NEONS- Sperical Bushed Control Arms

[Rabbit07]

Would any of the members of this forum that are running or building Neons for IT be interested in purchasing spherical bushed control arms like the ones that used to be sold by Mopar?

Skytek Engineering is considering producing said item if there is enough interest in these kinds of parts. We could also just produce the insert and you press them in yourself?

Thoughts?

Please respond here or email me: [email protected]

Thanks!

[Matt Ferratusco]

Please tell more about these control arms. Are they just made with a stiffer bushing material?

[Rabbit07]

Instead of a rubber or poly bushing, they would have spherical bearings.

[m glassburner]

Any idea how much for one set ??

[Rabbit07]

I have no Idea yet on price. We would like to price them competetively, but the more you make the less you can charge. If there is enough interest we can make them with CNC equiptment and same time and money. If there are not many who want them, we could make less by hand and have to charge more.

My personal thoughts were $200-$300 each, but that is still yet to be determined.

[GregM]

Originally posted by Rabbit07@Nov 11 2005, 12:55 PM
I have no Idea yet on price. We would like to price them competetively, but the more you make the less you can charge. If there is enough interest we can make them with CNC equiptment and same time and money. If there are not many who want them, we could make less by hand and have to charge more.

My personal thoughts were $200-$300 each, but that is still yet to be determined.

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Chris,

I would be interested in two sets and maybe a third for a friends car. How much and how long a wait ?

[Rabbit07]

Greg,

Nice to here from you... Missed you at the big one in Sept. How is fatherhood?

I am still working stuff out on the control arms. So far I have about a dozen comfirmed people interested. That isn't quite enough to tool up with the big machines.

Would you be interested in bolt-on control arms or press in yourself busings?

Thanks!

[GregM]

Originally posted by Rabbit07@Nov 21 2005, 08:27 PM
Greg,

Nice to here from you... Missed you at the big one in Sept. How is fatherhood?

I am still working stuff out on the control arms. So far I have about a dozen comfirmed people interested. That isn't quite enough to tool up with the big machines.

Would you be interested in bolt-on control arms or press in yourself busings?

Thanks!

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I was packed and ready to make the haul to Mid Ohio but I broke my hand and badly sprained my wrist two weeks before the Runoff's. I was still going but my wrist was a mess and took weeks to get better. The young future racer is doing well and has already been to Lime Rock many times as a spectator already !!!

I have poly bushings in there now. The cost of the Mopar units was high but if you have something I could press in myself that would be great, if not how much to make them up ?

[dave99rt]

very interested in the idea.
shot you an email.
any updates?

[ITAntNeon]

I am interested in 2 sets.

I would like the press in ones. But if I remember properly there were some issues with Mopar getting the forward bushing to work properly. Something to do with the tolerance stack up or on purpose bias (to compensate for rubber compression) of the A-arm's forward to rear bushings causing binding. Thus they re-machined the A-arms, thus the high cost. Have you heard of this?

I am running a solid bushing in my A arms for the forward positions right now. Stock rubber in the A-arm's rear positions. Will you be using roller bearings on the forward position?

[Greg Amy]

Originally posted by ITAntNeon@Dec 29 2005, 06:02 PM
Thus they re-machined the A-arms...

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Illegal...

[Matt Rowe]

Originally posted by ITAntNeon@Dec 29 2005, 07:02 PM
I would like the press in ones. But if I remember properly there were some issues with Mopar getting the forward bushing to work properly. Something to do with the tolerance stack up or on purpose bias (to compensate for rubber compression) of the A-arm's forward to rear bushings causing binding. Thus they re-machined the A-arms, thus the high cost. Have you heard of this?

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I haven't built an ITA Neon, yet. But I did stay at a holiday inn last night. Oh, and I also just got through modifying the street neon with a set of spherical bearings at the rear of the a-arms. Based on my experience there is no evidence of binding in the suspension with the rear spherical in place and no visibile deflection in the front bushing during the full range of motion.

What you may be referring to is something that comes up even when installing a set of energy suspension bushings. What it amounts to is that variations in the casting and machining result in the width of the casting where the front bushing is can vary significantly. To install the kit they specify grinding the arm down to a specific dimension. Now to be IT legal it's possible to trim the bushing to match and leave the a-arm as stock. But that's the only interference issue I'm aware of. In any event I don't see any reason why an IT legal, non a-arm machined solution isn't possible. As usual it might just take a little extra effort.

[xf69fs]

I am interested in them for a SM solo II car. A buddy and I are looking into replacing any bushing we can with a rod end or spherical bushing/bearing.

How exactly would the inserts work? would you machine them or are there inserts that you can get off the shelf?

Ryan

[Rabbit07]

Wow, All this interest out of no where. Here is the deal. I have been very busy building cars right now to finish the work on the bushings. Now that I know that there truely are some real numbers of interested people, I will move forward with the project. I will be at Sebring for the national this next weekend, when I return I will try to gather the numbers for everone and try to get some units available before Feburary. I plan to duplicate the Mopar pieces as closely as possible. The machining of the control arms was indead an energy suspension issue. What other hard to get pieces are you Neon drivers looking for? If there is a business case for the production of parts I can sell it to my management to produce parts. Without enough numbers it just doesn't make sense for us to produce parts just to have them sitting on the shelf. Race cars are a small portion of our business, We build prototype parts and cars primarily, small runs of parts are what we do, but that is expensive, as I have said before, the more made at one time the lower the cost. I am glad to see interested people. Being a Neon racer myself it is exciting.

Thanks!

I can be reached at [email protected] or call 248 856-2000

ask for Chris

[Rabbit07]

All right, here is the scoop. For just the inserts that you or I could press in to your existing control arms it will be $550 per car set. About the price of the mopar pieces for just one side. If I press them in you are looking at $100 a set for the shop charge. If I am suppling the control arms then it will be the going rate for the arms from my local salvage dealer. If you want new ball joints I can install those as well for the cost of $40 each. Who wants to sign up? I will be beta testing these within the next couple of weeks. Most likely they will be sold through ebay if you can't pick them up and pay for them in person.

Thanks

Chris Childs

[xf69fs]

Just a random idea...What would it take to replace all of the rubber bushings in the rear to sperical bushings? on the 4 lateral arms and the 2 trailing arms? Just and idea....

Ryan

[Rabbit07]

That was going to be the next project! I looks like it should be very easy?

[Rabbit07]

I have 10 car sets of bushings. If you would like them please contact me. I will sell these on a first come first served basis.

Thanks

Chris