ReSpeed came out with a sperical bearing kit to replace the inner joint bushing for "improved touring". Has anyone bought them? Does it cause any noise when driving or manuvering compared to the stock rubber bushing? Thinking about buying Racing Beat's adjustable lower control arms instead of a camber plate (don't like the looks) and putting in ReSpeed's spherical kit.....any advice or opinions?

 

The only problem I see with the adjustable control arms it, when you want to make an adjustment it seems like the toe would change too. So you would need to do a full alignement along with every adjustment.

I just bought the Respeed camber plates and they look great. I haven't actually installed them yet, hopefully tomorrow. Besides, I like the fact that you don't have to crawl under the car to make an adjustment.

 

The reason they are listed as "improved touring legal" is the fact they do not require modification to the lower control arm, not that they can only be used for that purpose. TMK, they are the only customer installable (Bolt On) kit available. The kit is supplied with teflon lined rod sphericals to keep the noise down and provide smooth functionality.

There is a trade off when using an adjustable lower control arm. When changes are made you are adjusting two suspension characteristics at once. Since the arm will change track as well as camber. This is the first thing most gurus will tell you not to do.

That being said, there are a few reasons why you would want to lengthen the lower control arm. First, you may be able to obtain more negative camber while using stock size springs. Since the spring to strut tower clearance is tight. Second, you may want to play around with the handling characteristics of a wider track.

I can not say for sure if our kit will fit within the RB control arms. You would need to make sure the pivot point of the arm is dimentionaly the same inside diameter and width.

You could always have your lower control arms converted to a rod end for the pivot point as well. if you can't find a local fabricator to do it shoot me a PM. We can handle it.



-billy

 

I just purchased the stay rod kit from ReSpeed and plan on installing them before my alignment after I put on my new tires....lucky me I work at a Mazda dealership (:P). I want to get back into autocrossing but dont believe that I'm going to make any adjustments due to its a daily driver..I just wanted the adjustable control arms cuz I think my "frame" has a small tweak in it and you can really only change the toe on the FB.....I guess I need to find out the results of my alignment before I get everything under the sun...