| We've
been supplying these brackets to Locost builders since 2003,
when we converted our own suspensions from bushings to rod
ends. The virtues of rod ends are many; they re adjustable,
they precisely locate the control arm, they look the part,
etc. The virtues of rubber bushings are a softer and quieter
ride than rod ends provide, but if soft and quiet is your
bag, you can stay on your sofa back home and turn the television
down low. The virtues of polyethylene bushings are &well,
they re dirt cheap and that s about it. We don t
use many bushings in our cars.
These brackets
have rounded ends because I got sick of cutting myself on
bok suspension brackets. Also they look racier when they
re rounded, since who but a racer would go to this much
trouble to save a few grams.
Also a keen
eye will note the hole is off center by .050"
to be exact in an effort to address minor variations
in frame construction. After the welds cooled, did you find
your frame had one side a little higher than the other?
You can save yourself some concours points by flipping the
high side brackets so their offset is opposite the low side
brackets. Of course, if your frame is perfect, then face
all your suspension brackets the same direction. |
Other than
looks and weight, the biggest difference between Kinetic's
suspension brackets and the brackets on page 62 of "the
book" is, our brackets are 5/8" narrower--1.265"
wide instead of 1.9". In my opinion, "book"
brackets should not be used with rod ends. The internal
width of a "book" suspension bracket is 1.65",
vs. 1.025 for the Kinetic suspension bracket. Subtract .625"
for the ball in a 1/2" rod end and you get 0.200"
bolt overhang on each side of the ball for Kinetic brackets,
where "book" brackets have over half an inch of
unsupported bolt on each side of the ball. That's a lot
of beam loading for a 1/2" bolt, over twice the moment
arm as the same bolt in a Kinetic bracket.
The distance
from hole center to the base of the bracket is .940 (.820
for the inside).
These brackets
are $4.50 each when you get a car's worth. Wow, that's more
than an economy rod end. Too bad we can't make as many brackets
as they do rod ends; if we could make 10,000 of these a
year we could knock the price in half.
Our bottom
mount pedal bracket is $5.25, see the Pedals
page for details. |
