Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

DELETED

That front supsension looks nice but is very impractical for the road. The vibration transfer from heim joints is bad plus on the street they would wear out very quickly. That U20 looks almost like new!

Alexi

No way that's a real engine. C'mon, Alvin, admit it -- you Photoshopped it to be so pretty.

I was up at Mikes recently. He's got a few of those engines sitting around. They certainly do look brand new.

The vibration transfer from the heim joints on that suspension would be no different that the solid metal-to-metal joints on the stock suspension.

By the looks of the control arms, the primary goal was to come up with a less expensive alternative to the stock ball joints and spindles.

There are few things that bother me about the suspension, though.

1. The heim joints on the lower arm are in single shear, that's a big no-no. There's a lot of designs that do it and get away with it, but it's not a good idea.

2. From a racer's perspective, it looks like nothing was done to correct the poor kinematics of the stock suspension. All of the pickup points are in basically in the same place. If anything, geometry may have become worse, as it looks like the lower arm chassis attachment points may have been lowered roughly an inch. Also, no provision was made for coil-over shocks.

So, is it a "racers's dream"? No. But I am impressed with the fabrication of arms that would be cheaper to maintain than the stock components.

Chris

Those heim joints only have a little teflon as a barrier from rubbing metal on metal, no grease. You can maintain a stock frontend to last the life of the car, you would be lucky to get a year on heim joints on the street in a real world situation.

Alexi

I agree about the decreased durability of the heim joints. Even on a race car, periodic replacement of heim joints is considered routine maintainance.

Greaseable heim joints are also available, which would help with durability. Adding a grease fitting does somewhat decrease the maximum rated load of the bearing, but this normally isn't a big issue.

Roadster front ends are typically not greased as often as they should be. More often than not, they are a source of significant wear. After 35+ years, I doubt that there's many original suspensions that don't need at least some refurbishing, unless they are low mileage.

Heim joints are more readily available too, and should be for a long time.

It's nice to see this type of front end as an option, but there are tradeoffs.

Happy roadstering,
Chris

What kind of ball joints are they using? If you fabricated the A arms to match stock mounting locations and substituted a better bushing, along with affordable ball joints, then we have something.