Crimson

I've been looking for aftermarket front lower control arms that don't rod ends. My car is street driven (2001 Camaro SS) and I don't want to do yearly maintenance of changing the bushings. Any suggestions?

bigdaddybones30

iTrader: (2)

Either keep stock or sell the car. LoL. You do a poly/rod combo, but i personally would not. I did UMI uppers with poly & lowers i did rods. Noisy? A little. But if i wanted quite girly ride, i woulda bought a Mudstain. Get the rods, you wont regret it.

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

Why aftermarket arms? Rubber bushed stock arms are going to the best riding and are usually the lightest. You could do UMI lower arms with roto-joints. Roto joints are pretty quiet.

UMI Sales

iTrader: (1)

As stated above we have a few different options poly,delrin,roto-joint and rod end.

http://umiperformance.com/catalog/in...=7_137_103_304

If you need any info just let us know.

Craig

UMI Performance

iTrader: (77)

As Craig mentioned there are some streetable options and UMI offers them. I would recommend our P/N 2306. it uses poly and Roto-Joints. The Roto-Joint replaces where most companies uses a rod end. This area here is a vertical mount and needs pivot up and down, this this why a swivel joint is needed.

We also now include our new travel easy, bind free poly bushing ends. This bushing allows the force of the bolt to be tightened on the sleeve and not the bushing preventing up and down travel bind: http://umiperformance.com/catalog/im...2305ac_LRG.jpg

P/N 2306: http://umiperformance.com/catalog/in...roducts_id=543

MidwestChassis2

iTrader: (1)

Do yourself a favor and use Heim joints. They are the least maintenance and longer lasting than any other choice. As long as you are purchasing from a company that uses a high quality heim joint.

We have hundreds of customers with heim/heim front control arms and have had zero complaints about issues.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

Whether you have poly bushings or rod ends there is no real reason that you should have to do yearly maintenance. Our front lower a-arms have a poly bushing on the front mounting point and a rod end on the rear mounting point. The only maintenance you should have to do is a couple squirts of a quality synthetic grease through the zerk fittings on the front bushing every 3rd oil change or so.

UMI Sales

iTrader: (1)

^^^^^x2

imma_stocker

iTrader: (19)

Simply upgrade to poly bushings.

Why are you looking to upgrade front LCA?

UMI Sales

iTrader: (1)

Take caution in simply pressing in polyurethane bushings into the factory arm. The vertical bushing absolutely needs to have a rotational motion (Rubber, Rod-end, or Roto-Joint). Otherwise you could very easily break your control arm.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

The big issue with throwing poly bushings in the factory lower a-arms is that when you install a poly bushings in the rear mounting points of the lower a-arm it binds up pretty badly as the arm moves up and down. This is why you see that all aftermarket lower a-arms use rod ends or roto-joints.

Crimson

How do the roto joints handle with vibrations? I don't want to worry about seeing some road imperfections and pray my teeth won't to jiggle out.

UMI Tech

Roto-Joints are intended to provide rod end handling with some cushioning. Anytime we remove factory designed rubber components there is an increase in NVH (noise vibration and harshness). The problem in our aftermarket industry is one driver's tolerance for NVH may be different than another's - and it's hard to measure.

The UMI 2306 previously mentioned would be our "softest" street arm since it has poly in the straight portion and a Roto-Joint in the strut connector.

We have hundreds of daily drivers on the 2306 with no complaints. And they work awesome.

blackandgold

iTrader: (2)

Don't the roto-joints need tightening too? Having to grease and adjust bushings sounds like more work to me...

As others have said, don't do that.



For a street driven car I'd say load up your stockers with new Moog parts.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

We don't mess with the roto-joints at all but I am pretty sure that thet can be tightened up, loosened up, and rebuilt. Having to grease poly bushings with zerk fittings takes a couple minutes at the most so it really isn't as big of a deal as you are making it out to be. It really only has to be done every 3rd oil change or so which comes out to a couple minutes of maintenance every year on them.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

And what happens when that binds is simple. The bushing breaks and that's far worse than a stock arm with a worn rubber bushing. Toe goes nuts, caster goes nuts. And what's worse, both become dynamic. They change as you drive down the road. It's not good and why I'm sure none of us recommend the poly bushing for that location in the stock lower arm.

Ahhh, it's nice when we all agree.

UMI Performance

iTrader: (77)

The adjustment of the Roto-Joint is designed as it wears, it takes a lot to wear it... so this isn't something you need to do often. Grease however prolongs life, you could grease them when you grease your ball joints and other items.

But correct, if you don't want any of the advantages of aftermarket items replacement rubber bushings would be a good option.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

It doesn't happen often so we better take this time to point it out for sure!

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Ive been running a PA Racing lower arm for a couple of years, street driven, with zero issues.