Retaining sphericals in inboard wishbone mounts?

[Sausage Sandwich]

Hi Guys,

Another pretty basic question I'm afraid!!

Rather than use rod-ends on my wishbone inboard pickups, it is my intention to use spherical bearings instead within a housing tube on the end of the wishbone legs. The sphericals are oriented so that the bolt goes through them in a horizontal plane, not vertical.

Now where you do similar on the bottom wishbone outboard spherical I know it is usual practice to press the spherical into the housing from below and retain it with a circlip.

Should I do similar on these inboard ones, and if so which side should the circlip go on?

I'm wondering if press fit alone is enough or if they might budge under hard braking.

Yours naively!
Sausage

[GTmule]

How do ya get the bolt in and out? And I'd not depend on a press fit, or just a snap ring.....I dunno man. If it aint broke......

[Sausage Sandwich]

Theres a U bracket on the chassis, with the spherical (within the wishbone end tube), in the middle of the U. Bolt goes through the bracket, through the spherical, and back through the bracket.

Seen a lot of other cars with sphericals in housings like this, how are they retained?

http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[jack]

are you sure the entire spherical wont rotate around the bolt when the suspension moves? just making sure http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Sausage Sandwich]

no, its exactly the same as a rod end in this respect...

Am I missing something?

[jack]

Am I missing something?

yeah, orient them the normal way! haha http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Storbeck]

As long as the bolt is perpendicular to the axis of the a-arm tube I don't see how it would be a problem, the tube is nearly a two force member. I just don't see why you don't put the bolt verticle and not have to worry about it.

[Chris Boyden]

Sounds like he's worried about
getting enough angular travel out of the
spherical mounted horizontally.

[GTmule]

Nevermind, I was thinking he was trying to orient the bolt like...axially with the tube......I'm an idiot.

I don't think there'd be any special considerations, in this case.

[Wizard]

Mr. Sandwich,

Check out this topic:
Spherical Bearings in A-Arms (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/125607348/m/16410207621)

[Cement Legs]

Just out of curiosity... if you are going to use the bolt as your pivot and not the bearing why not save money on the cost report and just use bushings?

[Sausage Sandwich]

Thanks Wizard, thats a very helpful thread!

Cement, wierdly I'm probably going to use a spherical on the front wishbone leg and a rod end on the rear wishbone leg. Using sphericals rather than bushings will mean I can adjust the castor and equalise the wheelbases by adjusting the rod end on the rear leg.

It is a bit wierd though http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Omer]

hi
i can see most teams use spherical rodends on the inboard a-arms ,where the pivot for those is vertically,i'm considering not using a bearing on the inboard,just a bushing and to place the pivot horizontally.

what are the advanteges of using the rodends like most of the teams?
I understand it makes the a-arms free of bending stress.

[Nihal]

You will have less friction and deflection (assuming a non metal bushing) with a bearing. In addition there is some adjustability with in board rod ends. This allows for manufacturing tolerences and tuning.