I've read a lot of information regarding the use of heim joints in cars that will see street use and opinions vary widely. People agree they are good for performance but on the down side I hear:

they squeak
they translate noise into the car
they wear out
they rattle

Some people made seals for the joints to try and keep them clean but others said that would trap moisture and dirt that leads to premature failure.

I've used these joints in off-road applications for years and never had a failure. These joints saw very harsh conditions but did not travel near the miles that my mini does in a year. The only maintenance they were ever given was a blast of water at the car wash after a muddy weekend.

Who out there has first hand experience with this? What are your thoughts?


I realize there are several different qualities of joints and I am only considering the high quality Teflon lined joints.

 

Why do you want them?

Unless your going to do some racing, it seems unnecessary to me.....

 

I might be a little biased since we sell heim joint control arms.

We vary rarely get customers that have problems with our teflon lined joints. The teflon lined joints will run quiet, stay tighter and actually clean the joint as it moves for extended life. With that said you will see accelerated wear if you use them in a region that uses alot of salt on the roads in the winter.

I hope that helps some, let me know if you have any questions.

 

That does help John. I've been reading things all over the web about it and there are way too many opinions and it appears as though many of those opinions are based on low quality joints.

 

I've used and installed all the different brands of rear lower control arms and from that we won't recommend any control arms with Heim joints. I've had customers actually have them get play in them within 2 weeks of install. Not to mention the noise and rattle complaints. We now only recommend the Hsport rear camber links with poly bushings, or the TSW control arms that have rubber bushings. Haven't had one failure or complaint with either of those two brands. I've even had one customer using the Hsports for 7yrs now and still hasn't wore them out, and he autoXes the car ever other weekend, now has almost 130k on the car, now that tells me they are good.

 

There is the other half of the debate I was looking for. Were any of the joints that were tested Teflon lined? Do you happen to have any pictures of what they looked like after being on the road a while?

 

I found that the rod ends (heim joints) that I got when I purchased my rear control arms were of low quality and wore out quickly (<1 year). I replaced them with high quality teflon lined rod ends and have had no issues in the past 3+ years. Same goes for the bearings in the adjustable camber plates. The originals were of low quality.

 

Hey talk to Greg at http://www.onasled.com/ He is full of suspension knowledge

 

I've had mine (Alta) for a few years now, albeit not many miles, and they are fine. I jack-up the rear, elevate the suspension, and check for play, and they are still tight, I'm happy to say.

I have not used Greg's stuff, but I'm thinking of his front arms...

 

Glad to hear that quality joints are holding up on the street. I'd like to get those on next week while I do my Front sway bar.

 

Speaking of which (front sway), I've had mine disco'd for over a year now, and I like it so much I plan to remove it, whenever I can make the time. Others here have also (thread somewhere).

 

Wow here I am adding heavier bars and you guys are disconnecting the front one.

I understand that makes the ride better but how much body roll does that add in the corners?

Now I'm thinking about disconnects like we used to run on rock crawlers.

 

I have heavier, linear springs in the front that help compensate. The big gain, from my experiences in the canyon where I live is better exit traction out of corners. It plants and digs-in much faster than before. You can experiment simply by disconnecting one side.

 

Here is an update on the arms.


Turning the adaptors


Test fitting the new link to the car after turning to length.



Milled flat spots for wrench

Time for some PC and installation.

 

I was going to ask what you were planning to use them for. As long as you dont put them in bending go ahead and experiment. Just keep track of what it is doing, and how it is wearing, you have a good handle on it from the looks of it.

 

I went ahead and calculated the Von Mises stress on the tubes and they are good to 29488 lbf and the joints are rated for 28800 lbf.

I knew I went overkill but I didn't realize that I had gone that far over.

I'll post up some more pictures when I get them back from the powder coater. I think they are going to have them done Thursday.

 

kirker, I made a set of lower links for the rear suspension on my project Lotus in the exact same manner. Although I purchased threaded inserts and used Aurora teflon-lined heims. I also got the rubber 'caps' to help prevent dirt and debris from getting into the heims.

The main thing about calculating stress is you're assuming perfectly axial forces. In a real world situation (as you seem to understand), the tube won't be perfectly straight and the bending moment exerted to break the heim loose will actually add up fairly quickly. It looks like you used 1" tube which will help a lot with any possible bending moments. What wall thickness? I used .058 but my Lotus only weighs 1500 lbs soaking wet (plus it's not a daily driver that can see a pothole or two).

 

I have had Altas for years now and they have been fine, after they sent me the replacement joints a couple years ago, they went to the upgraded Teflon joints and they sent them for free I check them everytime the car is up in the air. Looks like I will be going over to "Onasleds" when they come out though.

 

It sounds overkill but I used 1.5" with 0.25 wall. I thought about turning them down to save weight but I'm not sure the weight is going to hurt me

 

You have built in plenty of redundancy. Just like any good off-roader.

 

LOL my roots show through. I'm slowly being converted though.

I picked up some sticky tires and spare rims last night from a guy that's been racing AutoX for years now. So I'm going to try and attend all the local events for AutoX and I'm going to try and make it to Minis in the mountains next year.

 

I'm late to the thread but I need to clear up some myths about heim joints and control arms. First, any poor-quality hiem joint will rattle from new, since there is slop between the bearing and race. There is a huge difference between good spherical bearings and cheap ones.

Good spherical bearings are made of hardened steel, which left exposed to atmospheric conditions can start to corrode. The best races keep the moving parts clean, but over time, moisture and salt can pit even the best ones. That's why we use weather proof boots, which don't trap moisture and salt in them. We pack them with a waterproof lubricant which keeps the bearing clean and lubed.

Using the heavier bushing style control arm is not without compromises. Aside from the polyurethane bushing cracking a fatiguing, the aluminum turnbuckles are susceptible to weather, and in conjunction with the steel jamb nuts will seize after a winter of use, so you will not be able to adjust them.

No control arm, including stock, is indestructible. Like any suspension piece, it takes a lot of abuse. But don't lump all spherical bearing style control arms together. Our control arms are the lightest, strongest, most resistant to failure pieces that I have seen and installed. We have sold and/or installed every brand of control arm available for the MINI since 2001.