mykim72

i was going to buy the steedas off another member...but these are pretty affordable.

how bad is the NVH from the spherical bearing? my car is my daily driver...

Sam Strano

Look at all the options first. There are both adjustable and non-adjustable UMI arms with roto-joints at both ends, and also with a combination of roto-joint and urethane (the roto taking care of the articulation needs).

A Poly/Roto combo arm will be more quiet than any arm with roto's at both ends. And rod-ends make more noise than Roto-joints.

The Steeda poly/spherical arms have proven pretty quiet too, but not any more so than the UMI roto-joint types.

I'd look at these before any of the rod-ended, or all poly setups.

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetai...D=99&ModelID=5

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetai...=99&PartID=738

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetai...D=99&ModelID=5

mykim72

thanks sam! if i dont get the steedas from this guy expect a call from me...

DRock

I have rod ends on the axle side of my DD and they arent bad at all. If i would known you were looking for some i would takin you for a ride at the lastt meet up in Long Beach.

Riptide

There are people running 10 sec cars on the drag strip with those brackets BOLTED in. It's (apparently) not that big of a deal.

I noticed a slight increase in NVH with poly/poly ended lowers. Going to a poly/roto-joint arm - the NVH was about the same. Very comparable.

After putting the brackets on no additional noise was noted however the car feels like the rear end is on "stilts" now. I don't know how much worse it handles in turns but I'm sure it probably is worse off than it was before. I expected the tradeoff.

Norm Peterson

I'm going to hope that people with 10-second cars are at least a little more diligent about checking the status of these rather critical things than the average car owner is about anything besides how much gas is in the tank (and sometimes I even wonder about that).

The concern is less about breakage than of the bolts loosening and the bracket then not providing a truly fixed pivot point for the LCA. A rear axle with its own ideas about where the rear of the car is going when you're trying to go straight is not something that you want to have to cope with. Especially when you're beside somebody else at 130 mph.


Norm

Riptide

I agree. That said a 13 second car isn't going to put near the stress on those brackets that a 10 second car is. A catastrophic failure is pretty unlikely while the car is already accelerating. Much more likely to happen when it's launched hard and if something does come loose at that point it's either going to be immediately apparent or else will start progressively showing itself the faster you get moving down the road.

IMO checking the torque on those fasteners is a good idea to do at least once a year - along with re-greasing your bushings. Just do both at once.

Norm Peterson

If it's a little loose, the worst will happen when it transitions from the bolt being bottommed one way in the holes to being bottommed the other, as that's likely to involve a little axle steer. Might make wheel hop even more exciting, no?


Norm

201150

I'm going with the UMI bolt-in's Sam has and then also welding them in. With the bolt in's you get that extra rear bracket which adds support and another place to weld to. Best of both worlds.

Riptide

The UMI pieces seem pretty nice. They appear more secure than the BMR would be due to the extra fasteners used with holes on the side for the dampener blocks.

Getting them to slide on the mounts can be a big fat PITA. I suggest following the instructions and start by lining up and running the dampener hole fastener first. Have a mallet handy in case you need to "massage" things into place. It took a lot of twisting and hammering for me to get mine on right. Line up one hole and run one fastener at a time.