I want to replace my poly bushings with heim joints on my strut rods. Snow is blocking my path to the garage, so I can't go and measure. What size are the bolts for the strut rod? Thanks.

 

The shock mount needs a 5/8 hole heim. The one on the diff mount is up to you since you need to weld a plate over the slotted section where the cam bolt goes through and drill a new hole

 

The heim won't work with the eccentric bolt? I like being able to adjust the dynamic camber for different setups.

 

??? You can adjust the camber with the sleeve, why would you want to use the cam bolt?

 

You can adjust static camber with the sleeve. That will set your camber at ride height. By adjusting the cam bolt, you set how much you camber changes with suspension travel.

 

The influence of the cam bolt on the camber curve is minimal, the change in geometry is next to nothing. The relationship between the angles and lengths of the camber rod and the 1/2 shaft is what determines the camber curve.

The adjustment of the lower rod by turning the sleeve also influences the camber curve (dynamic as you call it) because the length change affects the resulting horizontal vector component over the entire way of travel (over the angle change the lower rod makes). There is absolutely NO need to use both an adjustable sleeve and the cam bolt. If you want to tweak the suspension better start by relocating the camber bracket hole for the lower rod, it's not even close to the correct position resulting in a big camber gain and even worse a high roll center. Even though a high roll center may sound nice to reduce body roll due to lateral weight transfer during cornering it also gives a jacking effect when it's high, lowering the rear does help there.

 

Not true...I've set my car up with 1/2* at ride height and by adjusting the cam, I could get either 0* change with travel, or 1/2* per inch of travel. Of course I had to go back and forth adjusting the rod lengths and cams. But in the end, I had 1/2* at ride height and either 0*/inch or 1/2*/inch.

 

Oh wait...so you are using your cam bolt to adjust the inner pivot and you have an adjustable control rod w/ poly ends????
You change the cam bolt setting and then adjust the sleeve to get the static camber correct again?
Since you adjust the cam bolt and the sleeve the 0 - 1/2 * effect is not only a result of the cam bolt, by adjusting the sleeve you change it's length and this influences the resulting horizontal component over angle change during suspension travel, the differencess in horiz. component and relationship between pivot points of the camber rod and halfshaft is what determines the camber curve, so the effect you see is from adjusting both. Do it again by only adjusting the cam bolt and then note the effect, it will be much much less (what I meant in my post, I hadn't realized you were already running an adjustable sleeve)

 

If you buy the smart rod struts alone from VBP, you'll get the 2 inch(?) square plates that are used to replace the cam bolt mechanism. With the plates, the attachment geometry at the bracket if fixed. The idea being that the camber adjustments are made with the adjustable sleeve. Look in the VBP catalog at part 42009. You'll see the plates I'm referring to. VPB sells the two variation of the strut rods with heims at both ends. One is part 42211 for $189 (Heavy Duty) and one is part 42213 (Racing struts) for $220. Don't know what the difference is. (I have bought a VBP Smart Rod set.)

Since I live close to Tom's Differential I also bought one of their strut rod sets. The cost of all heim joints and the bracket is $275. The attachment bolt that goes through bracket is bigger than 5/8. My guess is that it's 3/4 inch. Tom's bracket is actually a used OEM bracket where the ends have been cut off and rewelded lower to achieve the desired result of having the strut rods parallell to the axle. Tom's strut rods and brackets can are in the seen in the Feb Hod Rod article about his IRS Drag Strip set up. The advantage of using an OEM bracket is that you maintain the precision of the bolt attach holes to the differential. The OEM stuff, nothwithstanding their very high production rates, had very accurtate machining.

Guldstrand also sells his version of strut rods and brackets. Guldstrand uses all right hand thread heim joints to avoid problems with the heim joints geting loose on the strut rod. but they're tendious to install since you have to use a trial and error approach to install them. I think they're in the $275 range (strut rods only) also......And that's about all I know about strut rods and brackets!

PS: Prices quoted should be considered as representative. Actual prices today may be more or less.