LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

I am replacing the upper strut mounts on my 89 T/A. I am going with summit lowering springs, bout the same as Pro-Kit and bilstiens.

Factory upper mounts go for 70-110 bucks depending on which brand you get.

For not that much more I can get Spohn upper mounts that are taller and better bearings. Spohn says it lets the strut operate in it's normal range.

Has anyone delt with this? Yes they look nice but are they going to add any benefit to a weekend car?

Thanks.

Jason

TheScaryOne

iTrader: (3)

I've discussed these with Dean, and he believes that they are nothing but good, for a stock height or lowered car, and after doing more research, I definitely agree. They allow for greater adjustment, and have a roller bearing instead of the rubber race piece of crap that someone thought was a good idea to install at the factory. So you should never need to replace them, just replace the bearing, and since it's a real honest to god bearing, it shouldn't need to be replaced as often.

Oh, and I assumed you were talking about the fabricated spherical mounts.

LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

Yup, those would be the ones.

BobItzaboy

Hotparts just PM'ed me a linkto their newer design Strut mounts which I had yet to see. I must say I do like th design. The Spohn strut mounts are much more solid for racing but where I must admit I am liking these new Hotpart ones is the urethane bushing. I need some noise isolation and the aluminum Hunter Motorsports units I have (that are identical to the Spohn ones, only mine are aluminum not steel) have left a bad taste in my mouth due to the troublesome clanging noise they make daily. Knocking and banging on every bump. I am so gunshy I think a slight compromise to downgrade to these urethane mounts is in good order for me on the wifes daily driver. This car sees daily abuse- I mean it is started minimum 6 times a day she drives the wheels off it. As much as I want to go to the steel Spohn ones, I am seriously thinking going to the urethane just to make sure I do not have noise issues again.


I will buy these very soon when I am ready for new tires. I will get it realigned with the new strut mounts at that time. Plus, I can weld on these and fit some flanges to them for 3 pt STB mounting directly to them like I have wanted to do for years now. I just can't weld aluminum yet, I only own a Lincoln Pro175 MIG (230v) and have never even tried TIG welding.

Dean

http://www.hotpart.com/image.php?i=2...0c75bedbf473ce

LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

Are those small screws on the top of the plate ment to keep them there? I don't know if that would hold once it's aligned or not. I'm not sure.

Also, where is the urethane at? I think Spohn uses QA1 bearings with teflon or something.

Where does the clunk noise come from? Aren't these basically the same thing as stock just a little bit higher with a bigger bearing?

hotpart

These are not urethane mounts but they are heat treated chrome-moly high strength Teflon lined spherical bearings. They have almost twice the load rating the Chinese made QA1 bearings have and also come with a lifetime warranty. Strut mounts should not make clunking noises and if they are making noises your bearing is probably bad or moving in the housing.

They are not small screws; they are 5/16-24 bolts with an 180,000 psi rating. They are stronger than a grade 8 which is only a 150,000 psi rating and they also use a fatigue resistant unj thread instead of the standard unf thread form. We have never had any of the CMC or AI cars have the alignment ever move using our four bolt plates.

Dewey316

Do you have a picture of the underside? Can you get them with a diffrent mount location from stock?

Dean, I agree, my HMS mounts are noisy too. I think I need to put some new bearings in them, and see what that does for it.

--John

hotpart

We do not have any photos but one of our customers has put some in this thread over at frrax. http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.p...hotpart*&st=80

LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

Hotpart,

Thank you for replying. It shows us you guys are out there.

What benefits are there for that top part being adjustable also?

Thanks again.

LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

Hotpart, also what type of benefit does this offer a street car if any?

hotpart

The top part allows for caster adjustment.

The biggest advantage is allowing for full adjustment of the Camber and Caster independently and also eliminating the big rubber bushing in the factory mount which will allow you alignment to move during cornering.

Dewey316

Thanks for the FRRAX link. When I opened it, I realised exactly what it was. I knew that Kevin and a few other CMC folks had been using your parts.

Just asking for informational purposes. I have the HMS mounts, so I am not really looking to change at this point.

BobItzaboy

Hotpart,I did not know you were using sperical bearings in yours also. How are they held into place? Are you using a machined groove and clip?


That is the problem with my current 'aluminum' strut mounts. The machined groove and clip have been hamered against so much I have slop in the bearing. I even epoxyed it in place but one side has come loose again and I am really in all seriousness starting to worry about loosing a strut up through the hood due to failure.


I am actually on FFRAX, it is the only other board I have ever registered on but do not frequent it too often due to the snobbish click over there. I know several of the members in person and am aquiantances with them at various local events. My car takes alot more beating then any one of the AI or NASA cars. I corner just as hard on street tires as they do on racing rubber. I pound daily on surface streets and run probably 100x the milage any of them do. My car is also build alot more radically than most you see on there minus a full cage which the wife did noit want in her daily driver. I am telling you all this and getting to a point, I have a very unique setup that takes a very hard pounding on the strut mounts. I have a lot lower front roll center than anyone you will see along with very high rebound rates so that bearing sees double time. I the rare event 'I" drive this car it gets seriously abused- it pulls a recorded 1.07 g's on street tires. It is very slow HP wise, but it is built for the sole purpose to be my family car and the wifes daily driver, a radical minivan so to speak. I of anyone you will ever see will put these strut mounts through the ringer and back in this grocery getter. I want a part that will hold up over time and want to know if that bearing retainer will hold up to what I plan to throw at it?


I will also not, I do not run crappy sperical bearings. The current bearing I run in my strut mounts are PNB-12t 46,400 load bearings not the cheaper com12t bearings that hold 31,900. I wiped out those first ones in about 3 months, then I replaced them with the better ones and wiped out my aluminum strut mounts in about another 3 months- the bearings are still good after about 4 years and have been shimmed and glued in place a few times. My strut moiunts take a beating, heck, my car takes a beating. Next question, Do your strut mounts acept the PNB-12t bearings? because I am going to need them. THey are identical to the Com12's in size OD, ID and thickness.Dean

LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

What crazy setup are you running on the street thats destroying parts?

BobItzaboy

One that requires very high rebound damper rates

I will also boast that I am a very accomplished and experienced performance driver and also have creditials in suspension setup skills and fabrication and design of such.

I other words, I know how to build them, and I know how to drive them to the limit.

hotpart

It sounds like the bearing retainers are not machined properly. The bearing housings for aluminum will distort more when you press the bearing in and therefore allow them to move if they are not machined properly. The aluminum housing needs to be machined to 1.43645" plus or minus .00035" in order to hold the bearing properly and the steel housing needs to be 1.4366" plus or minus .0003" to retain the bearing properly. When we machine our bearing cups we machine a positive lip on the top portion to retain it without any retaining clips. The bottom is machined for a spiral retaining ring not just a standard C-clip.

We won't run crappy bearings either which is why we will not use QA1 products. Our bearing is NOT a COM-12T and it is also stronger than the PNB-12T. Your PNB-12T will have an approximate axial load rating of 6900 with a load rating of 46,400 radial. The bearings we use are heat treated alloy steel with DuPont Teflon liners. The ratings on the bearing we use are 78,000 load rating in radial and approximately 11,700 load rating in axial. We have been using these bearings for over 15 years in the Mustangs which many of our customers use them for coil-over applications and put all the spring force through the bearing and we still offer a lifetime warranty. We have only replaced about 20 bearings over the 15 years we have been selling camber plates.

BobItzaboy

Great info on the bearings and retainer machining- you just sold me. This will be m next purchase early next ear when I am ready for tires on that car.Thank you for the response.Dean