Installing Steeda LCA Bearings

[DAVECS1]

I did not find much on the install process for these, So I thought I would post up my experience.

With the included tool from Steeda, I could of pressed the bushings out, but it was taking a scary amount of force and I was worried I was going to distort the A-Arms.

So I decided t take some pressure off First. I took a half inch drill bit and drill three holes in the bushing next to each other

Then I took a nice sawzall blade and cut almost all the way through the metal shell but stopped just short

Then I took my air hammer and used it to snap the shell with a couple hits.

Then it was extremely easy to press out

The new bearings go in without much of a fight. It helps to start them first with a couple of taps with a hammer

Then use the press to drive it home

Here it is installed

Sponsored

 

[Gibbo205]

How do you like the drive now?

 

[DAVECS1]

I have not taken it out yet. It was dark and rainy when I finished so I will have to report back when I get it out and about.

 

[keltymd]

i am looking forward to your report on NVH what else do you have done to the rear suspension?

 

[DAVECS1]

I have delrin cradle bushings. The BMR cradle lockout. Boomba billet verticle links, and now the LCA bearings. This not handling related so much but I just added the GT350 halfshafts, As I snapped a stock one launching my car.

 

[Todd15Fastback]

i am looking forward to your report on NVH what else do you have done to the rear suspension?

I have the full slew of Steeda suspension components in my car, including these LCA. My car doesn't make any more noise over a stock PP and if it does, it is barely noticeable. This includes many trips over 500 miles, 3 of which were over 1000 miles.

Steeda is very conscious about NVH and their parts they engineer and build in-house.

[MENTION=25806]SteedaTech[/MENTION]

 

[DAVECS1]

I have a DD pickup truck. I bought this car for trackdays and fun day cruises with friends and family. So NVH is not that much of a concern for me.

 

[DAVECS1]

Well, I got to take the car to work today. I will start with saying this is exactly what I wanted out of these parts. Along with my other parts, the car is extremely communicative. It is a bit twitchy going through the gears, as the rear really responds to input. I think the shocks may not work as well without the slop in the rear. Also I am thinking the toe may be off, toed outward.

It is extremely quick on turn in. I can also lay the power down much more reliably, I have no wheel hop on the road, but to be sure I need a real sticky surface to see if it is fixed.

Now for my opinion on NVH. It is not horrible, but with my other modifications, I can hear quite a bit going on back there. I am not joking when I say I could feel when I picked something up in a tire or hit a tar strip. I was actually looking for this type of behavior but if you want a luxury quite ride, my opinion is; you may not want this modification. I could even feel the engine braking on the drivetrain, through the chassis. It was a low frequency hum until I pushed in the clutch.

As for cornering. It is almost a night and day difference. I really could not find anywhere on the street to even explore the new limits. I went to a local round about, that I have been using for "testing". I navigated the circle at appriximately 80mph with not even a bit of drama. When I transfered out of the intersection the car just went.

All in all, it is a good mod, but in my opinion you sacrifice some civility, if your into that.

 

[Agent_S550]

Torsen's are notorious for gear whine. I'm not surprised. Thanks for the review though. I believe I'll be adding this to my list.

 

[EricSMG]

Sounds pretty bad for a street car - I'm disappointed in your review. Thanks for the brutal honesty.

That said, your review seems to contrast with Wildcat's who made it sound like the bearings, alone, didn't adversely affect comfort. The problem with this mod is that it's labor intensive (I do my own) and not easily reversible as I'm betting Ford doesn't sell individual bushings like other makes do. Sounds like a ton of work for a risky outcome.

I desperately want to improve the rear inside traction issues with this car and I know this mod is the ticket, but the car absolutely cannot be any harsher/louder than it is in stock PP form as it's bad already.

 

[DAVECS1]

As you can see by the pictures I did my own labor. It really was much easier than I thought it would be. It took me an afternoon to do both while I watched some football. I am a 40 year old overweight guy with back problems, so take that for what it is worth.

I can see were some would not notice the difference, especually if they have aftermarket exhaust, but as stated above, I believe there is a big difference in NVH.

Not sure if a guy needs a solid bearing or not though. I do think the stock bushing is not suited for the job. I am suprised how mushy a critical piece of the suspension is. My car has 1609 miles on it as of right now and that bushing was moveable by hand, much less by 3500lbs of car and 400hp. When alignments specs are in 1 degree increments and you can move a rubber bushing 5mm by hand, something is not working right.

I think a delrin part or polyurethan would be a good comprimise.

 

[EricSMG]

Good stuff, Dave. I'm 40 as well and am not intimidated by this job whatsoever. What I do not want is more NVH.

The IRS in these cars is poorly designed. Too many shortcuts, very little attention to detail, not designed for a performance car. And that one bushing is a critical component - it lets the LCA move fore/aft way too much.

The reason a poly or delrin bushing won't work is that the two LCA inner bushings rotate on different axis'. With a bearing in one the other must be free to twist. From this, it seems that only a spherical bearing would work in the factory rubber bushings' location. I could be missing something, of course, but that's how I see it by looking at the two pivot axis'.

Even with the BMR lockout I'm getting massive rear toe change over rough surfaces and a total lack of inside rear wheel traction in slow, tight, on-throttle turns. Part of the latter problem is the natural behavior of the Torsen - not suited to low traction situations. I want a solution that doesn't significantly sacrifice other areas and I had high hopes for this bearing but you've provided the candid input I was hoping wasn't the case. Argh!!

 

[DAVECS1]

I worked at Roush in the early 2000s when the Cobra with IRS came out. My engineering group actually worked on fixes to make the Cobra live for track duty at Bonduraunt. We actually ended up putting solid axles back in the cars. The short part of the story is this IRS incorporates just about all of those fixes and then some. So I completely understand it is a bit mushy, but it seems to be reliable even under hard use. Could not really say that about the Cobra. Now if they could make it reliable and high performance like the vette, that would be nice. Actually part of my reason for buying this car is it had some IRS tweeks I was involved in, chassis also.

 

[EricSMG]

Yep - you want three things:

1. Reliable
2. High performance
3. Good road manners

This IRS in stock form only provides #1 although #3 is marginal. The problem here is that to improve #2 means you make #3 worse than it already is.

The LCAs' inner pivots should rotate about the same axis. This would allow the use of firm, rubber bushings in both the fore/aft positions, dramatically limiting fore/aft movement of the LCA during accel and braking. This would improve performance AND road manners at the same time.

The current design forces the use of a spherical front bearing which dramatically improves performance but, based on your feedback, hurts road manners. So, we either get poor performance and mediocre road manners or awesome performance and shitty road manners.

Is there a happy medium?

 

[Bluemustang]

I recently put the toe knuckle bearing in from Ford Racing and I can feel in improve in the traction in corners. In the slow tight turns it felt like there was slop in the wheel before the change. It definitely helps a little bit to peel around the corners. It's advertised to help improve toe alignment changes under throttle situations.

Sponsored