Affordable control arm bushing replacement?

There is a very recent thread about energy suspension's product.

 

How are your ball joints? They are a common wear item on 360s.

 

Welcome to the club!

 

Pm me more details about the size/shape/cost and I can check into this.

I have a rubber/polyurathane factory I regularly use overseas but tooling and moq would be prohibitive unless there is enough demand from other owners.

 

See
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/415364-360-energy-suspension-bushings-does-fit-360-a.html#post142442479
And
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/415282-360-titanium-springs-shocks-replacement.html

Btw regarding the question about machining them: the OEM ones are internally quite complex (for an A arm bushing) and the flex. medium is rubber (probably) so there would be much more to those than machining.

 

Unfortunately nobody seems to have cracked this problem yet.

I too feel the SuperPerformance package is too expensive to simply jump in to given that the OEM items are not that much more expensive and are, at least, a known quantity.

Happy to have someone prove me wrong though and produce a quality replacement at a reasonable price!

 

People generally do that for pure performance reasons (eg track use), not because it's cheaper, although that is a secondary benefit. Delrin is essentially uncompressible unlike the rubber in your current bushings and will cause your ride to be harsh and noisy. The Energy Performance bushings will likely not have that disadvantage.

 

I have rebushed over 10 360/612's this year alone and have commissioned one of my customers to make me these flan blocks as Ferrari call them . We are about 2 months away from delivery and I will be fitting a set to our demonstrator which works very hard both on the road and at track days . I will update on here as soon as I more news .

 

What kind of material? Are they inserts? If so, for which model (360, challenge, or CS)?

 

They appear to have different construction, so they won't all be compatable if they are just making up the rubber. Same control arms and fit, if they are making the whole piece.

 

They all have different part numbers. What leads you to the conclusion the only difference is one material?

 

I'd be interested to know how you get on. Please post back here whenever you get a chance.

 

Any update on these? did you guys have these made yet?

 

Just too add some more info to the thread...

I was in the parts store of the team that run a 430 Challenge race car last Thursday. One of the things I had considered doing was using 430CH flamblocs as they are stiffer and much cheaper than the OEM rubber ones. However, when I had some in my hand there's no way I'd fit them - although they were super stiff they had noticeable play in them. The person who was showing me around told me that they all were like that.

 

I contacted a man (here in Italy) about supplying the bushings and got positive information and a good potential price quote. I seem to remember 47 Euro. As I recall, he was going to make them out of some sort of high tech rubber making them suitable for street use.

We exchanged drawings, etc. He wasn't quite ready to make a production run, but said he would have bushings ready very soon. However, after further research I decided I did not need to replace my bushings so I dropped the idea and haven't contacted this gentleman since the fall of 2013. Try contacting Carlo Facciano at this Email address: [email protected]

Please report back here and let us know his response, especially if he can actually supply these bushings at a good price.

 

Given that a four-corner replacement with OEM parts is north of £1500 just in parts, is there anything we should/could do to extend the life of these components? Would smearing the exposed rubber parts with red rubber grease help in any way if done on a regular basis? Or a silicone spray grease?

 

You can take the circlips out and press the centre either way to clean and lubricate them. I've seen attempts at cheap replacements and I wouldn't fit them to a customers car. I also think re-engineering them is a waste of time, unlike many suspension components on these cars the flanblocks are well engineered and long lasting. They have far from a high failure rate, and I've seen very few issues in later models equipped with them...