Spherical Leaf Spring Joints for '67-'81 F-Body

[F-Body International]

Anyone have some good opinions or experience with this stuff? How come many of the performance guys with muscle car leaf springs use spherical only in the front then have delrin/delalum/rubber/poly out back?

I don't have PTFB, ridetech or any other brand spring measurements but Hotchkis Suspension website states their springs are 2.5" wide with a 2" front spring eye and a 1.6" rear spring eye. I assume this is a similar measurement across many of the spring manufacturers for 2nd gen F-Body. All the ones listed below are roughly consistent with the front eye measurement considering what the Hotchkis website provides for measurement. The Deaver piece listed at the bottom is about equal to the rear spring eye on the Hotchkis measurement. This is what I've found but please feel free to provide any more sources for this type of suspension equipment if known.

Currie Enterprises Johnny Joints
http://currieenterprises2.reachlocal.net/CE-9112
For fabricators and suspension system builders. Currie's Johnny Joints® offer 30 degrees of unrestricted movement in any direction as compared to 22 degrees on a common heim joint. The bushings in the Johnny Joint® rod ends are made with a high-density, "tough 88" urethane that encases the inner ball. It is a very durable material, and is impervious to weather. The special center ball is heat-treated steel for extra strength, cross-drilled for thru-bolt lubrication, features a 7/16" thru bolt hole, and a 2" mounting width. The outer shell is .180" DOM tubing, and the retaining washers are heat-treated steel. 7/16" greasable bolt with nut and washers included.




Hotchkis Swivel Max Bushing Upgrade
http://www.hotchkis.net/product/swiv...79&md=595&sm=0
Hotchkis Sport Suspension 21016 Swivel Max Bushing Upgrade . Improve the cornering performance and traction of your 1967-1981 Camaro Firebird or 1968-1974 Nova with the Hotchkis Sport Suspension Swivel Max Bushing upgrade. This kit is designed to replace standard 2 in. OD front eye bushings and 1.6 in. rear eye bushings on the Hotchkis leaf springs with a high articulation mono ball to increase suspension compliance and articulation improving cornering traction and eliminating suspension bind. This upgrade is a must for any high performance application looking to maximize traction at the autocross or road course. The system contains CNC machined front bushing cans with PTE lined mono balls blue anodized CNC machined aluminum articulation spacers heavy duty shackles Delrin bushings and grade 8 hardware. Proudly made in the USA.




Pro-Touring F-Body Sphere-O-Bushings
http://pro-touringf-body.com/Suspension_kits.html
Replace your front leaf spring eye with our new Spher-o-bushing kit, eliminate deflection while allowing free articulation of the rear suspension, eliminates wheel hop in most cases, greatly reduces snap oversteer, these come with end seals allowing lubrication




Alcan Spring Orbit-Eyes
http://www.alcanspring.com/orbit-eye.htm
You may already know that Alcan Spring built all of AOR's famous, super-flex Orbit-Eye™ Springs. AOR supplied the Orbit-Eye™ Joints; we perfected the custom spring design that the Orbit-Eye housing's 2.5-inch diameter requires. So, fabricating these custom world-class, off-road leaf springs is nothing new to us. What IS NEW is that we've acquired from AOR the exclusive rights to the Orbit-Eye™ Joint itself. And we can now build custom Orbit-Eye-equipped leaf springs in a huge range of lift heights and load capacities for your Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Jeep, Nissan or Toyota. What's more, the Orbit-Eye™ has been redesigned & refined. It offers vastly better flex, performance and durability than ever!
* A full 46° of flex - Up from 38° (SCROLL DOWN if you're not sure why this is a good thing)
* Precision-machined, cold-rolled steel ball rides inside a special molybdenum-based nylon socket. Housing pins secure the socket in place.
* Rustproof aluminum spanner nuts secure the ball-and-socket inside a .120-wall steel housing. Set screws prevent the nuts from backing out.




Deaver Leaf Spring Baja Suspension Bushing Kit
http://www.mooreparts.com/deaver-spr...-spring-width/
When These Baja Bushings Are Installed In The Leaf Spring Eyes They Allow The Leaf Spring To Rotate On A Spherical Bearing That Is Teflon Lined. This Causes The Leaf Spring To Move Freely And With The Consistency That Was Previously Available Only With Coil Springs.

[Zspoiler]

I wouldn`t go that way if you drive it on the Street,The ride would be terrible .Especially the condition of our roads. Maybe use poly urethane but no futher.

[F-Body International]

Less bind, stabilized spring, rotates for uneven surfaces, etc. Hard to see how this could make the ride substantially worse. I've been accustomed to thinking ride quality has a majority to do with shock tuning.

[Skip Fix]

Global West has them in their front spring eyes of CAT 5 springs.

http://www.globalwest.net/l-3cat5.html

Way back in the day Herb Adams had them also.

[Rod]

my car had the Hotchkis leafs and the "swivel max upgrade" it is a daily driver and often traveled/driven to the many auto-crosses and track days, ride quality was great, ZERO difference in daily use, but on the autocross the rear end rotates and puts down traction much better, I simply dont have it in the car now because i was sponsored by ridetech and switched everything over, and the new ridetech composite leafs also have a version of the swivel bushing in them....because it works

[F-Body International]

my car had the Hotchkis leafs and the "swivel max upgrade" it is a daily driver and often traveled/driven to the many auto-crosses and track days, ride quality was great, ZERO difference in daily use, but on the autocross the rear end rotates and puts down traction much better, I simply dont have it in the car now because i was sponsored by ridetech and switched everything over, and the new ridetech composite leafs also have a version of the swivel bushing in them....because it works

That's interesting about the Ridetech leaf springs. I haven't really seen that to be noted as a part of their kit. I bought my Hotchkis spring before the Ridetech kit came out but that seems like an awesome setup. Lightweight composite spring and a spherical joint probably makes for a highly reactive system.

