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Del-A-Lum LCA bushings


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Does anyone know who makes Del-A-Lum LCA bushings for Datsun front LCA's. Specifically 240Z-280Z? Not looking for Poly and not looking for Mono-Ball. Specifically want the Del-A-lum style. 

 

These are for Third Gen Camaro's, but I want a similar product. 

 

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I seem to remember FAR made these in a non adjustable form at one time.

 

Edit. The Delrin and aluminium bushings should be better than Poly. Much denser and self lubricating. The thinner the Delrin liner is the better, less deflection. Which is why the Del-A-Lum style is so good.

 

The GM style uses an outer metal shell mainly because the bushings are supported only at opposite ends when installed in the stock stamped steel lower LCA. The middle part of the bushing has no support. With a Datsun Z front LCA, I don't think you'd even need the an outer shell. Just machine a two piece Delrin bush with a steel inner collar. Steel is better than aluminium to rotate on.  That's what I didn't like about the FAR design.

 

Now that I think about it some more, I'm pretty sure the Del-A-Lum inner Delrin bushing doesn't rotate. Memories a bit foggy, but I think the zerk fitting pins it in place and stops rotation of the Delrin liner in relation to the Outer aluminium shell. So all rotation is between the Delrin liner and the inner steel sleeve. 

Edited by Chickenman
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Not the best choice for the front. I used them in the rear, but the issue up front is that as the suspension moves up and down it does so on an arc, following the TC rod. The delrin in these bushings is very stiff, so it doesn't allow this to happen very easily.

 

I'd much rather have a rod end in front. The thin, hard delrin bush isn't saving you any NVH.

 

Also adjusting camber with these changes bumpsteer, so if you care about that these make it a lot harder to adjust the bumpsteer out.

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^ Yes, very good point.  I just got off the phone with Byron Mestin from " The510Realm ". He's one of our local fabricators and mentioned the same issues. You'll get binding in the suspension on most cars with a Tension Rod located LCA. GM's  use a two pivot location method on their LCA's, so it doesn't have that issue. 

 

Was just going to post up that it was a bad idea, but you beat me to it.

 

BNIB Beck Arnley front LCA bushings are only $5.67 each from RA, so I've ordered those. Should be good enough for my purposes. 

Edited by Chickenman
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Makes sense. So is the arc achievable due to the rubber bushing on the TC bucket allowing it to kind of compress to reach out as the TC rod is stretched at certain points in the arc? Or does it require both the compression from that bushing and the deflection of the rubber bushing in the FLCA?

 

Neverdone: Probably not? The strut is fairly inline with the FLCA from what I recall. If you used the TC bucket and the FLCA mounting points for two of your pivot points the strut would be really quite offset. You could lean it back, but that would require cutting the shock tower. You could fabricate new mounts for an A-arm, but given the C-channel type construction of the frame rail I'm not sure how happy they would be taking that rearward load. I think the only person that I recall that did such a mod on this forum is mark who grafted a C4 corvette front suspension package if memory serves

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I'd bet that it wouldn't be too hard to do a single piece LCA. Just has to have a rod end at the front and maybe a inner tie rod or something like that at the bucket. So long as the arm is shaped so that the rear pivot can move without binding the joint, should be OK. Would be harder to do with a  rod end in back. I'd bet some drifter has already figured it out. They need the wheel clearance for more steer angle so single piece LCA makes a lot of sense for them.

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Hmm interesting. I guess the leaning back of the strut is just used to achieve anti-dive characteristics or a different motion ratio in E30's?

 

Quite interesting is there* a reason people don't make this type of arm? Even the drifters I am familiar with tend to run just the typical box section extended LCA and longer adjustable TC arms, a one piece like that would give some fairly large amount of room to pocket the wheel for steering angle.

Edited by seattlejester
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Ok gentlemen. Not to hijack the thread but...... I've decided to roll with silvermine adjustable LCA's... My question is, which type of tension rod is best suited? Check out the pics below and share your wisdom. My thoughts are that I like the T3 rod because it's stout and with good track history and the futofab style because is most mimincs the attachment point on frame as the original. Thoughts ??? Thanks. Jim post-38304-0-38298800-1489034367_thumb.jpegpost-38304-0-08095900-1489034351_thumb.jpeg

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