ESP.net

Hello, I am thinking of making a Upper Adjustable Control Arm instead of using a ball joint. I am thinking of using a Chromoly Heim Joint with a bolt and 2 pieces of polyurethane to dampen it a bit. I have seen a few of the Nissan Guys use a heim for the ease of adjustablility and space. I am wondering what you guys would think and if would work in somewhat of a street version. Still will have the OEM chassis polyurethane or OEM rubber bushings to the shock tower. I am thinking adding the polyurethane pieces on each side of the knuckle just to dampen the blow/shock a bit. The chassis mounts will also help since rubber/poly to absorb some of the shock. Bolt is hardened and 12.9 grade.

Only issue I have is the heim joint strength of where the shaft/threads are but hey 40,000 lbs tensile strength same ones being used on monster truck. I would imagine this should work okay. What you guys think/thoughts? Advice?

cluelessmale

iTrader: (1)

Kind of the same step up we use on F500/FM. The Heim joints do break every so often, after a dumb move, and we do have them on our replace every X events list, weather we do that or not. We do not have any polyurethane piece, two picture to try and show them (sorry no resent pics)

ESP.net

Yea... seen it a lot on lighter stuff atvs etc pretty common way to go about it. I am using pretty big heims 3/4" shaft chromoly believe like 40k lbs tensile. Bigger then what most used I would guess.... would think poly would help tiny bit.

cluelessmale

iTrader: (1)

You are planning on using this on the upper arm only right? (the one that does not support the weight of the car)

ESP.net

Yes on Upper Control Arm is the idea... The upper control arm also has the bushing up on the chassis pillow ball monts in theory will dampen a bit as well.

Davidss

I think using eurethane on a heim joint is a bad idea. It would likely start to wear out in a few days or weeks and then you would have a ton of play in the joint. Just machine the proper tapered spacer for the heim joint.

ESP.net

Thanks for the post. Will keep that in mind... Will have a guinea pig to test out the theories.

hispanic panic

i like this idea. much better than what's currently out there. Also, +1 to the no poly bit.

90civichbsi

iTrader: (1)

I think is a great idea, another thing to consider would be how to attach the helm so that you still have easy camber adjustment. It's much easier to remove the helm and twist it on an open wheel car than a closed fender. The advantage of what is currently on the market is you typically only have to loosen a bolt or 2 and slide around the arm without lifting it off the ground.

Doing something like the SPC and Skunk 2 8th gen civic rear arms would work well. Though I can think of a few simpler ways to do it
that don't require threading anything.