Out of curiosity, how many miles would you guess you ran with the spherical joints?

[tflyboy77]

I have the PTFB units and I love them. No difference from stock ride quality and performance far above and beyond any rubber or poly bushing.
I regularly pile my wife and two kids with car seats in the back of my 77 T/A for either just a cruise or to go racing. No complaints and nothing but smiles all around.

[Rod]

Out of curiosity, how many miles would you guess you ran with the spherical joints?

about 4 years, roughly 20,000 miles, they lived thru 2 motors, 4 transmissions, 2 rear ends, and 4 years of daily driving in San Fransisco with rain and pot-holes

[F-Body International]

Reviving an old thread but I found Global West has updated a product picture for part # 115SH. They sell the kit for us leaf springs guy to upgrade to dual spherical spring eyes and Delalum in the body....like their Cat-5 setup.

Global West link...
http://www.globalwest.net/camaro-fir...4-75-76-7.html

Before anyone goes crazy over retail price, here’s the part through Summit at less cost...
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gls-115sh

[68Formula]

my car had the Hotchkis leafs and the "swivel max upgrade" it is a daily driver and often traveled/driven to the many auto-crosses and track days, ride quality was great, ZERO difference in daily use, but on the autocross the rear end rotates and puts down traction much better, I simply dont have it in the car now because i was sponsored by ridetech and switched everything over, and the new ridetech composite leafs also have a version of the swivel bushing in them....because it works

Is there any way to lube the fronts?

[Rod]

Is there any way to lube the fronts?

I never re-lubed them, it is just a bearing held in with a c-clip, I'm sure you could just replace it if needed

[79T/Aman]

Pro-touring F-body spherical bearings come with rubber caps to keep dirt out as well as provide movement dampening and stability, we have customers with 10 years of service autoX, track days and street use, our bushings can be packed with chassis grease if desired as the rubber caps will hold it in, I can also tell you that only having 2 aluminum bearing spacers will not hold up to the rigors of racing, early on we found that out, the Pro-touring F-body sphere-o-bushings have been used in many street and racing applications from Circle track to autoX and road race and uses a supported sleeve and spacer design.
Ride quality is not affected in fact it can be improved due to the reduction in bind that allows road harshness to transfer to the chassis.

[bdiamond]

I wouldn`t go that way if you drive it on the Street,The ride would be terrible .Especially the condition of our roads. Maybe use poly urethane but no futher.

I used heim jointed lower arms on a third gen Camaro. The ride quality didn't suffer a bit. The noise however was substantially worse.

[David Pozzi]

We put the Global West Cat5 in Mary's Camaro and with the Kumho tires she was autocrossing with, the ride was harsh. Lots of shocks and road rumble with the rear view mirror vibrating out of position a lot. With street rubber it was better/tolerable, but not as good as the rubber front mounts, polly rear.

[F-Body International]

We put the Global West Cat5 in Mary's Camaro and with the Kumho tires she was autocrossing with, the ride was harsh. Lots of shocks and road rumble with the rear view mirror vibrating out of position a lot. With street rubber it was better/tolerable, but not as good as the rubber front mounts, polly rear.

David,
I know this is an older post but I'm curious. Did the setup that you guys used have the "reverse-wound" or standard spring eye?

I see that Global West now offers part number 115SH to upgrade a standard leaf springs to dual spherical spring eyes. It's a bit pricey but definitely looks interesting...
http://www.globalwest.net/camaro-fir...4-75-76-7.html
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

[UMI Tech]

We are working on this at UMI, just to put this on everyone's radar. Out '71 Camaro should debut soon with some leaf/Roto-Joint action. Stay tuned.

ramey

[68Formula]

We are working on this at UMI, just to put this on everyone's radar. Out '71 Camaro should debut soon with some leaf/Roto-Joint action. Stay tuned.

ramey

It would be nice, if they don't require welding, and work with stock 1st Gen springs (which I think the ends are the same as 2nd Gen). And no polyurethane to squeak.

[68Formula]

duplicate

[David Pozzi]

David,
I know this is an older post but I'm curious. Did the setup that you guys used have the "reverse-wound" or standard spring eye?

I see that Global West now offers part number 115SH to upgrade a standard leaf springs to dual spherical spring eyes. It's a bit pricey but definitely looks interesting...
http://www.globalwest.net/camaro-fir...4-75-76-7.html
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

We used the GW cat 5 leafs, which have standard eyes like stock springs but stiffer rate, around 225 lbs/inch if I remember right. The Hotchkis and most others are 175 lb. We ditched the leaf spring perch pads and went solid. But also did that on the Hotchkis leafs before with no harshness increase. I think the rubber front and poly rear bushings add 20 lbs stiffness per degree roll, for each leaf. So 80 lbs rear roll stiffness for a 2 deg roll angle using a Hotchkis leaf spring.

[Skip Fix]

David did you not have any binding with poly in the rear? Mine sure pop even when I jack up the car not supporting the rear.