I am looking at getting a set of Lakewood LCA's from Summit while I'm redoing the rest of my suspension, instead of just chanign the bushings on my old ones. My car seems to hook up pretty well, so I don't really need them for straight line acceleration. I kind of figures bushings are $40, so why not just spend $87 and get all new, better arms. Also, are there any detriments to installing them? Does the car ride rougher, and is there more road noise?

Thanks,

Eric

 

TTT

 

the car will ride allitle rougher not that much. And the road noise will increase alittle bit but not that much. But the difference in handling will be noticable and will make up for the ride comfort loss.

 

not anymore road noise than normal. will greatly reduce oversteer. also get the lakewood adjustable panhard rod.

 

If your really into hard and fast cornering, you might want to consider a rod end LCA, which offers a bind free operation.

 

LCA's didn't help me with cornering, just straight line traction.

The panhard rod helped improve cornering by giving me better traction when accelerating out of a turn.

 

a combination of both with yield good results in straight line and corning..

keep that rear end planted and centered!

 

lca's well also really help the car bite on the exit of the corners, the more traction you have , the harder you can get on the throttle coming off the corner, the faster you go!

 

The common misconception is that the LCA itself and its bushings need to be stiffer so they can't flex to create better handling. What you actually want is for the rear axle to be free of bind but stay planted in proper alignment under the car as much as possible during suspension movement. Poly bushings actually are a hinderence when it comes to handling since they create a lot of bind during movement of the suspension.

When you think about the way the car moves on its suspension you can see that the rear axle does not stay level under the car in the corners or even during hard launches (the body is actually the moving part and the axle is staying on the ground, but you get the idea). This means that if the joints that connect the LCAs and PHR to the car have a rubber or poly bushing they will flex under load and then unload when the load decreases or goes away. This deflection in the joint can adversly effect the springs and shocks attempts to keep the rear axle planted. Plus the material of the bushing creates bind in the system. On the street this is no bid deal because you aren't pushing the suspension to its limits. Go to the track and start pushing the car and these things may put you in the weeds eventually. What you want is consistency and that is where the heim joints come in (spherical bearings). It is true that the poly bushings reduce play in the joints since they are stiffer than the OEM rubber bushings, but a heim joint is basically solid (until it wears out) which means it is infinitely stiffer than a poly bushing - plus they allow the joint to be bind free. Now it is up to the springs and shocks to control the suspension which is something that can actually be controlled and tuned..... If you want to make the car handle better, go with the heim joints .