I ordered some 5/8" male heims and they say 'made in china' on the bottom, and 2 of the 4 seem pretty loose. I'm thinking the good price was too good to be true.

 

Price tells a lot about heim joints most of the time. If it's something that they can not break, spend the money on good chromoly or stainless ones. You can find heims that range in price from $5-6 each to $35+ each for the same size. You know the old saying, you get what you pay for.

 

these were supposed to be chromoly QA1s but I'm not so sure now. There was no packaging or any indication that they were any brand at all...i paid $18ea for what now appears to be an $8 heim. Their site says they do manufacture overseas but i would think they would employ some QC and not sell loose as a goose ones like i have. oh well, i hope they wear out fast...i gotta call the hotrod place i got them from, just looking for some info before i did

 

Been selling QA1 now for 8 years. No problems or failures. Manufactured in the US. some part maybe in China. They have the full line from steel, 4130, and aluminum. Best rod end for the price.

I have a friend that has a 800 hp late model dirt car, uses the aluminum rod ends for the suspensions, no failures yet.

I would double check the place you purchased from, I have sold hundreds and never seen any of them stamped from china. I think you were had!

 

haha ya, I know QA1 are very good, thats why i tried to buy them

but i failed it seems. ever see the chromo ones in a black finish? if you have some around, look at the end of the threaded part and and tell me if it says "Bailhatchs bacon got taken"

 

Where did you buy the heims from?

 

id rather not say until I determine they are not what I was sold.

 

I just sent out 4 pcmy-t 's out yesterday, all came direct from QA1 yesterday morning. No china marks anywhere. They could be though, I can check with them tomorrow just to be sure. So you know those are the cheap Chromo ones so they could very well be. Send them back for quailty and they will send you a new set.

 

the cheap one will prolly work... you'll just need to load it correctly and not shear it. lol

 

The best heims are made by Hirschmann. They make the heims for the Carrera GT. Very expensive and made in Germany and can only be purchased in bulk.

If your going to use heims for a moving part like suspension, make sure to use safety washers on both sides to prevent any problems.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by carchitect &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The best heims are made by Hirschmann. They make the heims for the Carrera GT. Very expensive and made in Germany and can only be purchased in bulk.

If your going to use heims for a moving part like suspension, make sure to use safety washers on both sides to prevent any problems.

</TD></TR></TABLE>
Thanks for the info, but its pretty useless considering this guy bought less than "bulk".
QA1 has been making them for decades, and I'd wager that 99% of the dirt/F8/oval cars use QA1 heims somewhere. If you didn't get them from QA1 directly, and the reseller claimed they were from QA1, call them and verify/send pics to let them see. They have always treated me with respect whenever I called. Good folks.

 

speedway motors?

i have black QA1's on my EF traction bar radius rods. savage beatings on slicks and none of them have broken. never looked at them for markings though.

 

Is this a QA1? Off a traction bar.

 

we just bought a custom set of qa1 front struts and some other stuff for our superstock escort, everything says made in the USA on our stuff. ill look at our rod ends for any markings, but those do not look similar to ours unless they are a different version.


Modified by redboost10 at 7:15 PM 10/21/2008

 

Kinda looks like a
PCYM-T

http://qa1.thomasnet.com/viewi...ard=1

 

if you're looking for a better brand check out http://www.rodendsupply.com

classic case of race on sunday, sell parts monday, the parts i got were very high quality and very competitively priced

 

Thats a knock-off PCM series rod end. I sell those things by the hundreds and theres never been a CHINA marking on any of them for the 3 years i've been selling them.

The only rod end not assembled here is the C series, cheap economy steel ones. The A aluminums, PC chromolys and X chromoly + teflon sealed are all assembled here in the states.

I looked at most of the specs on those rodendsupply.com rod ends... it just looks like its QA1's line white labelled to them. All the static load and misalignment tolerances are the same as the corresponding qa1 series.

Edit: Wanting to know more about this, I called my QA1 dealer and asked him if any of the PCM series came from china, he said until this year they were unmarked bodies, but the bodies actually DO come from china, although they are assembled here. If you want to upgrade to a rod end made entirely in the states, the XM series should be good enough for anything you can put it through, plus its got a teflon sealed race for a bit longer life.


Modified by ComeOnKip at 2:25 PM 10/31/2008

 

Funny to see this up top...

Yup, these were purchased from Speedway. I am using them for traction bars. For probably 4 of the last 6 thousand miles the ends have been making some creaking and clicking noise. The two loose ones are starting to get worse. The other two are about the same. Mine do look just like that picture posted here too.
No real chance of failure here but I guess a better quality rod end and maybe some dust boots would have made me a little happier... it's really just a fun beater car so I'm not that worried about it, even if Speedway was, infact dishonest about the parts I bought.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bailhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Funny to see this up top...

Yup, these were purchased from Speedway. I am using them for traction bars. For probably 4 of the last 6 thousand miles the ends have been making some creaking and clicking noise. The two loose ones are starting to get worse. The other two are about the same. Mine do look just like that picture posted here too.
No real chance of failure here but I guess a better quality rod end and maybe some dust boots would have made me a little happier... it's really just a fun beater car so I'm not that worried about it, even if Speedway was, infact dishonest about the parts I bought.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The teflon bearing race helps alot with keeping it tight / no clicks. The seals it dust boots are a real good investment too.

 

aurora makes some relly nice heim joints.
all the qa1s ive used always had a felt peice betweeen the
spherical and the rod end that doesnt like abuse.
but have seen auroras rusted so bad you can hardly tell what they
are still have no slop.

 

I always use aurora teflon lines hiem joint. Can't beat them!