Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum - View Single Post - Rubber boots for heim joints (pillow ball)

CAMFabrication · 09-23-2005, 08:34 PM

Obviously you guys (besides a handful of a few) don't know what heim joints are capable of. If you were to take a standard FK heim JMX series (which is teflon line) you can expose that to temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees f. before it begins to fail, and - 300 likewise. Now the ONLY reason people want dust boots is for insurance, but all it does in real life is wear things out. Take for instance, desert racing. My entire suspension and fabrication background comes from an extensive education in the desert racing community. I put a dust boot on a truck I'm prepping for a small 250 mile race and I'm condemming myself for failure. If I take that dustboot off, that heim will finish that race. And I garuntee it.

now any boot that would NEED to offer protection to its spherical bearing would be any CM, CML, CW, or any other ECONOMICAL COMMERCIAL USE heim. These heims have no business on being in any suspension component. Not only do they make alot of noise, but they are metal on metal, creating alot of friction, and have generally a one hundredth of an inch of clearance. EASILY enough to allow water, dirt, dust, mud etc... into the race of the bearing. Now you put a dust boot on for security, and dust, and water, and grime will still work itself into there eventually causing bearing fail. Solution to the problem, don't use shitty bearings. Most of the companies I've seen, dealt with, and spoken to in person in this sport that sell suspension products use cheap metal on metal casted aluminum rod ends, that they get on discount from overseas, to save money. Now in that case your better off staying with stock products unless it's a teflon sealed end.

There's a few of you that know exactly what I'm talking about. tastyratz, obviously you're one of the people who put ziplock bags over their rod ends to keep "contaminents" out of your bearings. Well put it this way, buy a set of my upper arms, or my lower arms, or any multilink I sell for the 240. I'll send you an extra set of rod ends. Put one of my JMX sealed rod ends on one side of the car, without the dustboot, and the CM series non sealed on the other side with a dustboot. Drive the car for a year, without pulling off the rod ends boot and at the end of 1 year take both off. I will garuntee the non sealed one will be toasted and loose as hell, while the sealed one will still be okay. Then take a new set of sealed rod ends, one with a boot cover, one without, and in another year tell me which one is toasted. Garunteed it'll be the one with the boot cover. Now if you still don't believe me, first thing monday morning I'll call both of my spherical bearing suppliers and ask them about what they think of dust boots on heims going on motorsport related vehicles.

Here's a few pictures of vehicles that don't use dust boots that are exposed to much crueler enviroments than you'll ever expirience in your 240s

http://www.off-road.com/race/2004score/primm/
http://www.freeimagehosting.info/t.p...5d2e22ca10.jpg
http://www.freeimagehosting.info/t.p...d2f023a436.jpg
http://www.freeimagehosting.info/t.p...07eb2cf7f3.jpg

09-23-2005, 08:34 PM	#20
CAMFabrication Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: xxxxx Age: 40 Posts: 35 Trader Rating: (0)	Obviously you guys (besides a handful of a few) don't know what heim joints are capable of. If you were to take a standard FK heim JMX series (which is teflon line) you can expose that to temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees f. before it begins to fail, and - 300 likewise. Now the ONLY reason people want dust boots is for insurance, but all it does in real life is wear things out. Take for instance, desert racing. My entire suspension and fabrication background comes from an extensive education in the desert racing community. I put a dust boot on a truck I'm prepping for a small 250 mile race and I'm condemming myself for failure. If I take that dustboot off, that heim will finish that race. And I garuntee it. now any boot that would NEED to offer protection to its spherical bearing would be any CM, CML, CW, or any other ECONOMICAL COMMERCIAL USE heim. These heims have no business on being in any suspension component. Not only do they make alot of noise, but they are metal on metal, creating alot of friction, and have generally a one hundredth of an inch of clearance. EASILY enough to allow water, dirt, dust, mud etc... into the race of the bearing. Now you put a dust boot on for security, and dust, and water, and grime will still work itself into there eventually causing bearing fail. Solution to the problem, don't use shitty bearings. Most of the companies I've seen, dealt with, and spoken to in person in this sport that sell suspension products use cheap metal on metal casted aluminum rod ends, that they get on discount from overseas, to save money. Now in that case your better off staying with stock products unless it's a teflon sealed end. There's a few of you that know exactly what I'm talking about. tastyratz, obviously you're one of the people who put ziplock bags over their rod ends to keep "contaminents" out of your bearings. Well put it this way, buy a set of my upper arms, or my lower arms, or any multilink I sell for the 240. I'll send you an extra set of rod ends. Put one of my JMX sealed rod ends on one side of the car, without the dustboot, and the CM series non sealed on the other side with a dustboot. Drive the car for a year, without pulling off the rod ends boot and at the end of 1 year take both off. I will garuntee the non sealed one will be toasted and loose as hell, while the sealed one will still be okay. Then take a new set of sealed rod ends, one with a boot cover, one without, and in another year tell me which one is toasted. Garunteed it'll be the one with the boot cover. Now if you still don't believe me, first thing monday morning I'll call both of my spherical bearing suppliers and ask them about what they think of dust boots on heims going on motorsport related vehicles. Here's a few pictures of vehicles that don't use dust boots that are exposed to much crueler enviroments than you'll ever expirience in your 240s http://www.off-road.com/race/2004score/primm/ http://www.freeimagehosting.info/t.p...5d2e22ca10.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.info/t.p...d2f023a436.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.info/t.p...07eb2cf7f3.jpg __________________ Green Beret. Your online friend is not one.