WTF??? LCA slop???
06-01-2010, 12:46 PM
#1
WTF??? LCA slop??? my spohn LCAs were getting a little noisy.....more so than usual....i have the del spheres so they are rebuildable.....so thought it might be time for a refresh.....took em off.........dis assembled...regreased.....went to put on....noticed ALOT of slop in front to back movement....took the bolt out and the spacer the bolt goes thru.....noticed that there is about 32nd play on each side of the bolt in the spacer.....thats right 1/16 total....and with 2 bolts...........thats 1/8 of play..........WTF??? i was fixin to chew spohn up and down .....then i got out my stock LCAs......it has the same amount of slop with the bolts in guess you dont notice the slop in the stockers with all that rubber......but in the spohns.......no rubber.....a 1/2 bolt fits great in the spacer but wont go thru the bolt holes in the frame or the rear .........guess i have to live with the slop????
09-20-2010, 10:15 PM
#3
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[QUOTE=sjsingle1;13886741]drilled out the rear end holes to fit 1/2 bolts.....cut down on the noise much better in the rear.......have not figured out how to get a drill in the front frame holes to get those 1/2 too[/QU
angle drill or small die grinder, I do not remenber, been 10-11 years
my mem getting shorter as well as .....
Johnny
angle drill or small die grinder, I do not remenber, been 10-11 years
my mem getting shorter as well as .....
Johnny
09-21-2010, 07:24 AM
#6
I used a 31/64 bit and drilled them at an angle. Then you can thread the 1/2" holes and the threads will pull the bolts through and remove the little material left to make it a 1/2" hole. The bolts also fit very nicely without any slop.
Last edited by 1SLwLS1; 09-21-2010 at 03:36 PM.
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09-21-2010, 03:53 PM
#8
That slop is there to help get everything lined up during assembly - with the bolts properly tightened, the LCA should not be able to move in such a way that they LCA bushings are rattling around on the bolt. This goes back to the fundamental purpose of a bolt - to clamp. Bolts are not used to accurately locate things - that's what dowel pins are for. If you want a good reference, look at the bell housing, transmission, clutch, heads on the engine, etc...all located with dowels, but clamped in place with bolts.
To be honest, you are probably wasting your time - I chased my tail trying to figure out how to get rid of that slop. It is possible - a small die grinder and a sanding bit did the trick for me. The noise still persisted, however, and was caused by noisy rod ends - not the bolt/bushing slop. Spohn del-sphere ends make some noise, and they always will. That's just their nature.
To be honest, you are probably wasting your time - I chased my tail trying to figure out how to get rid of that slop. It is possible - a small die grinder and a sanding bit did the trick for me. The noise still persisted, however, and was caused by noisy rod ends - not the bolt/bushing slop. Spohn del-sphere ends make some noise, and they always will. That's just their nature.
09-21-2010, 04:42 PM
#9
That slop is there to help get everything lined up during assembly - with the bolts properly tightened, the LCA should not be able to move in such a way that they LCA bushings are rattling around on the bolt. This goes back to the fundamental purpose of a bolt - to clamp. Bolts are not used to accurately locate things - that's what dowel pins are for. If you want a good reference, look at the bell housing, transmission, clutch, heads on the engine, etc...all located with dowels, but clamped in place with bolts.
To be honest, you are probably wasting your time - I chased my tail trying to figure out how to get rid of that slop. It is possible - a small die grinder and a sanding bit did the trick for me. The noise still persisted, however, and was caused by noisy rod ends - not the bolt/bushing slop. Spohn del-sphere ends make some noise, and they always will. That's just their nature.
To be honest, you are probably wasting your time - I chased my tail trying to figure out how to get rid of that slop. It is possible - a small die grinder and a sanding bit did the trick for me. The noise still persisted, however, and was caused by noisy rod ends - not the bolt/bushing slop. Spohn del-sphere ends make some noise, and they always will. That's just their nature.
09-21-2010, 08:26 PM
#11
I torqued the bolts to 74 lb-ft and getting the old hardware off was very tight. Obviously I couldn't tell you what they were torqued at, but they seemed much tighter than 74 lb-ft.
Not saying that this post is 100% accurate, as I don't believe everything I read on the internet, but it seems to hold some water in my situation, some how...?
09-21-2010, 08:51 PM
#12
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I buy it....I'm gonna check my poly/rod lca's tomorrow cause I get a ton of noise coming from mine as well....I thought it was the polybushing on the chassis, but maybe it's the rod end
09-22-2010, 12:24 AM
#13
i do EXPECT rods to be noisey.....i have had them before and took them off because of the noise........i tightend my del spheres enough so that there was little to no play......i think 1/2 bolts should be a must have mod.....IMO
09-23-2010, 04:06 PM
#14
If I knew how to accurately get a drill in there and drill the holes straight, I'd have gone with the 1/2" bolts a LONG time ago. In fact, I was trying to figure out how to do this on the '85 Firebird I had from '85-'95, before I sold it to buy my '96 Camaro
09-23-2010, 04:23 PM
#15
To get it 100% accurate, you would need to remove the rocker panel as well as that portion of the subframe, not worth the trouble IMO. What I did has worked fairly well, there is no more slop in the chassis mounts than in the axle mounts, which were pre-drilled for 1/2" and were spot on.
Last edited by 1SLwLS1; 09-23-2010 at 04:41 PM.
09-23-2010, 05:58 PM
#17
To be honest with you though, if you do as I described above, its not 100% accurate, but it is probably 99.99% accurate and still better than using the stock hardware, IMO.
09-26-2010, 05:36 PM
#19
I ended up tackling this job today and it's not that big of a deal. There is no way to get a perfect lineup that I can tell with the inner hole. I got a perfect lineup on the outer hole using a flexible shaft attached to a drill and using a small stepped drill bit. There is almost 4" of room next to the hole. The inner hole just doesn't have enough room next to it, maybe 2", to get much in there. I got it real close with the stepped bit, but was still going in at a slight angle and like 1SLwLS1 said, it's a tight fit and the bolt has to be drawn in with the threads, which is good. We are talking sheet metal here though, not much structure there to begin with to have to be perfect. I did find a really small 90* angle with a 2" head, but Lowes had one and it was a returned item and was broke, but still hanging on the shelf. The reviews for this item on their website leads me to believe this thing isn't worth the $19 they want for it.
This is the setup that I used:
This is the other questionable option:
This is the setup that I used:
This is the other questionable option: