Front LCA rear position bearing options?

[jrbe]

Lowered tire pressure a bit too much, tire light came on. But my wife was happy with how the car felt and drove. Her car, her complaints about rubber band / wonky steering and terrible tire wear started this whole thing.

[GearJamr]

Interesting thread. I've noticed a "twitch" or rubbery feeling when steering as well. Not to mention a rattle/clunk coming from the front which could be a control arm bushing.....the previous owner told me he had hit some large potholes (enough to bend steel rims in multiple places) and I'm basically going to revamp the suspension over the next year or so. The LCA might be moving to the top of the list.....

[RustyRuu]

what do you do to be this good with your mitts!!!

 

tech school? you were welding in the womb?

 

also if you have any ideas for using a spherical bushing/ joint for legacy trailing arms id like to hear them, polys kinda bind and oem kinda suck?

[jrbe]

Yeah, the current offerings for front, rear position lca bushings are pretty sad. I think some companies make stuff and don't actually test them. I don't think deflection is something they consider. The new whiteline front front lca bushings are too soft for my taste. The poly bushings that were in there (front rear position) were not good on day 1. They replaced perrin sphericals though, that's a high bar to live up to.

 

The sphericals make the car so incredibly stable. Over grooved pavement there is no pull that I can detect. It feels like it weighs 8000 pounds over that junk but dives into corners as you think about it. It's not darty at all.

 

I bought a mig welder about 20 years ago to teach myself how to weld. Both the control arm and spherical collar metal were easy to weld. The control arm was a bit rusty, I cleaned it as best as I could with a cookie wheel. I was thinking of tigging it but was too dirty for that. Decided to mig it and it came out well. Tig would not have gone well. No, no tech school. YouTube has lots of helpful videos on welding if you get into it. Good equipment is really important.

 

Rear trailing arm bushings could likely be one of these offerings from spc. Might have to spin up collars for them. As you start upgrading suspension, my preference is to try to keep the front on the tighter side and the rear a bit more on the cushioned side. I don't feel the rear end doing funny things. Though this car has stock suspension (everything, swaybars, springs, shocks.) For the first time after doing these sphericals I felt the car leaning a bunch while tossing it though some twisty roads. With stiffer springs / swaybars or both other suspension components will start becoming more obvious as being issues.

This car won't get to that point, it's a daily driver. In its current state it's more than capable of most things you could throw at it.

 

I got some camber bolts in so I can give it a real alignment. Also got in a tire pressure gauge to hopefully get tire pressure right. The tpms was saying 37-38 when I programmed them. My air chuck / gauge that I thought was good said ~45. When I dropped them to 38 on that, the tpms light came on.

 

So by the end of today it should have a good alignment with correct tire pressures. I'll try to report back on how the car feels later today.

[jrbe]

After an alignment (toe and camber both off quite a bit - was pulling right) and correcting tire pressures the car is less harsh over bumps. Drives straight now too.

There is still a bit of mush in the front, I'm suspect of the front front lca bushings (new whitelines.)

It feels good despite my nitpicks, definitely confidence inspiring.

 

I took a look at the rear suspension. Rear trailing arm bushings don't see much cornering load. They mostly see acceleration and deceleration (throttle and braking) loads. The lateral links take the cornering forces and the bushings mostly pivot in the right directions (shouldn't be much bind with stiffer poly.) Poly probably would do well in the rear for the lateral links as long as they have a good fit and are of a good durometer. SPC's spherical offerings don't look like they would fit the rear lateral links.