I noticed most of the suspension components Spohn sell come in 2 variations: either bushings or spherical ends. The latter of the two are slightly higher priced.

Do spherical ends give any advantage over bushing?

 

Yes with spherical rod ends it is a solid connection, so there is no give. It is better if you want the best, but i does make things a little harsher and more noice is transmitted.

 

Rod end wont bind up like the poly does.

 

Poly/poly=stock feel but some bind
Poly/spherical=little increase in road noise but not much and most bind wiped out.
Spherical/Spherical=more road noise increased and all bind wiped out.
I was told by steve that to get the poly/spherical because the increase in sound is very little and i would step up my performance a lot more. I can tell you that i have that set up on the lca's and panhard and i can't really tell much more road noise other then a little more on the freeway but nothing that is terriable.

 

Thanks guys. I am not too concerned about noise. When I am done with this car I don't expect it to be quite or soft.

It's more performance vs. price vs. reliability. Spherical ends use bushings, right? Do they ever go bad? Are they easy to maintain?

Do the ends produce any noticable handling gains? I am trying to decide if using them would be worth it so any info I can get on them would be most cool

 

Spherical rod ends have NO rubber like material in them at all, just a little kevlar for longevity. They are easily maintained since the good ones are self wiping and lubricated. Road salt and other chemicals will tend to eat the finsih and that could possibly ruin the kevlar races. But that typically takes a few years. They are simply screwed into the bars so they're easy to replace, just make sure you keep everything the same length.

 

I run all Spohn stuff on the rear of the 'Flyer'. They are poly on the chassis and rod on the component. That, combined with (a lot) heavier springs make the care handle great. But it is a dedicated open track car. Here a student of mine gets a ride.

 

Here is what i used on the chassis side of my homemade LCA's and panhard rod. Don't go telling everyone though its a secret!

Poly liner rod ends

 

I kind of like the poly instered in what looks like a rod end frame, but yet I hate it at the same time. I like it because there isn't much poly in there and that would keep the deflection to a minimum while maybe keeping some of the noise down. I hate it because there isn't much poly and that could cause some serious bind when it wont allow the rest of the rod end to rotate like a reglular rod end could.

I would only use it in 1 place... the body side of the panhard rod. But since I have a dual rod ended panhard bar now... and I can't notice any more noise, I would much rather have the piece of mind that my rear end can move freely as it should.

Now if that insert was inside the ball of a regular rod end, then I would like it more. Although my car is mostly an autocrosser I could drive it daily and the rode ended panhard bar wouldn't make a difference in ride quality, I still don't have the rod ends in the LCAs yet.

 

what sizes of those poly sherecal bushings would be used to make panhard rod ends and lca rod ends???will either work with stock bolts if so I think i found an easy way to make all new suspension parts with only minimal effort.

 

Its best to get spacers or bushings to use a smaller fastener. On mine i used 3/4" rod ends with 5/8" holes and some bronze bushings to make the hole 1/2". Then i got new 1/2 bolts. This is what i did for the LCA's. For the panhard rod i just used 5/8" bolts. I used a grade 8 fasteners because the stock were 10.9, even though i used much bigger bolts just to be safe. FWIW the stock LCA bolts are 9/16.

 

http://www.jonaadland.com/Z28/Mods/P...uminumPHB.html

 

re: the rod end with poly,
what is the rated load, what is the max misalignment angle?
contactpatch

 

I'm not sure of the rated load, but the rodends are definitely not the weak link. The 1.125" OD, .65 ID aluminum tube that i used is. The misalignment angle, i don't think your going to find that either. Unless you can find a manufactor, which i have not been able to do with many hours of research.