Speedway Heim Bushings ! ! ! !

[rock]

In your hypothetical scenerio the arm would move all over the place. Understand that the geometry of the upper control arms coupled with the lower control arms is what centers the rearend. Which in turn limits the side to side movement. These could be used (as titled in Speedway description) as control arm bushings. Please understand that I purchased these to use in the rearend housing for the upper control arms. The upper housing bushings and the lower control arm bushings are the same for a G-Body. Hope this clears up what I was trying to accomplish by using them in the upper housing. If you were to use them for the lower control arms, I dont think it would be budget savey. You would need 4 bushings ($100 + shipping) and have to go through the trouble of replacing the stock bushings in a set of stock (or boxed) control arms. You could purchase new solid lowers for less than the parts and labor involved. But for replacing the upper housing bushings you can't beat the price vs. quality ($50.00).

 

[Norm Peterson]

Assuming that the shell is still a press fit into the LCAs and that the spherical joint is positively located by the sleeves, the LCAs shouldn't be able to move laterally at all, and the lowers play only a minor part in axle lateral location anyway. Obviously if you no longer had a press fit, the arm would be free to wander all over the place relative to the sleeves, or at least far enough to scrape up against either axle or chassis brackets. But if it was that loose, you'd know right away.

In a corner-carving environment without any rules restriction, you'd probably put these things in the lowers and swap out the uppers for something else entirely that would require a PHB, Watts link, or some other lateral locating device.


I'm starting to see LCAs with a spherical at one end and a poly bushing at the other for the current Mustang. FWIW.


formikec - Loose steer or push? Metric chassis or other?


Norm

 

[barnym17]

Tha mounting angle of the arms is what controls lateral movement not the bushings.The heims will make it no less controlled unless they are totally worn out.It will actually be more predictable as the stock bushings compress and do many weird things(by design for ride comfort) whereas the heims won't.

 

[rock]

Tha mounting angle of the arms is what controls lateral movement not the bushings.The heims will make it no less controlled unless they are totally worn out.It will actually be more predictable as the stock bushings compress and do many weird things(by design for ride comfort) whereas the heims won't.

Yep, what he said \/ (remember, these will be used in the upper rearend housing.)

 

[shotgun]

Rock , any long term testing to report?

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I'll start by saying the Speedway and Midwest Motorsports made lots of money off me in my circle track days.

However, I have a question about the bushings. I wouldn't think you would really want to use that type of setup unless you really had a good rear setup with a panhard bar or some other setup to prevent any movement of the rear.

I mean, think about it. Poly bushing are such to stiffen the suspension and try to help prevent unecessary movement. Hiem Joints are the opposite, to allow for better movement. To me, those would seem to be too free moving.

Maybe I'm wrong. What do others think?

The last thing you want is to bind up the rear suspension. If a non-articulating rear suspension worked best, there wouldn't be a suspension at all. The rear axle would be hard mounted like a go cart... Poly bushings on triangulated 4 links are generally looked upon as a no-no, except for drag only apps & even then it's iffy. I know a lot of people will protest that statement, but it's a hard fact. Talk to any honest company that really knows suspension design. There's many a reason why they'll tell you that poly is not the best choice for anything other than drag racing & they really only sell them to be competitive with the less expesive poly-only setups.

I'm not saying people don't have success with poly, I'm just putting out info.

A panhard bar or Watt's linkage isn't needed on a triangulated 4 link. It can help, but it's only actually necessary on parallel link setups.

Tommy