Guys I've been dealing with this problem for a while and its driving me nuts. I know rod ends are supposed to allow more road noise, but my situation is rediculous. I have the Spohn adjustable LCA's with the poly/rod end combo. They make so much rattling noise, almost like a bolt would sound inside a coffee can but not quite as bad.

Here's a situation that describes how easily they rattle:

I have an old bumpy driveway that is about 30 yards in length. When I just coast down the driveway at literally a walking pace, the whole rear end rattles like mad. I don't think this should be normal.

So I decide to check the clearances between the mounting bolts and the sleeve that the bolt goes through on each end of the LCA.

First I looked at the Poly end of the LCA that mounts to the car frame. I found that my stock bolt was way to small in diameter for the sleeve in the Poly end. The bolt's O.D. is 0.465" exactly. The I.D. of the sleeve is about 0.505" (I'm taking this from memory because I don't have the LCA in front of me right now). I did take these measurements with a Mitutoyo digital caliper. Here's a picture of the caliper.


That's a difference of about 0.040", seems like too much to me. I bought new bolts that are exactly 0.495" O.D. and installed them, thinking this would cut down on noise. IT DIDN'T

I checked the rod end of the LCA for clearance and everything looked fine. There's about 0.010" - 0.015" difference between the bolt and the rod end sleeve diameters. I'm wondering if this clearance is too much?

Also I want to add that this problem has been happening since they were new and I have the greasable ones and keep them lubed regularly.

Are your ends this rattely?? Anybody have any idea's?

 

Have you tried calling Steve Spohn yet?
I have a whole pile of Spohn parts getting ready to go on soon and they all have rod ends. I don't really care too much about noise but what you describe sounds very annoying.
Let us know if you resolve this

 

Mine aren't that noisy. In fact I have ridden in friends cars with poly/poly ends and they were noiser than my combo ends.

-Schultzy

 

Schultzy89GTA,

What brand do you and your friend have??

 

My worn out panhard bar rod/poly combo was really noisey. I replaced the rod end with a new one from Steve and now its perfectly quiet.

On the LCAs, I did notice that there was some extra space between the sleeves and bolts. But there was also some with the stock LCA.

 

rod ends are noisy...well from my experiance. i ended up goin all poly. it also lasts longer.

 

Have you measured the play in the rod end bearing itself? I don't have spherical bearing LCAs but based on my experience with helicopter flight control rods (they use teflon lined spherical bearings but bigger) .015" of slop is cause for replacement. Also make sure the rod ends are centered in their respective mounts to minimize metal to metal contact on the rod ends.

 

I'd swap in a set of either stock LCAs or poly ones and see what difference that makes...or you could invest in the most excellent kick-**** stereo upgrade!!!


Ed

 

I have all Spohn stuff so does one of my friends that I was referencing. I am not sure what brand the other friend has but they are aftermarket poly.

-Schultzy