Adjustable castor rods

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:34 pm

I just snapped some custom made, reinforced castor / Radius rod and was wondering what people think i should upgrade to? Xd falcon ones? I would rather bend the rod then strip captive nuts, bend the upper mount point? Any thoughts appreciated.

Also i have L series arms on my Brumby and Adjustable Camber.

Thanks
Matt

ToyRX · Post by **ToyRX** » Sat May 01, 2010 11:13 am

I use late 80's Datsun Ute r-rods, they have the same angle on the flat bit that attaches to the LCA. Ther are two types, one is about 5cm longer than L series rod the other is more like 10-15cm longer.
Need to drill out one LCA bolt hole and drill a new one as well.
Also need to shorten (maybe not if you have a lift kit) and get a thread turned on the end 7 or 8cm
I then had a brass sleeve made up to go between the thread and the bushes

2coupedup · Post by **2coupedup** » Sat May 01, 2010 5:00 pm

WOW how did you snap one??? mine are made from originals cut then M16x2.0 thread tapped, 50mm coupling nut then threadbar, washers and sleive etc... bashed through the bush, hit gutters and potholes, drove it had in the sand...
(can have mine when i make new ones if you want...)

in the process of making some new ones (maybe from 20mm roundbar) that mount differently and have a little more travel allowance, and a tad stronger just in case...
was thinking of buying some, nissan drift cars have some ones that look close..

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Sat May 01, 2010 10:04 pm

2coupedup that looks good - might just have to do that to my own car, mainly to push the front wheel back in to the centre of the wheel well

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 02, 2010 10:15 am

Mine are a cross between the top two, thread old rod going into custom back piece with internal thread. It snapped on a straight bit of road to, lol! Mine had hit all sorts to.

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Sun May 02, 2010 2:27 pm

I'd like to offer some advice to strengthen your radius rods Matt but it sure wouldn't be legal.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 02, 2010 5:09 pm

Yeah i already strength them Brumbyrunner, need to step it up again and reinforce the back mount and make myself a nice fat radius rod. I don't mind bending the rules as long as it is safe and secure.

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Sun May 02, 2010 7:54 pm

pm sent......

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Sun May 02, 2010 9:48 pm

matt - where on the rod did it snap?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 02, 2010 9:53 pm

I need to put up a pic i think. Look at the second pic "2coupedup" put up and just in front of the big thread joiner nut. My rods are designed slightly differently but.

Brumby Runner thanks and responded to PM.

2coupedup · Post by **2coupedup** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:23 pm

well if you do build new ones better, you should post it here, i will do the same when i make mine :P

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:39 pm

I will be doing something, i have a possible source for some tougher ones which i am chasing down at the moment and if that doesn't work out i will spend some time on the metal lathe at work.

2coupedup · Post by **2coupedup** » Mon May 03, 2010 9:35 pm

sweet... keep us updated mate...

cheers

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Mon May 03, 2010 11:20 pm

a setup like those nissan ones would be pretty cool - doesnt look *that* difficult to makeup - just use an original and go from there. they look good because they take away the stress point at the chassis - where the bushings are

thoughts?

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Thu May 06, 2010 11:18 am

These are the Crossbred radius rods. They measure 385mm from the inner bolt hole to the face of the big fixed washer. They are machined from 27mm solid bar but turned down on the ends to use standard MY bushes. If you want to cover the cost of the freight I'll send them over. Unless you want to drive out to Mount Isa and take the gas set-up off my hands as well?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu May 06, 2010 6:45 pm

I would love to drive to Mount Isa, but i am stuck in Sydney at the moment with work... I just PM'ed you my address Brumbyrunner. Thanks again Mate.

*Raptor* · Post by ***Raptor*** » Wed May 19, 2010 1:15 pm

There's a nice set of adjustable radius rods being made for an early Falcon here (may need to sign up).

He's using some imported bits (USA to Adelaide) and impressive backyard skills. Maybe the same concept could be applied.
Note, In a Falcon these are in tension rather than compression as in the Suby.

Firstly.. the adjustable radius rods. I found some instructions on making adjustable rods on the net.
I ordered the LH threaded heim joints, seals, swadged tubes and jam nuts from Speedway Motors in the states.
$120 bucks landed, which i thought was a bargain.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu May 20, 2010 8:34 am

I smell safety issues here , everything I was ever taught says most steel components don't have anything like the strength in compression that they do in tension .

With rods like in the pictures above you are relying on the threaded sections to have enough strength and in compression ...

You calls but I would be speaking to someone that does race or rally fabrication and see if they can supply rods that are similar to the std ones dimensionally but have larger and longer threaded sections where they go through the crossmember bushes .

I had a set made for my old DR30RS Skyline and they came through Stewart Wilkins Motorsport . The steel bar-stock they were made of was a higher grade than the OE ones so ultimately were stronger and adjustable .
AJ mentioned 60 tonne steel and I'm not sure exactly what that means but they use that grade in competition cars and the rods are not known to be weak .
I know they make it look easy but the Ford tension/radius rods ARE rubbish , the rally people learnt very quickly NOT to use them because they failed regularly in Datsun applications . A 1600 Datsun weighs about the same as a standard RX Turbo L Series (with roll cage bash plates etc) and they have tension rods and break the Ford ones easily when rallied .
Sadly Ford was about using larger amounts of cheaper materials to keep production costs down . Nine inch diffs are a case in point , you can build those up out of totally aftermarket components and while yes it is still dimensionally a nine inch there's nothing Ford in it . If the massive OE bits were over engineered there wouldn't be a need for aftermarket parts .

What you have to be very careful with is what these rods do if you hit something really hard like a gutter because these rods transfer huge compressive forces from the control arms to the body mounts .

Your calls , cheers A .

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Thu May 20, 2010 5:16 pm

surely if the threaded section was long enough it'd be fine, or possibly even stronger as you'd have the original thickness bar plus the thickness of the coupling nut

still love the idea of taking the bushings almost out of the equation like those nissan ones and using a heim joint effectively in it's place. way better movement, and should be a lot less stress on the bar as there's not the bending forces up near the bushings (i assume)

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri May 21, 2010 8:25 am

It is true that spherical joints allow better articulation than rubber or urethane bushes but the biggie is that they have no compliance at all - nada .
Every force the wheel puts into the control arm would be transmitted directly into the tension rods body mount along with lots of wheel/road noise .
Those joints get a small amount of play in them very quickly and as soon as they do they rattle/bang/clank and transmit all kinds of noise into the body shell . No one gives a rats in a competition car because your not there for a pleasure drive , the aim is to be competitive .

There is another way to alter caster and thats to modify the control arms which involves fabrication . I understand that people have used L Series control arms in MY/MV and I'm not sure but they may just go in with L Series compression struts/radius rods .

Also be very careful using longer control arms because there must be a way to increase drive shaft length or the DOJ cage/balls may just get reefed out of their outer shell/bell . At least you have somewhere to go with L Series front shafts as they are slightly longer than MY/MV , to do the same with an L Series means using XT6 axles are they're a rare bird here in Aus .

If commonly available factory bits from another model are available they are usually the cheapest fix - and often look std to Joe average sticky beak .

A .