Gearheads Garage swaybar endlink review
 

My Gearheads Garage swaybar endlink review:

http://www.gearheadsgarage.com/ForSa.../endlinks.html

I saw information posted about these on the miata.net forum (the owner of the shop is a forum member as well) and I decided to try them since they would fit the FC.

They’re made with top quality Aurora endlinks with carbon fibre inserts for long life without the wear and noise that can plague this type of endlink when cheap bearings are used. I got them for $60 per end, but the price was slated to go up a little bit, but I don’t know how much. They are cheaper than the Mazdatrix and the Racing Beat endlinks, and are of superb quality. They differed slightly from the pics on the site now (v2.0), as he has gone to a double rod end style, rather than have one end be the ball joint style. Using two female ends with a jackscrew in between makes them too long, so I got a male and female combination. He includes conical spacers (for maximum movement) and grade 10.9 hardware with them, but a few washers are needed on the bottom of the front ones, as the attachment points are wider than the spacers, but this doesn’t hurt the performance or strength at all.

I ended up getting new bolts all around (partially threaded), as I didn’t want threads in shear, but I’m probably just being paranoid. I re-used the stock rear lower bolts because they’re an M10x1.25, and I got M10x1.5’s as that’s the standard 10mm size, but it’s ok, they’re only partially threaded, so it’s fine.

I’ve used them at a track day so far and have no complaints, they did their job well. I only installed them the week before and noticed a clunking in the suspension during the track sessions that I think was coming from the endlinks, but I can’t say for sure what was causing it; I probably just need to tighten the bolts a bit, as I hadn’t checked and re-tightened them after the initial installation. There was no loss of performance or unpredictability or anything associated with the noise, it was just noise. I won’t know for sure what caused it for a few months when I can go home and check it out.

Anyway, so far these are great, and for an excellent price, I’m very happy with them.

was it $60 each? or for a pair? you said "$60 per end" .. if so, the racing beats are only $65 for a pair...

anyways.. nice links... sounds like a little too much work of getting washers, new bolts..blah blah.. if they were direct bolt in, it would be better...

Per end of the car. So $120 did the whole car.

You don't need new bolts. You can use the ones he sends for the swaybar to endlink joint, and re-use the stock bottom bolts no problem. The washers can be found at almost any parts store. Like I said, I was probably just being paranoid about it because I've seen rod ends with threads cut into the balls from having fully threaded bolts trhough them, but that was on suspension A arms on a formula car. He's used these that way for a long time and says he has no problems.

Well I was home this weekend and I took the track pads out, and put the winter tires on to get it ready for January when I'll be working again and will once again be able to drive the car.

While I was working on it I checked the endlinks and they were indeed slightly loose. I tightened all of the bolts and the jam nuts. I am 99% sure that was the cause of the clunking. I knew better than to not check them again after the installation, as I'd had my front endlink come undone about a week after I put my RB sways on last year.

So the noise was of no fault of the endlinks, it was my fault for not checking the nuts and bolts again afterwards.

Moral of the story: Check the endlink nuts and bolts for tightness after driving with them for a while.

Just a word of caution...
When going with stiffer than stock bushings and endlinks, I find that the stock bolts on the center brackets tend to sheer. :(
I've broken one on my car, and we've broken them on our 20B track car.
We run PU center bushings (Energy Suspension) and RB "street" (i.e. PU inserts) on my car and solid (Mazdatrix ones) on the 20B track car.
To "fix" this problem, we run 12.9 hex socket cap screws on the center brackets.


-Ted

Thanks for the warning. You wouldn't happen to know what thread profile and length those bolts are would you? I happen to have some M10x1.5 grade 10.9 bolts lying around.