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Spherical bearing upper mounts

91parkave

91parkave

New member
Just wanted to share my newest quest to improve handling. First i tried out the pillow ball camber plate deal, which was great but i need to do add'l engineering on keeping the strut assembly moving freely without binding. So for now im on new factory mounts, which maintains a good stack height, and also has a axial load of 44,000 lbs. More than durable for a DD for years. and years and rebuldable, as the bearings are held in place with against a race and secured via snap rings.


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All thats required was some bronze bearings and washers of the M14 variety. You start with your Spring hat, use 2 washers, the bronze bearings which act as bushings in the bearing assembly, then the top plate another washer, then the nut. Grease between every point.


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So far i got a couple of weeks and there solid as hell, but no friction in the steering whatsoever this time around.






Excuse all the grease and stuff, this is how i assembled everything, There was no need like i initially thought for 4 washers, which can lower the can while increasing strut travel slightly.




Stack goes like this




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Summit, the size might differ though as a lot aftermarket strut mounts have a 2inch opening. Acdelcos and others have 2.5 inch opening so you'd have to get different size bearings and bushings.


Part number for the 2 inch opening are cpw14, and wssx14. You will need 2 of each.
 
Updated pics price lost for everything was about 110bucks including buying new factory mounts to burn rubber out of
 


Very nice setup! Those bearings will no doubt last much longer than the stock ones, and actually cope well with PA's ****ty roads. I'll have to do this myself when I upgrade to some rebuildable Bilstein's, that'll give me some time to practice laying a good bead with the MIG setup I'm purchasing.
 
I welded these in small sections let it cool, cleaned it up and welded over the weld again and the material. Till I got to the top. I I wanted the strongest possible weld I could get.
 
i dont know where the other thread went so ill whore this here too

i went with the larger bearing for ours so that the 1" id gave us plenty of room around the 13mm strut stud for a meaty bushing
large bottom face and recessed for the shaft...should work quite nice for the hat/progressive bump stops.


 
My only regret is not fabbing a completeley diffrent plate to raise the strut attachment point. Sometime in the futire i suppose
 
I'll be building a set of these when I get home in a month, my parts are on the way! I'm not going with the same spring hat and bearings though. I'll also put these as high up as I can, my hood is already clearanced for my struts sitting high.

I found a "radial bearing mount" from Fortune Auto that is the hat and bearing in one. It uses a roller bearing in it. I'm tired of the constant popping from these current bearing being exposed to the elements.



 


well ive settled on and tested the final "bolt-in" design of my monoball Caster/camber adjustable mount.

its setup to use a -12 monoball and sleeve in a stainless camber plate bolting to a slotted 3/8ths alum plate to allow for caster adjustments.
the strut centerline can shift to within 3/4" of the inboard side of the large center strut bucket hole. the cousin to this design is nearly identical (but uses a larger disc much like that disastrous set of 442 mounts) but requires the bucket be cut but this moves the mounting point another 3 inches inboard and give nearly an inch extra room for the slicks.

im fairly happy with it so im tossing a pair together for the TR to get it roadworthy and see if i can find any improvements.

i also drew up the plates for the rear but i dont need em yet.

hopefully ill have pics of some **** by this weekend
 
i just gotta get the monoball cup welded to the plate and i can finally install the TR's coilovers....with tons of room between the tire and strut body


 
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you're really trying to get that kind of adjustability? what're you doing with this car? i thought it was more of a weird out of the box drag project, but at this point you really should be road racing it...
 


this is the "small" no/little modification one..... the other one requires the top of the bucket be notched and two new holes drilled.
big boy moves the strut centerline till the coilovers are at the innermost point of the bucket and able to dial in 3+* of caster for better straight line tracking as well as hopefully be able to shove 12" slicks up front with the strut layed back away from the rim.

I learned a lot from the failed strut suspension of the 442 (now its going SLA) and im just putting some of it into the TR to make some use of the **** ive already designed based on the 1st generation W's. the zzp LCA's vs the RAT bar are killing me but I still have all the the monoball pins from the 442 that I need to sucker HK into buying...so im making a LBJ plate that allows a monoball to be welded in and actually put the LCA back to OEM angle while lowered...boom tons more swaybar to cv clearance.

plus it needed front strut mounts anyways....why use oem junk with these sweet vintage intense coilovers...lol

im really trying to get him to buy his own billet knuckles so he can sell the rare as hell 16" weld xp's for some 15" rims and be able to save $ on slicks and use the "fbody caliper" 11" and 12" brakes at will

I may be able to sell him on it since I can make the knuckle use the F body caliper with even a 14" rotor which I know he has wet dreams of making work with the alloy hat's available for the ford junk
 
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