Pillow Joint Vs Bushes Life Expectancy and Potential Damage

[kiwi]

The Ae82 will be a Metal rally car when its finished and am curious about the Solid Pillow Joint vs Bushes debate and the pro vs con of both. It will be used as a semi-daily car when the family car needs to be used by my other half. Most of it will be to and from work via a motorway.

I do not mind too harsh a ride but have read on the Silvia and Skyline forums that using the solid joints will damage other items in your car and since it will be a Metal rally car would it be too harsh?

Sorry for the somewhat stupid questions just have the car in my garage and would like to get her rolling again. She was working when i brought her... Ah well

[lexsmaz]

I would have thought the solid joint would be way to hard for a rally car & of no real gain as you are on dirt & you run fairly big profile tyres too & as you have found on the other Forums the transfer shock & pounding damage to the chassis etc would be huge ..

PS I think you mean Mental rally car ?? not metal ??

[kiwi]

Metal = gravel/dirt, unsealed roads so not tarmac rallying.

I didnt think about the rally tyre and how they would affect suspension. Thanks for that

[lexsmaz]

My bad, never heard the term Metal rally car set up

[kiwi]

More then likely it was me using the wrong term's.

[thechuckster]

If you have the right spring and shock for the car's use the in theory the spherical bearing shouldn't be any noisier or long-lasting as a conventional strut top.

I've just swapped the GT4 over to pillowball strut tops and first impressions say it's no noisier than before.


Edit: for rally use you'll have quite soft springs tho the damper settings are not ideal for daily driver use.

Its the spring and shock's role to absorb the hits that the tyres get. If it's uber hard then it's all wrong.

[Sam_Q]

the biggest issue with mechanical joints is that they are precision part and almost all people run them exposed to damn well everything. Rubber boots are available for them although they are strangely expensive considering.

[TERRA Operative]

The AE01/111 Levins have pillowball rear lateral arms from factory, but they cannot be adapted to the AE82 without some decent subframe and maybe knuckle modifications.
I did the conversion on an AE92 Seca, along with AE101 rear disc brake conversion, and it was ok, but a bit more trouble than it's worth unless you have the time and budget for it.
It did provide a turnbuckle toe adjustment on the forward rear lateral arms in place of the eccentric bolt which is more easily bumped out of position, but it depends on how much money you have for stuffing around rather than just going and getting an AE101 Levin with a superior chassis to start with. (The GTZ Levins have an extra bolt each side on the rear subframe compared to the GT-Apex FWIW).

[kiwi]

Thanks guys. Always liked the 82 fxgt and the way it looks.

She already is very firm and handles well but everything can be improved.

The car already has Mrp coilovers with 8/6 springs, 18mm whiteline rear sway bar, ae111 front brakes and as at 8am this morning a silvertop 20v.

Decided to bite the bullet and use a bzr loom and ecu rather then the gt-apex one. Lucky that i have access to one.

[TERRA Operative]

Pictures, stat.

Let us see this thing, it sounds like it's on it's way to becoming a sweet ride.

[kiwi]

How do i post photos from my phone onto this forum??

[TERRA Operative]

Upload them to imgur, photobucket, imageshack.us or the like then post the link.

[kiwi]

I wonder who will spot the great bit about the engine...........

[Hiro]

Want to run open trumpets rather then the afm it currently runs

AFM? I see no AFM, you sure it isn't running Blacktop electrics already?

[kiwi]

You miss nothing do you? Lol i was hoping it would be a challenge. Yeah it's running a blacktop loom and ecu with a 4afe map sensor until i can fund a blacktop one.

You should hear her at 8,000 until rev limit at 8,200rpm. The blacktop flywheel really makes a difference and the lsd box does well to get the power to the wheels. she isn't certified yet so not road legal until i can get her certified in mid November.