Well, to be fair, there are so many things that work fine in the rear.

 

It was considered. But the performance benefit over Delrin is so minor it didn't make sense

 

I would say performance detriment. Aluminum is sticky and it galls. Besides you are the only person who has ever asked for it leafy.

PM me and ill make you a thuper special leafy autocross™ set if you really want em.

 

On my front ones the bronze bushings are pressed into the aluminum so no galling concerns. Bronze rides on steel sleeve for the pivot.

 

You know how to get a hold of me!

 

I love it when you guys talk dirty to each other.

 

so i see this is an old thread but im new to the forum. question i have is what setup do you think would yield best results for a miata running stock arms f/r, 245 hoosier 15" slick (true race slick) in a road racing only application needing 3.6-3.8 camber up front and 3.2-3.4 camber in the rear? full spherical, full delrin, delrin/poly, or what mix of those? cost is never an option - best performance is.

 

The answer to that question is in the first posts...

Read the thread.

 

i have read this whole thing 2 or 3x. i guess my question is will the poly rear bushings stand up to the g loads we generate or should just go full spherical. Im not a suspension guru (trying to learn) so just trying to get the best parts for my application.

 

Any of the previously mentioned options will stand up, some just better than others. You will wear the braking(rear) thrust face on the poly bushings over time, but that's really about it. See pics of Arca_ex poly bushings after just 2-3 seasons on the first page or 2. The same will happen to delrin or sphericals to different degrees. I can put together any combo you want, but I'm not doing any sphericals other than the RUCA-O at this time.

email us @ info@sadfab.com if youd like to discuss a kit for you.

 

I have been working on installing my bronze bearing kit and after making seemingly every silly mistake taking the front suspension apart I got one of the front upper control arms in with the new bearings and have a couple questions.

First, after pressing in the bushing with the bearing installed the bearing ended up inset about an 1/8", I just wanted to make sure that wasn't any problem. Doesn't seem like it would be but wanted to double check.


Second and probably more concerning is that there is a gap between the big washer and the bushing after tightening up the long bolt. It seems like the inner sleeve is a little too long. Based on the way I think this is all working I don't think it should cause a big problem but I wanted to check that I haven't done something stupid in installing this.

 

1. The bearings can be inset a little, its not a huge issue at all. You can also just push them back flush if it bothers you.
2. The washer should be almost flush with the bushing flange. That is an issue as the FUCA will rock back and forth under lateral loads. I either cut the sleeve the wrong length, or the arm is slightly bent from incorrectly pressing the bushings out, or something. This assumes the long bolt is torqued and the sleeves are bottomed on the sub-frame. Do you have a pair of calipers to measure the sleeve lengths? They should be 2.250"

 

Pretty sure the sleeves are bottomed on the subframe, we were pretty careful to only press on one side and not squish the arms like Aidan did. I didn't think to try it but I can compare that arm to the one I took off the car to verify the arms aren't bent. I don't have a caliper, but I can take it back out and measure it. Or I suppose I could go to harbor freight and pick up a cheap caliper.

 

How those bushings go into stock arms I've found to be a pretty big deficiency once you start to make a lot of grip. I pulled the rubber bushings part way out of the control arms and had the big washer rubbing on the A-arm itself. And its not like they were loose, I had to reef on them with the tool to get them the rest of the way out. Same thing with Poly, cut the flangest right off the rear flange on the rear bushing with the control arm. I havent had an issue since going to aluminum, I still cant wait to go to sphericals.

 

There is a lot of variance in that arm for sure. It's the hardest one to get right and some cars have just needed a custom length.

 

I took some measurements tonight.
The 2 sleeves that were still in the pack measured right at 2.25",
The arm currently on the car is about 10.125", and the arm that came off the car is about 10.25" overall width. I measured the other arm from my parts car, and it was right in between the two, and the other one on the car is also about 10.25"

I also measured the steel insert in the rubber bushings that came off the car and those are a touch narrower than yours, about 2.21"

So between an eighth in the arm and almost a tenth in the steel sleeves it's making a little gap. I also took some more pictures.
You can see there is a little gap on both sides of the bushing.

Here you can see there is quite a gap on the inside of the bushing.

 

The gap on the inside of the bushing should be there, its by design.

You cant compare the steel sleeve from an OEM bushing as its a different design. For the poly retro kits I use the same lengths as the poly bushing manufacturers(energy and prothane are identical) since they are designed to work with those bushings flange widths.
You can see here they even publish those lengths for all to enjoy:
http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...sion/17491.pdf

Bottom line, you need one(or both) of the sleeves shortened, I suggest the front, to gain that almost negligible bit of caster. You can be as crude as taking a grinder or flap disc to it, or send it back and I can shorten it, or I can just send you a new one to the length you require. I would push the arm all the way back so the rear bushing flange is seated against the washer on the long bolts, and then measuring the gap left at the front. subtract 0.010" from that number and remove that amount from that sleeve. LMK what you would like to do!

 

Just had a question about this, I'm not seeing the issue with lateral loads. I do potentially see an issue with braking loads, which I think is what Leafy was talking about. Basically the arm wants to move fore and aft with braking/acceleration loads. Is that the issue or is there more to this that I'm not seeing?

 

I meant to say longitudinal.

 

How dumb would it be to just put a 7/8 washer in there? Or 2.