at all to use on the metal part of the Delrin bushings?

Any lubrication of the spherical ball joint?

Torque for the nut on the ball joint shaft?

Thanks in advance.

Van

Umm... I don't remember the torque... no lubrication, though - I just run them dry (remember, lubrication will attract grit). I replace the pins every 2 years of heavy duty track time and get the parts from OG Racing. They are very helpful and will be able to give you a torque spec.

dand86951

Van, thanks, I will contact them. I sort of thought they wouldn't need any lubricant, but there was some in the Delrin bushing side so thought I would check first.

adrial

I would recommend replacing the Delrin bushings with spherical bearings, the steel shaft corroded on mine -- causing the joint to bind.
This was on the side of the car with no oil leak, on the side of the car with an oil leak...the shaft and bushings had a decent coating of oil on it and that side worked great...

A little bit of grease on the shaft is probably a good idea, it is pretty contained and not in direct fire of dirt, etc...

dand86951

Thanks Adrial, on the Delrin bushings I did see a bit of light rust. Ran the safts back and forth under the wire wheel and they shined up nicely. So, I sort of felt they need some type of protection. I have some high EP rated high temp lithium based grease that should work fine. And as you said the shafts are fairly protected on that end.

I decided to stay with the delrin as I still use the car a lot on the street. My worry is that the sphericals may be way too harsh. What was your experience in making the transition?

Van

What makes my car harsh on the street are the shocks and springs - not the bushings or lack there-of.

dand86951

Van, that's good to hear. My spring rate is pretty mild considering some that are used for track cars so the sphericals might not create too much extra harshness on the street.

Oddjob

I upgraded my suspension a year ago, went from factory control arms (and rubber bushings) to fabcar arms with racers edge bushings. Also increased spring rate from 500 to 600 lb/in on bilstein struts. The ride is dramatically stiffer/harsher. Since the spring rate increase was only 20%, I attributed the extreme harshness to the spherical bearings vs. the factory rubber. The difference between the fabcar delrin and spherical bearings would not be as dramatic, but also depends on what is being used for the caster block.

Van, the 2 year interval for fabcar pin replacement: did you get that recommendation from fabcar, OG Racing, other - or is it a preventive maintenance schedule that you came up with on your own? When I spoke with OG Racing over a year ago, they told me that they sell very few replacement parts for the arms (I seem to recall that it was even stated that the arms require little to no maintenance unless damaged in an accident). Since then, there have been at least a few reports of Fabcar pin failures. I am wondering if Fabcar/OG are now admitting a potential problem, and recommending a change interval on the pins?

adrial

I have stock 951S springs and I did notice a difference going to spherical bearings from Delrin, but I would describe it more as a good crispness in overall feel than a rougher ride.

Stiffening up these bushings should not make the ride much stiffer at all, since all the vertical load (outside of the swaybar load) dumps right into the strut, bypassing the a-arm.

Van

I understand that the 2 year interval is Fabcar's recommendation for cars that are heavily tracked.

I've never had a pin failure even though my arms have seen 2 accidents (the pins deformed, but didn't break). The "fracture failure" is usually a result of work hardening (becoming brittle) due to repeated cyclical loading. That's why you want to replace the pins every so often as preventative maintenance.

For a car that sees occasional driver's eds, I probably would let the pins last 4 or 5 years.

Van

P.s. it goes to show that "harsh ride" is very subjective - I have 450# springs in the front, and consider the car to be too harsh on the street. (That doesn't mean that I don't drive it on the street - it just means that I've conscientiously compromised street comfort for track handling.)

Potomac-Greg

Definitely depends on the streets! I've got 400# up front, and on nice roads, it's completely comfortable. Throw in some potholes and cracks, and it rattles the eyeballs -- not to mention middle-aged man blubber!

APKhaos

I spent quite a bit of time talking to Bill Love at OG about this recently. My current full body transplant led to the inevitable 'refresh everything', including the Fabcar arms.

- There have been several instances of pin failure, but no obvious single cause. The pins need to be treated carefully. A little light lube [Mobil 1 moly or Redline] on the pin body. NO SCRATCHES!! If the pin is scratched or dinged, replace it. Scratches are stress risers, and a crack in the making.
- Check the pin monoball for free movement of the pin. Most [all?] modern monoballs have a layer of Teflon that provides a low friction surface. ANY oil or grease contamination will destroy the Teflon layer, and cause binding problems. I found this on one of the Racer's Edge caster block monoballs. One was slightly wet with oil film, and was bound up hard. The other side was dry, and moved freely.
- If you are doing the Fabcar pins, you should also replace the monoballs [less than $30 each]. You will need to press the monoballs out of the arms. DON'T try driving the new monoballs in with a large socket and a hammer. You will destroy the nice new monoball. Ask me how I know [doh!]

Hope this helps!

dand86951

Great input from everyone, this all helps me a bunch. Just for everyone's info who doesn't know the torque spec on the nut that holds the shaft(pin) in place, it is 55 lbs-ft according to OG Racing.

por944s2

Old thread but a good one. Fab car pins can fail, as can any of them in race situations. A friend lost one in the Bus Stop at WG at the CR in June, got lucky didn't hit anything. 2 years is a good plan and keep some in inventory.