@Porsche girl I did send you a PM last night. Sorry I haven't responded lately, Spring time in Boston I'm getting backed up with PPIs. I have another one tomorrow for a guy who wants to send the car all the way out to California.
Maybe we should revisit the tie rod issue, and hopefully not hijack the thread. I just want to do an overview because the thread that was created on this a while back had tons of data that us Techies would be interested in. First, yes absolutely you can put the SKF plain spherical bearing back in the car. You will still need to purchase the bearing, and get a shop to remove and then replace it in the carcass of the old tie rod set up. Personally, and this is just me, I have no qualms with someone using the OEM set up. I just think it was a terrible design to begin with. The ones on my Spyder failed at less than 20k miles. But that doesn't mean, you shouldn't use a spherical bearing in the car just because I think so. I've been known to get a bit crazy behind the wheel of a car, but only if I'm not scared too death to go around in a circle because something failed when it wasn't suppose to.
We could get into dynamic loads, and static loads, hopefully unnecessary. The dynamic loads of the upgraded tie rods are beyond OEM. But here's the crux of the matter. I don't want this to be a sales pitch. I care about vehicles and how they perform. Not really interested in selling anything. I want you to really see and know what I do about the issue but that's difficult because it took a lot of R&D to do so. Formula Dynamics now sells the rear tie rods for me because they were impressed with what went into them and tons of people in the U.S. also wanted a better alternative than purchasing the entire control arm at the time. I spoke to Jeff a week ago who will be updating the website shortly he's been selling out of the ones before he listed them.
To make it easier on people I also have gone over to a high hat reducer instead of a pressed in one. What this will do, is should the Rose joints I use advance in technology, you will be able to take and put that in your car. I use Ultra racing joints, with the pressed in reducer it could only be changed if you pressed in a new reducer. Now you no longer have to worry about it. If a new state of the art rose joint comes out, you already have the sleeve you need in order to bolt it right into the new type rose joint, swap the reducers and you're good to go.
The tie rod sleeve itself, should anyone be concerned about strength/durability, actually comes from the front of a one ton truck. So if you get your little 3200/4200/GS to produce more dynamic work load than that, you will have me forever impressed.
Unfortunately, I sent Matt my last set (with the Ball joint dust covers which I recommend doing if you are taking the rear suspension apart) through Chris and I'm waiting on a new order of reducers. Chris has been a mule for this forum. I enjoy his company over in Boston when he comes. Every-time I try to pay for a meal he won't let me. So I'm hoping you guys take care of him. I know he hasn't said anything but, he really doesn't have to do it. I charge $200 for the complete kit but shipping to you guys is like $50. I adjust the customs forms but with Chris it take that out of the way.
