Strut Rod Help Please

inertia said
I couldn't read all that crap.
Back in the 60's we used, modified, fabricated everything, experimented, learned.
All my suspension is loosy, Goosy, to the point of flop .
You do know I built racecars ?
Tested geometries, roll center, long before the interweb.
Theory all you want, we did what was nec, with what knowledge/resources were available, and got results, more knowledge, better results.
Championship last 2 yrs, track records as well.
How long since you actually built a car ?
Keep it brief, not another tome .
Got some pretty nice hardware to prove it .
Preach on, - thump your chest - others will listen, you say good stuff.
I consider you one of the "Oracles" here, - don't go stupid on me now !

So, you didn’t read the explanation, but you’ve gotta come after me personally?

Fine. Strut rods are not for adjusting caster. See? Simple. They’re there to prevent excessive caster change, and adjustable strut rods do that better.

I built my Challenger’s suspension in 2008 with adjustable strut rods and ran it for 70k street miles, the strut rods and their heims are in great shape.

I built my Duster’s suspension up the first time in 2012, and that set of adjustable strut rods has done close to 40k street miles now. It’s seen a bunch of upgrades since but the same strut rods are on it.

What worked for a few hundred miles on a race car 50 years ago isn’t always relevant for a street car today.

1973dust said
I just thought of a detail about the QA1's that I don't think I've seen mentioned by anyone else. The factory rods have a .625 dia. turn that fits into the LCA . The QA1's are threaded 9/16-18 all the way from the end to the LCA shoulder. I was disappointed in that, considering how much money you pay for them. Probably overkill and not a big deal, but on mine, I made a .625 od bushing with 9/16-18 id threads for both rods. I didn't like the idea of the threaded strut rod end being able to move around in the LCA.

Again, I put 70k+ miles on my QA1 style adjustable strut rods. If you torque the nuts to 75 ft/lbs as instructed they won’t move. The other style that uses a bolt through the LCA attachment is also just 9/16 threaded hardware. I’ve had both styles and had them on and off the cars, I have never seen damage to the threads or the LCA mount that would indicate movement between the hardware and the LCA. Putting a shouldered bushing on there certainly won’t hurt anything, but based on my experience it is not necessary either.