LS4 / F40 swap - fieroguru (Page 99/216)
ericjon262 SEP 08, 10:11 PM
good thing you didn't race on it.
fieroguru SEP 10, 09:15 PM
All the parts to rebuild the front suspension came in today:


Then jacked the front up:


Took off everything on the PS. My rack bushing wasn't too bad, so there wasn't room to get my wrench on it to remove the inner tie rod, so I cut the rod off and welded a nut to the flange and use the nut to take the inner flange off.




Here are a couple of pictures of the rack bushing. It is held in with 3 tabs and there is 1 hole in the rack where you can insert a small pin to release the tabs. As I pushed the tabs in, I slide a screw driver under the tab. Then rotated the bushing to the next tab, released, & installed the screwdriver. Once the 3rd one was in, the whole bushing just pulls out.
Will SEP 11, 10:30 AM

quote
Originally posted by fieroguru:
center bore to match that of the smallest crankshaft pilot (probably the 60 degree motors).



The Northstar crank pilot is smaller than the 60 degree V6 pilot.
Will SEP 11, 11:02 AM
Have you looked at converting to coil overs like Steven Snyder's done?

Also, if you know of something like this:



(steel on steel, sealed, automotive grade)

with a max OD of ~30mm (1.187), I'd love to hear about it.
I have a design for spherical bearings in the control arm pivots, but all the sealed units I've found so far have been around 40mm OD, which is just too big.
fieroguru SEP 11, 03:41 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:
The Northstar crank pilot is smaller than the 60 degree V6 pilot.



Thanks for the info. Blooze gave me the dimensions for the N* from when he adapter my flywheel design, but hadn't compared them to anything yet.


quote
Originally posted by Will:

Have you looked at converting to coil overs like Steven Snyder's done?

Also, if you know of something like this:

(steel on steel, sealed, automotive grade)

with a max OD of ~30mm (1.187), I'd love to hear about it.
I have a design for spherical bearings in the control arm pivots, but all the sealed units I've found so far have been around 40mm OD, which is just too big.



I have thought a lot about doing the same coil over mod as Steven and likely will get there, but I don't really want car the car to be down very long right now and don't want to spend the $$$ on new shocks/springs at the moment either.

I haven't come across a large sealed bearing like that. The metric seals rod ends in Jims88 LS4 thread were about $66 (steal), $87 (Galvanized), or $93 (Stainless) for a M12 one (they emailed me a catalog and the pricing for that size). I do have a large rebuildable rod end for rock crawlers that I got just to see what it looked like. I can take a picture of it when I get home.

Edit: Have you seen these? have styles for the top of strut bushing and trailing arms. No specs, but if the center bolt is M12 or M14 the size looks about right (length might be a little long):
http://www.elephantracing.c...rsealedmonoballs.htm
More of similar parts from same vendor:
http://www.elephantracing.c...pension-bearings.htm

Here is another similar one, but not much detail. It does have a website were you might be able to get more info: http://www.specialprojectsms.com/
http://www.k-series.com/sho...A-Spherical-Bearings

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 09-11-2014).]

Joseph SEP 12, 10:28 AM

quote
Originally posted by Will:

Have you looked at converting to coil overs like Steven Snyder's done?

Also, if you know of something like this:



(steel on steel, sealed, automotive grade)

with a max OD of ~30mm (1.187), I'd love to hear about it.
I have a design for spherical bearings in the control arm pivots, but all the sealed units I've found so far have been around 40mm OD, which is just too big.



Thank you for this link, these will work perfectly for my project.
Will SEP 12, 10:34 AM

quote
Originally posted by fieroguru:

I haven't come across a large sealed bearing like that. The metric seals rod ends in Jims88 LS4 thread were about $66 (steal), $87 (Galvanized), or $93 (Stainless) for a M12 one (they emailed me a catalog and the pricing for that size). I do have a large rebuildable rod end for rock crawlers that I got just to see what it looked like. I can take a picture of it when I get home.

Edit: Have you seen these? have styles for the top of strut bushing and trailing arms. No specs, but if the center bolt is M12 or M14 the size looks about right (length might be a little long):
http://www.elephantracing.c...rsealedmonoballs.htm
More of similar parts from same vendor:
http://www.elephantracing.c...pension-bearings.htm

Here is another similar one, but not much detail. It does have a website were you might be able to get more info: http://www.specialprojectsms.com/
http://www.k-series.com/sho...A-Spherical-Bearings




I've seen industrial sealed spherical bearings. I need to call New Hampshire Ball Bearing about some of their offerings.
However, I'd been putting that off until I felt I exhausted the offerings of automotive manufacturers, since my application is automotive.

Anything that says "Porsche" is too spendy for my Fiero budget. Did you look at the prices? An '88 car needs 4 units for the front lower arms, while an '87 like my Northstar car needs 8 for front lowers and rear control arms.

Regarding the Hirschmann bearings...
This: http://rodend-bearings.hirs...erical-bearings/sc14
and this: http://rodend-bearings.hirs...al-bearings/ssc142rs

Would work well as the bearing has a 29mm OD while the seals drop the ID to 12mm (although the seal claims its A2 dimension is 29.5 mm, so I'm not sure that would work out). I wouldn't want to go to a bolt smaller than the stock 12mm units. That's the only bearing/seal combo that has the right mix of ID and OD to get where I need to go.

I haven't seen any product for which length is actually a problem when replacing the stock bushings.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 09-12-2014).]

dobey SEP 12, 02:07 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:
I have a design for spherical bearings in the control arm pivots, but all the sealed units I've found so far have been around 40mm OD, which is just too big.



http://www.spohn.net/shop/Del-Sphere-Pivot-Joints/

Have you seen these? I guess they might be too large as well, at 2.25" diameter?

You could just make your own with the same design, too, I guess. They're pretty simple to make from what I can see.
Will SEP 12, 04:05 PM

quote
Originally posted by dobey:

http://www.spohn.net/shop/Del-Sphere-Pivot-Joints/

Have you seen these? I guess they might be too large as well, at 2.25" diameter?

You could just make your own with the same design, too, I guess. They're pretty simple to make from what I can see.



I have seen those and they're way too big.
fieroguru SEP 12, 07:25 PM
You might look at Currie Enterprises Johnny Joints as they are about the size you need, but they are a steel ball in a poly cup.

I picked up a rod end version a year or so back just to check it out. The ID is 7/16"



Next to an 88 lower a-arm:


Here is the weldable sleeve version for building a-arms:
http://www.quadratec.com/pr...mPGX9TITQaAruZ8P8HAQ