I have rod end Global West LCAs on my '97 and road noise did increase, although not enough for me to consider it bothersome. I think if your car is tight you will notice some more road noise from these, not much else.

My race car GW LCA did freeze up on both ends on the side I had a broken axle and the wheel took off. I guess you could say that was binding!

 

"Who makes lca's with rod ends? are they ok for daily drivers?"

Rod ends are great on race cars. Cost is no object, cleanliness is a given, as is constant inspection and maintenance.

On a mostly street car I don't think they're a good idea.

I don't know any aftermarket parts with really good rod ends. Here are really good ones:

http://www.bakerprecision.com/nhbbquik.htm

Three piece, with the proper corrosion-resistant alloy used for each piece, teflon lined, precision manufactured. Check out the prices, which is why you won't find these on aftermarket lcas. See how many rod end specs even tell you exactly what alloy they're made out of.

Rod ends can wear quickly in a dirty/wet location, especially if they're corrosion prone steel. Although it's rare, they can fail suddenly. SCCA roadrace cars are required to be designed so that suspension arms stay attached if they fail. There's a reason for that rule.

All in all, I consider them a racecar only deal, and then good ones used with constant inspection and maintenance.

 

Care to expound on that one?

 

Well theres one problem solved, poly LCAs it is for me. Now if only I could decide between Bilstein or QA1 shocks and then decide what the hell torque arm to get, lol.

 

I vote for option number three:

Get some seat time at a real racetrack instead of being the "assclown of the onramp."

That will do you more good than any suspension part you put on the car.

 

I assume you are talking to me since I posted the offramp joke. I actually plan on going to the track but they all charge like $300 for a day. All my coworkers go, but they all drive M3s and Porsches and crap and have money to blow out there ***, I don't. I will be going soon, but I want to get some suspension parts first and was just looking for some advice. I already know that spending time on the track with a good instructor will help a ton, but the point of this thread was "Do tubular LCAs bind?" and your post did not contribute to that topic.

Now back to the topic I was planning on buying some DMS tubular LCAs has anyone had experience with them? How do you like them?

 

"Care to expand upon that?"

Sure. It's been a while, but I recall that rod ends either have to be mounted in double shear, with the mounting bracket extending on both sides of the rod end, or, if mounted in single shear, they have to use a special captive washer that extends over the side of the housing to accomplish the same thing.

The idea is, if the rod end breaks, the bolt will at least hold the outer housing on. I ran into it when converting conventional tie rod ends to rod ends, on a race car, so I could bumpsteer it. The rod ends wind up being mounted in single shear.

 

Yes, they bind. End of story. If you can’t read between the lines, let me spell out my “contribution” a bit more clearly.

Quote:

but they all charge like $300 for a day.

And it will be the best way you could possibly spend $300.

Quote:

I already know that spending time on the track with a good instructor will help a ton,

But you’d rather spend the money on parts that won’t make you faster. That’s a very common mistake. Yes, mistake. If your friends/coworkers go “all the time” they will be much faster than you. Swallow your pride and accept it. Go have some fun. Adding parts to your car will not help. Showing up with a Z06 wouldn’t help you. They’ll still be faster—a lot!

Going to the track with them will help. As much fun as bolting a shiny new part on your car can be, you will not believe how much fun you can have on a racetrack—infinitely more than a new part will get you. You will not believe how much faster you can become without touching the car. That $300 will buy you more improvement in a single day than $2000 worth of suspension mods will. So will the next $300.

You say you’re on a limited budget. I’m simply trying to explain how money spent on seat time will make you and your car so much faster it’s a real bargain compared with adding suspension parts that won’t—and you’ll have more fun with your car than you ever though possible.

That’s right, those LCA’s won’t make you a single bit faster on the track. Yes, they will bind. Yes, I’d rather throw them in the trash and run stock LCA’s. If you want any sort of significant improvement for handling, you need rod ends. Even there, the gain from LCA’s is small and the ride quality penalty is large. If you care about ride quality on the street, LCA’s are the last thing you should upgrade. Springs, shocks, bars, a rod ended PHB, negative camber in front etc, will all give you a larger improvement than LCA’s will—and if chosen well they won’t impact the ride as much.
Yes. I guess I didn’t realize what that had to do with this discussion since our stock LCA & PHB brackets mount them in double shear.

As far as their safety in general, the ones I use are not expensive and I know they are good to over 28,000 lbs which is much, much more than required for LCA’s and PHB’s. How do you know how strong a poly end is? They’re like a box of chocolates....

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread...hreadid=374871

How many rod end failures have people had on F-Bodies (excepting applications in which the end is placed in bending—a loadcase for which they were not designed)? I’ve never heard of one. Replacing them when they rattle enough to get annoying ensures they are being replaced very early in their useful life—long before one could expect a failure.

 

Thank you for your response, you seem to know a lot more than I do on this subject. I had my mind set on getting aftermarket LCAs so answer me one last question that will possible save me $100....why do so many people have them?

 

They are misinformed. Everyone thinks that if you lower your car the pinion agle is so screwed up that you have to replace your LCA's to fix it. It's a bunch of crap. Yes, your pinion agle changes. Is it enough to of a difference to detect it in your driving? No. Is it something cool to say you have? Yes. It's sort of like a strut tower brace (which also is way down on the totum pole for required updates) . It's something someone can see when you open your hood.

 

because like steve said, they are misinformed. look in all the magazines on the shelf. if they have a lowered fbody they all states LCAs are a must. i thought i needed them too. now i have a set of spohns and relocation brakets sitting in my room. im probrably going to sell them and not even use them. i my hold on to the reloaction brackets and see about making some aluminum rod/rod LCAs, but that wont be anytime soon. they arent as needed as everyone states unless your drag racing all the time. then it would help.

its the same thing with a torque arm. i still have the factory torque arm on my car as well. supposedly i need an adjustable one to correct my pinion angle. only problem is i still havent gotten the car to handle the way i want. and if youll notice my other post im acually considering raises the back end back up. which would mean i would have wasted 300 some odd dollars with an adjustable torque arm. now if you were drag racing all the time i would recomend an adjustable torque arm on a lowered car, but i wouldnt recomened lowreing the car in the first place to drag race.

so in conclusion ask lots of questions and be ready for answers your not expecting. also listen more to the people that have been there done that or are doing that. experience is better than book knowledge with this stuff. at least i feel it is. Trey

 

They're a cheap, easy to install mod that looks good on the car and in the sig. That's it for the most part. Also as somebody mentioned, even poly/poly LCA's can help for drag racing (especially if you have wheelhop problems). Since 99.999% of F-Body owners who race do it in a straight line that can't be overlooked.

LCA's were my first suspension mod as well (poly/rod end). After all the other things I've done to the suspension and many miles on the track, I put them pretty low on the list of importance--especially if one cares about ride quality. Been there, done that.

 

What about running poly on the body side and rubber on the axle side, since its the axle side that binds?

 

TTT anyone do this?

 

I run PPC LCA's and PHR w/ dual rod ends and are quiet as a fickle. Lube them every 3K and no problems. LCA's are going on a yr and the PHR is new. Love the way the car feels on ANY road.