Spherical Bearings Rear Trailing Arms

[69 Custom S Vert]

Anybody running rear control arms with spherical bearings? The claim is that they do not bind like del-a-lum, poly or rubber. What is the ride like? UMI Perfromance sells double adjustable lower and upper arms with spherical rod ends at a great price ($450). Any input appreciated.

[DonQuehotey]

I would be leary of that on a vehicle that is going to me seeing highway miles. Sphericals in your locating bars are going to be subjected to dirt, debris, all kinds of crap and will self destruct alot faster

[rocketman]

my 37 has them,they ride ruff,but with good shock they are liveable.but they are bulletproof.i was going to change mine to poly buy didnt want to cut the 4 link up to do it.if you do make sure to get a high $$$ rod ends like auroua's.cheap ones will pull apart,i know from personal exp.

[DLinson]

I used 3/4" rod ends on the links for my friends 4-link and panhard bar system in his 66 Mustang. He thinks it rides better than his leaf springs with rubber bushings did. We did use QA1 coil-overs with the poly bushings. I did use the 52100 bearing steel rod ends with the Teflon/Kevlar races. It's been on the road for a few years now without a problem. My other friend had the cheap steal race type on his ladder bars and they beat themselves apart. They didn't fail/break but they were really sloppy and it would sound like the chassis was being hit by a hammer every time he hit a bump.

Dennis

[rocketman]

i use the teflon ones myself,there good

[DonQuehotey]

heim ends / spherical bearings are either teflon or kevlar lined. they are not servicable and when introduced to bad things in our enviroment will wear out and die. The main connecting link bars go through a significant amount of movement and you can expect to constantly replace them in a daily driver . If you are running them on a driver I would carry a spare....A panhard bar, watts link or a diagonal link with rod ends will live longer because they are not subected to the force or the amount of movement that a locating bar is subjected to.

[Marcus SC&C]

Good advice. We`ve found the same to be true. Heims work fine for awhile,with some extra NVH. But we`ve tried every brand and type out there and even the best ones wear and start to buzz and rattle within a year or two. We ran teflon/kevlar Auroras on one of our test cars in the 3 link/phb suspension figuring it would be fine for short term test use but within 10,000 miles they started buzzing through the chassis and by 13,000 miles they were driving us nuts. It`s worse on this car because the cage ties into the 3rd link mount but I`ve seen (and heard) it happen on a lot of customer`s cars too over the years. We`ve gone to using Currie Johnny joints on custom fabbed suspensions and their CurrecTrac arms on OE applications. They have the Johnny joints on just one end but in practice they still do a really good job of eliminating suspension bind and snap oversteer issues on A and G body cars. The Johnny joints were originally designed for hardcore offroad use so they handle water and dirt just fine and their urethane races do a fairly good job of isolating NVH. Mark SC&C