0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Hi guys,

Continuing on from where we last left off, in this addition we are nearing the completion of the Suspension Portion of the build.

Today I am going to be talking about our spherical lower control arms. We have been doing this same setup on the race car for a number of years, and are now just about finished wrapping up a final production unit for your own car (pricing coming soon).

Mono Ball housings as shown before


Assembled Lower Control Arm


Exploded View Before Install with Camber kit


There are many benefits with using these over the OEM rubber or aftermarket poly kits. When dealing with a car that is producing a lot of grip, such as this car that will be running on a full slick. The increased loading from the tires will move the control arm to the point of bushing deflection. To hold an consistent alignment under load we have developed the above bearing kit. These use a new sleeve, Teflon lined mono ball that is replaceable, stainless steel spacers, and is finished off with new hardware and a camber kit to keep your control arm locked in place.

Holding onto these new control arms are the famous LG Motorsports coil over package. We have used these Aluminum Body Bilstein Shocks as the core of our Coil Over package for years now. the valving was dialed in by Lou and a Bilstein shock engineer on track and on the street.

Front and Rear LG Coil Over shock and spring


We built valving for street cars and for the race car. Of course most of you know the success that we had on track with the Bilstein/LG Coil over package, winning races against some tough teams and drivers.

Our Coil over package that we have been building for over 8 years for the Corvette uses the best and highest quality Hypercoil springs. I know that the Corvette Market would accept nothing less than the best, so Hypercoil was our choice.

Combine the Bilstein Aluminum Nitrogen Filled Coil Over shock with the Hypercoil Springs and we have a premium coil over package that is race tested, race winning and street proven.

Jim's car has a spec. spring rate as this will be a more dedicated track car. Of course all coil over kits are hand built just for your car!

Front corner going together


Next Installment we will finish up the suspension and also take a look at the new Brembo brake package!

PROJECT HISTORY

PROJECT START
Project Start

UPDATE #2:
Base Line Dyno

UPDATE #3:
Suspension Start

John Shiels

nice

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

I can't wait to see this car on the track. Wing is going on now.

John Shiels

price on spindles? What wing are you using?

trackboss

What is being done to anneal the control arm after welding? I would think that the process would hurt the ball joint or at least the boot. Do you simply skip that step and its still safe?

LG Motorsports

Anealing is the reverse of the process that you are speaking of.

But the answer is that there is no issue. (We race-You win)

We built about 7 World Challenge Corvettes using these spherical bearings and raced and won with them.

We easily ran 2 seasons and still saw no bearing issues and no ball joint issues.


Consider this: The welding heat is about 16 inches from the ball joint and the aluminum cools so fast that you can hold the ball joint end throughout the whole process. Aluminum melts at 1220 degrees for raw aluminum; and only 1090degrees for 6061; and 990 degrees for 7075 alloy. But the melting in this instance only takes place at the point of the weld.

Aluminum cools so fast that the temp about 6 " from the weld never sees over 250 degrees. The human hand can not hold anything hotter than 240 degrees also. The ball joint is 16" from where we weld.

So, rest assured that there is no problem.

And also rest assured that the heat from the brake rotor is hotter and closer to the ball joint than a small weld. The brake rotors can reach 1350 degrees on tough braking track and they are much closer to the ball joint.


Thanks and I hope that answers the question.

Lou Gigliotti

trackboss

You may have misunderstood me. What I was saying is that I'm wondering if the welding softens the ends of the control arms without being heat treated afterward. The ball joints I was pointing out would probably not live through any heat treat process.

thanks

LG Motorsports

That is without doing anything other than welding properly with the correct heat. Welding correctly will serve to localize any heat very close to the weld. And we have a system to weld each sleeve in that serves the purpose very well.

Again, we have run these exact parts for roughly 100 combined races in all the world challenge cars we built, with no issues.

These A arms are forged and I believe that that is the end of the process at the factory.
The big end of the A arm is now strengthened by the bearing sleeves that distribute the loads even more and in fact, it doubles the wall thickness and therefore the strength. So the suspension loads are now taken up by a thicker large end by the combination of the bearing sleeve plus the original A arm material.

At any rate, we have been welding on the A arms for years, as have all the other top World Challenge teams with no issues.

Hope that answers the question.

Thanks
Lou G

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

I'll have complete pictures for you on this car by the end of the day.

Rutan00Z28

That rocks!!!

metalkid

Could this kind of mono-ball bushing be designed/adapted for C3s?

Reason I ask is that some time ago I read about someone who replaced the stock rubber bushings with custom fabricated roller bearing bushings, and I've been looking for similar setup, (but I'm not crazy about the "solid race style bushing w/grease fitting" as I'd like to use off track as well).

Your design looks VERY interesting, but I would like to apply it to a '78.

fatbillybob

Hi LG,

Do you eyes deceive me? I only see monoballs on the lower control arm the upper looks like I see rubber?

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

The uppers used a poly setup in this application.