Adjustable Links that use Bushings instead of heims?

[brianglawson]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone is making S Chassis links that use poly/rubber bushings instead of heims and flex joints?

I came across an old Zilvia vendor post about SPC arms, but can't seem to find much about them anymore.

I am looking to buy Voodoo13 arms, since he uses nice heims, AND I could replace heims using RuffStuff or Ballistic Fab when they go bad.... BUT in all honesty, I would prefer to use a nice, hard rubber bushing or a poly bushing.

[e1_griego]

Any aurora or FK bearing is fine -- I would probably trust that more than a generic rod end with no load rating or any other detailed information, but that's me.

The only hard rubber bushings are discontinued nismo bushings (which just press in, and aren't adjustable on the arm), or SPC stuff which is still available via ebay (or google).

Poly in the back of a 240 generally doesn't work very well (racepar1 will be here soon to argue with me ;) ) because the suspension in back moves in an arc rather than straight up or down. Poly only wants to move in one axis and will bind up when you try to make it move in 2 axes.

BV, SPL and voodoo all use 5/8" rod ends like I think I already told you somewhere else. BV is probably the best bang for the buck.

[brianglawson]

Actually, Ruffstuff and Ballistic Heims are all load tested.. I had great dealings with Ruffstuff over the years, running them on my Jeep.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/brianglawson/2011-2012693.jpg (http://s12.photobucket.com/user/brianglawson/media/2011-2012693.jpg.html)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/brianglawson/2011-2012694.jpg (http://s12.photobucket.com/user/brianglawson/media/2011-2012694.jpg.html)

I never had any problems with them, and they have great service...

Anywho...

Well I got to thinking about it and realized that all of the knuckle bushings would still be rubber, Sooooo the need for poly or rubber really doesn't exist. If there is rubber or poly on one end of a link, it will deflect a lot of the NVH...

I don't mind a bit of road feel, For instance, I REALLY love having my poly steering rack bushings, and a poly trans mount...

I DESPISED having solid motor mounts though.. I Remember on my old E36 M3, I had every bushing in the car, literally, every bushing, swapped to Poly ... I didn't like that much either.

Actually, having heims on one end and rubber on the other might just be whats right for me anyway.

VooDoo13 arms look to be the best "bang for your buck" in terms of pricing.

I just found that GKtech also uses standard thread heims
http://www.enjukuracing.com/products/gktech-front-castor-tension-rods-v3-nissan-240sx-s14.html

They are using QA1's too, which are nice.



Right now, my plan is basically to replace these Rear Toe arms, since I have one bad heim, and get me a set of Front Tension arms. I will slowly get new rear traction arms and new Rear camber arms (although, I think mine are Cusco bits)...

My only remaining concern is with the Tension rods...
I want some adjustability there, but I have noticed that they only have rubber on one end, and aftermarket arms (except SPC) do away with the rubber bushing. Being that this arm takes the most load of all arms on the car, I am a bit skeptical about putting solid arms on there?

Will I feel every damn crack in the road with them, or will I not even notice the change?

I might add,

The coilovers I am installing are custom spec FEAL Suspension 441's.

They are LONG TRAVEL setups, with 6k front and 4k rear springs. I live in the mountains, with terrible loads, I autocross, and I like to run mountain roads hard. So I want something with Travel.

I have about 1.5" of total travel with the D2 Coilovers I have now, I will have 5 and 5/8" of travel with the Feals. I will not be able to slam the car due to the length of the shock bodies, but it will still be lower than stock.. Its actually too low now anyway...

[e1_griego]

Load tested, sure. But they don't list a load rating and I'm not sure how a $10 heim is going to be better than a qa1/aurora/fk. Whatever.

Every koni/bilstein setup has more travel than a 1-piece coilover setup, so it will be fine.

You won't notice any difference with tension rods for ride quality, though it will tighten the front end. Alignment has more to do with feeling the cracks on the road and catching ruts and stuff.

You aren't blazing new trails with your suspension build, most of this stuff has been covered all over the place.

edit: the voodoo toe arms are the cheapest. BV undercuts the other arms by a little bit. Can't really go wrong with any of them.