C5 control arms Delrin or Spherical Bearings?
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
C5 control arms Delrin or Spherical Bearings?
In the process of dropping my engine I've discovered my Poly bushings are binding badly. I may just replace them all, but what should I use, Delrin or Spherical? Spherical is a little more, but not much. I can do the spherical install myself no problem. Anyone with firsthand experience?
#2
Drifting
The sphericals are the best bet but they will make the ride on the street rough as well. I can run over a spider and tell you how many legs broke. I would never (personally) run sphericals on a car that saw use as a street car. The Delrin, from what I've read, is a much better choice than the poly if you do not want to go spherical.
I did the spherical install myself with the Pfadt kit and while it's very labor intensive (expensive for someone else to do it) it was actually quite easy to do and saved myself a ton of money in labor.
There's a thread on the merits of the glued in bearing vs. press fit bearings. From an engineering standpoint, there is nothing wrong with the glued in bearings as they are designed to take into account the tolerance of the inner control arm bushing surface as is the adhesive used. Is press fit better, sure, if the inner and outer bearing surfaces are machined to EXACT tolerances...the inner bushing surface of the control arm is not machined to exact tolerances.
I did the spherical install myself with the Pfadt kit and while it's very labor intensive (expensive for someone else to do it) it was actually quite easy to do and saved myself a ton of money in labor.
There's a thread on the merits of the glued in bearing vs. press fit bearings. From an engineering standpoint, there is nothing wrong with the glued in bearings as they are designed to take into account the tolerance of the inner control arm bushing surface as is the adhesive used. Is press fit better, sure, if the inner and outer bearing surfaces are machined to EXACT tolerances...the inner bushing surface of the control arm is not machined to exact tolerances.
#3
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St. Jude Donor '08
There is no comparison between the poly bushings and mono *****. We just switched our C6Z from the Pfadt poly's to the LG Mono ***** and I could not be happier. IMO the increase in road noise is well worth the feedback you get from the car. There was a very noticeable difference between them.
Installing them is fairly straight forward, but time consuming. Having a cooler full of dry ice to put the bushings in and a torch to warm up the control arms will make the job much easier.
Installing them is fairly straight forward, but time consuming. Having a cooler full of dry ice to put the bushings in and a torch to warm up the control arms will make the job much easier.
#4
We have installed both. The press in are very difficult even with ice and heat. The inner part of the control arms are not the same. I spent many hours honing the control arms for the correct press. IMO the glue in are by far the easiest of the two installs.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
#5
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St. Jude Donor '08
We have installed both. The press in are very difficult even with ice and heat. The inner part of the control arms are not the same. I spent many hours honing the control arms for the correct press. IMO the glue in are by far the easiest of the two installs.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
I agree that the glue in poly bushings are easier, but I had to replace the front uppers twice on our car and the front lowers once on the passenger side for pushing the snap ring out and allowing the bushing to move.
#6
Le Mans Master
We have installed both. The press in are very difficult even with ice and heat. The inner part of the control arms are not the same. I spent many hours honing the control arms for the correct press. IMO the glue in are by far the easiest of the two installs.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
#8
Drifting
We have installed both. The press in are very difficult even with ice and heat. The inner part of the control arms are not the same. I spent many hours honing the control arms for the correct press. IMO the glue in are by far the easiest of the two installs.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.
P.S. The glued in bearings have been on our race car since 2008 with no problems other than replacing the bearings which is very easy to do.