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Your experience with A-Arm bushings or Spherical Bearings
In my 2015 Z I went with LG's Spherical bearings, really did like the feel, cost is a bit high though.
Now I'm building a new car and starting over, before I buy these same parts again, thought I would reach out and see that others are doing, what their happy with, or not.
In my 2015 Z I went with LG's Spherical bearings, really did like the feel, cost is a bit high though.
Now I'm building a new car and starting over, before I buy these same parts again, thought I would reach out and see that others are doing, what their happy with, or not.
I would either stay on the stock rubber or go with delrin or sphericals (or a mix [i have a lathe]), I'd avoid poly like the plague.
Here in the Bay Area, we have three tracks to spend time on. I have my 08 C6 set up for these. I have been thinking of changing out my 2nd set of stock bushings to poly or delren. Lou @ LG Motorsports has a poly kit that I am considering. I have another friend who put poly on his Miata and did not like them. Said they would bind up. Would you mind explaining your avoidance comment to this material?
Here in the Bay Area, we have three tracks to spend time on. I have my 08 C6 set up for these. I have been thinking of changing out my 2nd set of stock bushings to poly or delren. Lou @ LG Motorsports has a poly kit that I am considering. I have another friend who put poly on his Miata and did not like them. Said they would bind up. Would you mind explaining your avoidance comment to this material?
ill just quickly add; i have poly bushings and modified control arms with zerk fittings, and use energy suspension poly lube (very sticky). The bushings have been great and move quite freely without being loose. Only issue ive had is needing to flip the forward front UCA dogbones to prevent the cclips popping off.
If memory serves, this forum was paranoid of delrin cracking and raved about poly kits a few years back. Suddenly its backwards. (Spherical bearings have always seemed technically superior albeit useless off track and difficult to correctly install.) The shift probably directly coincides with vendor activity, as unfortunately there is more vendor *** kissing here than facts and data being shared.
On a bigger faster car like a vette the poly becomes a bit of a wear item. Especially if you're running it hard on sticky tires. The poly will crush and start to come apart. I've had it happen to control arm bushings on my STI. Our STU vette has the borg motorsports delrin kit.
can someone explain why this forums collective opinion has shifted in the past 4 years so extremely on this topic?
I think because companies have started to make delrin kits for our cars within the last 5 yrs or so. Before then it was, stick with factory rubbers, spend $1500 or so on spherical bearings, or $350 on poly. Delrin is somewhere in the middle on price, and a lot better than poly.
C5 street car, Pfadt poly bushings. 5 years, zero issues, no squeaks or play. But I imagine they'd disintegrate on the track with sticky tires.
C6Z street/track, came with LG monoballs front, Pfadt monoballs rear. Rattled a little, replaced the bearings for very little cash, good as new. Both brands used commercial grade COM10T, available everywhere.
Might be tough to justify the $$ on a street car... easy on a race car!
No personal experience with Delrin on a Corvette application, but I understand that due to the material's stiffness, it's difficult to get adequate caster?
Ive had van steel delrin in my C6 Z for almost a year now. Great upgrade over rubber. They are slightly harsher than the rubber for street driving. The only downside is they class you out of AS and SSR.
If you have the money (you are getting a Callaway ), no question get sphericals. I've run pfadts on my racecar for 4 years and I got them used. I've replaced the rear bearings this year.
If you have the money (you are getting a Callaway ), no question get sphericals. I've run pfadts on my racecar for 4 years and I got them used. I've replaced the rear bearings this year.
After watching these posts I could see the best option is still the spherical"s, so I went ahead and ordered some.
Polyurethane is still a good option for many circumstances.
I've got poly in my C5Z that's been there for over three years now with no noticeable wear or degradation. I drilled the control arms for zerks, and I drilled the bushings so the grease could get to the ends and keep the whole bushing lubed and squeak free. I use marine water proof grease and at least check or add grease every time I switch the tires. I can run reasonable camber 1.7 degrees with excellent edge wear unlike stock rubber bushings.
I've had stock, VBP poly, Van Steel delrin, and Borg delrin bushings.
The poly started binding and squeaking after a couple of months. When it bound up, it made the car handle unpredictably. VBP always was easy to work with, though.
Van Steel delrin bushings, fitted by them, started groaning after a few hundred miles. It turned out that the delrin was rotating within the control arm. They said my control arms were probably out of round. They went through the motions to take care of me, but there wasn't really any effort behind it.
Now, I have Borg offset (pinned) bushings. I think my control arms might be one of the later prototype sets in his installation videos. I'll be frank, after my prior experiences, I'm an @$$hole out of the gates to deal with. There are a million things that go wrong with GM's lousy build tolerances, whatever prior owners did to the car, but didn't tell you about, stuff you bent on the car, but didn't realize (I actually believe the control arms CAN deform with aggressive use on sticky tires, even when the car hasn't been crashed), etc. Lane worked with me, and although it took some time, he took care of me and installed the bushings, and my car has silly grip and is a lot more precise without any bushing noise.
Yesterday, I drove my c5 (stock engine, but I suspect my suspension is fairly dialed in with Strano parts) back to back with a c6 (425 hp to the wheels, but only DRM-valved Bilsteins). Not apples to apples, but... My car was on fresher tires, and is on a square setup. My car had WAY better reaction time to my steering inputs, and I could be a lot more aggressive with the throttle. Sticking the C6's engine into my car would be a stupidly fast combination.
My advice is stay with stock rubber or go delrin. I'm sure AMT, DRM, and LG make good solid bushings, but I can't afford them. Good luck.
04-19-2017, 10:55 AM
Your experience with A-Arm bushings or Spherical Bearings
), no question get sphericals. I've run pfadts on my racecar for 4 years and I got them used. I've replaced the rear bearings this year.
