I went ahead and made my own strut rods at work on a cnc machine and I went quite a bit bigger than stock and then sent them over to our chrome shop to have our industrial chrome put on them, they look great. Now here is the dilemma, I want a great ride, well as best as I can get for the "old" technology, but just curious as to whether the heim jointed strut rods will react faster and smoother, hence a better ride, than the upgraded rods that I made? Lets hear the good, bad and the ugly.
Hey 5.7 Hemi! I got my torque boxes and subframe connectors in - will post those pics soon - but I wanted to give you some feedback here on the strut rods to this 1 yr old post.
Have you tried the heim joint strut rods yet? On my '68 satellite I replaced my old worn out strut rods with Hotchkis adjustable heim joint strut rods. They have no bushings. Long story short - I had to redo my hotchkis UCA's because the 1st shop installed them upside down, so I went to another shop and while assessing the situation, the 2nd shop talked me into swapping out the hotchkis strut rods for stock units with new bushings. He said that he's seen lots of broken k-frames from using the heim joint non-bushing strut rods. Now I'm not sure if that's true, but he was a pretty persuasive old timer at a local frame shop.
Bear in mind your post asks about a "great ride" which is subjective. I'll attempt to describe my experience. Here's my feedback on the feel of the two after driving less than 100 miles on each on the same car:
Hotckis heim joint non-bushing rods: I didn't notice how much these affected the feel of the car until I removed them and replaced with the stock type units. The Hotchkis rods felt solid and tight. I live in downtown San Jose where the roads have lots of bumps and potholes and I didn't feel like the ride was harsh at all. It was not PLUSH, but it wasn't jarring either. Maybe that's because I upgraded almost my entire suspension and put in Edelbrock IAS shocks, Hotchkis UCA's and steering rods, etc. I liked the way these felt a lot. The only thing I noticed is that they bounced a little more over bumps than the stock bushing type rods even with my new shocks.
New stock type rods with new bushings: These feel like they should - new bushings made things feel like new and better than before, but after having the hotchkis strut rods just prior, these now feel a bit too plush. I wish they were a bit tighter. I thought about switching to poly bushings, but only if I can do so without any squeaking noises.
The only thing I'm still not sure about is if the heim joint non-bushing style rods will in fact damage the k-frame over time with normal street driving. Anybody have any input on this?
I also just upgraded my torsion bars from .088" to .092". I heard this is one of the biggest "feel" improvements you can do also. It's better, but still a bit soft. I should have gone to .096" like many on here have recommended.
The grass is always greener until we try lots of options isn't it!
Hope this helps!