a_ahmed

I hate the stock corvette, it really feels imprecise and wobbly...and while investigating optoins, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there, and the corvette tax seems to hit hard.

I don't have a shop or place to do my own build, so I rely on buying stuff and putting it on...

Coming from some other platforms, heim jointed suspension arms could be had for a lot less, but on the vette. we're paying arm and a leg for stockish arms with harder rubber...

I hate polyurethane no matter how much you lube it up, with zerk fittings, etc... when I switched to heim jointed it felt better and more comfortable for that matter than poly.. and of course no more lubbing up constantly...

Looking at heim jointed options on the vette, we're tlaking 2000+ that's crazy... plus you can only buy the whole kit front and back and not take it one part at a time, lets say do front first, rear later etc... in stages. or only upper control arm and then lower control arm, etc.... It's a big investment.

The fact is with the only options available require pressing out the old stuff and pressing in new pieces.

I know the stock arms are already aluminum so it becomes questionable whether one should want to reinvent the wheel and make new aluminum heim jointed pieces anyway... but it goes back to the cost being more when you even include labor.

Why are't there more manufacturers jumping in....

LG seems to be the only manufacturer offering heim jointed inserts.... and no one other options out there... other than again doing inserts but instead of poly, that other hard material which is impregnated and self lubricating, escapes my mind for some reason right now.

Previously switching from poly to heim jointed, not only did it improve NVH, precision, response, it made the shocks work so much better... mechanical grip was increased, confidence, etc.... so yes I'd like to do the same on the vette but... I beg the question why so expensive on the vette?

Heim joints are not that expensive by itself....

http://www.splparts.com/

These guys manufacture a lot of arms.... I found some tubular heim jointed LCAs for a C5 googling through the net but they wanted 1500USD which is a joke...

a_ahmed

Here's those 1550USD arms lol:

http://farkssupercars.com/?/Corvette/corvette-arms/

mgarfias

Thats a drag specific setup so you can run a 15" wheel.

And the spherical install isn't just pop out the rubber and pop in the new bearing, the arms have to be bored to a common dimension to fit the bearing shell, then those get installed. Or the shells get glued in (the pfadt setup).

LG makes them as you said, so does DRM, AFE (pfadt), and AMT. None are "cheap".

Mark@AMT Motorsport

As you're finding, a nice spherical bearing setup is not cheap. It's not just a matter of slapping in some bearings in place of rubber. The bearings we use cost us $300 per set alone. We press out your rotten rubber bushings, glass bead blast all the arms, custom machine the bearing housings to within a .0005" tolerance, insert the bearings, press the housings into the arms, machine the mounting ears, and finally check fitment of everything with our cradles to make sure it all bolts up on your end. Everything is USA made and gauanteed for 5 years.

Anyway we do all that for $2500. Not cheap, but I assure you we're not getting rich off these parts. Please see attached link below for more info or PM me for more details.

https://eaf41998-f6b0-42b6-b5bc-47e941d55dc8.onlinestore.godaddy.com/products/c5c6-monoball-control-arm-bushings

a_ahmed

Mark that is a fine setup, I suppose if you add everything up individually it makes sense price wise, but it would be nice if people could order only front parts or only rear parts, as opposed to having to dish out all out once.

When i was building my old track car, I bought all the heim jointed tubed arms off of spl-parts but I bought them piece by piece not all at once.

To some it may seem counter intuitive but not everyone is made of money and yes it does cost to play. That being said I hate how the front end feels wishy washy on a stock vette... and I'd love to replace the front pieces.

Another issue for some is down time, or having to take apart and send the parts and then wait, some may not have the luxury of that.

If someone just made after market upper/lower control arms designed from the get go with heim jointed parts, it would probably be more ideal either way.

I've used SPL's tie rods for instance (not on the vette) but look they actually produce them now which is pretty stout:

http://www.splparts.com/05-13-c6-corvette/

Matt_27

You were trying to think of Delrin in your first post. It will get you probably 80% of the benefit of sphericals at half the cost. You can get individual bushings from Van Steel I am pretty sure.

Mark@AMT Motorsport

Happy to split up the kit if you want to piece it together a bit at a time. We've done that quite a few times.

a_ahmed

Thanks Mark, I'll keep that in mind!

I also contacted SPL Parts and they responded as follows:


From: SPL Parts <sales@splparts.com>
Sent: October 3, 2017 10:13 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Corvette heim jointed options

Definitely something we are looking into and it is on my list to build (and our head Sales guy really wants them for his Corvette, I hear about it daily). Hopefully will be a development within the next couple of months.

Thanks,
Turner Dobbins
www.SPLParts.com
(866) SPL-PART (Toll-Free Ordering)
(512) 691-9002 (Direct)
www.facebook.com/SPLParts

On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 6:48 AM, wrote:
Hi guys,

I saw you guys have tie rods for the front and rear, which is a great development. However how about upper and lower control arms?

The stock arms are aluminum like a 350z, so a lot of manufacturers in the corvette market offer hardened rubbers, polyurethane, etc... and some heim inserts but they are seriously over priced and still require labor to press out, drill, etc...

Having used all of your 240sx parts, I asked around what options there are for vettes and there aren't many. I think you could open doors to this market with your products if you developed some quality heim jointed options.

mgarfias

I've been thinking of putting sphericals in the front UCAs and rear LCAs, and turning delrin bushings on the lathe for the other arms (they're mounted up square so no issues with alignment).

Can you ball park what that'd run? Er, the sphericals mentioned, not the delrin.

Mark@AMT Motorsport

Front upper UCAs are a smidge more expensive than the rest of the spots since they have the machined trunions. So front uppers and rear lowers will cost $1400.

mgarfias

Roger. Ill keep that in mind.

carbuff

Something like this:

http://www.finchperformance.com/

I don't have any first-hand experience with these, I just know Brian from the Pro-Touring world where I play.

Not cheap by the time you add it all up, but an alternative to purchasing just the bearing kits.