J&M aluminum LCA's, good or bad?

http://www.hotpart.com/index.php?p=show&id=146

i was checking these out, they look pretty nice. would they be strong enough for everyday driving and occasional drag strip use? anyone got thought or oppinions, they seem like a nice product especially at 150 a pair.

since there is no lateral force applied it will be very difficult to break one of these. i can't get the web page up, but most companies use crappy rod ends you'll have to replace in about 2 months any way...build your own and spend as much if not less and get higher grade rod ends. i built my LCAs and PHR for about as much as BMR wants for regular control arms. and i have double adjustable everything

The only problem with aluminum is that when it fails it fails catastrophically... it doesn't bend... in breaks. This isn't much of an issue if the aluminum used is strong enough and the design is 100%... but you can't just build a carbon copy of a stamped or mild steel part out of aluminum, there needs to be solid engineering behind it.

Personally, I wouldn't trust aluminum lca's made by any aftermarket company on a daily driven car without doing a lot of research.

As Severous alluded to, without knowing what rod ends they are using, it's impossible to say whether they are a good deal. At that price they are most likely cheap ones that will become noisy in short order.

From their add: These lightweight control arms are designed for road racing and high performance street driving. J&M made them adjustable in length which allows you to square the axle to your chassis and change pinion angles. We use very high quality 3 piece Teflon spherical rod ends to give you precise axle control, while allowing the rear suspension to articulate as freely as possible. Expect a slight increase in noise on street applications. These are priced at a special introductory price of $149.00. This price will not last long

It sounds like they start out noisy.

I'd be curious on how they feel that changing the length of the LCA's will allow you to "change pinion angles".

Only way you could do that is the rear of the Torque
instead of being mounted solid to the housing was on
a swivel or Hiem setup.

Just a thought:D

Later

I think they are just using the same text from their Mustang stuff. They are good people and are happy to help if anyone has any questions.

Injuneer:

This was written over ten years ago for the Fox Mustang not the F-Body. Thank you for pointing it out to us and we will get our web designer to correct it.

Razor_Blade:

Anytime you decrease the rubber in your suspension you will increase road noise and ride harshness. To say "It sounds like they start out noisy" is a misleading statement. The spherical rod ends we use are a very high quality 3 piece Teflon lined rod end. We are very particular in what we put our name on which is why we require a F1 fit on the rod ends and a F2 fit on spherical bearings. For those who do not know what the fit is, it is the break away torque required to rotate the ball in the race. A F1 fit requires 7-24 in/lbs to rotate the ball in the race and the F2 spherical bearings require 2-6 in/lbs. The reason we use a looser spherical bearing for our camber plates and non adjustable lower control arms is they are a .0008" press fit which tightens them up to a F1 rating. All of our bearing cups are machined to plus or minus .0003". You can find the specifications on the rod ends at www.fkrodends.com the part numbers are JM12T and JML12T. Again these are not the cheap two piece swaged rod ends or the inexpensive Chinese made slot loaded rod ends other companies use.

Dave K:

I agree with your concern; however these are designed strong enough. As a matter of fact trackbird from frrax.com who has a set he is getting ready to install said the following,
“I know of a car that hit a tire wall, bent the rear end housing and those tubes held without failing. They are very stout.”

Hope this helps clear a few things up about our Aluminum adjustable lower trailing arms.

I cant say much about the aluminum but I dont see how the aluminum is anything but good. light weight and still very strong.

As for the ends I can say that the FK rod ends are a quality piece. I have used them at work before and they are a rather well known brand in the industrial world. The quality is just as good as QA1 rod ends... QA1 rod ends are probably bought from FK anyway.

The quality of the FK is far superior to the QA1 products parts. We used to be a QA1 Tier 5 Warehouse Distributor and discontinued the line for quality control issues. When QA1 was making everything in the states the quality was fine but once the packaging started to say "made in china" we started to have around a 20% rejection rate on the spherical bearings. They might have improved the quality but we will never take that chance again.

wow lots of info. hehe. thanks for that info Brian(hotpart) i appreciate your time to explain what your trying to sell. heres the guy that bent his housing and not his LCA...http://www.jonaadland.com/Z28/Mods/LCA/AluminumLCAs.html

thanks to Severous01 for that link.

im considering making my own or just buying them but im not sure yet, need to do some more reasearch. thanks for all replies.