When you think of race car rod ends, you can easily visualize some of the most obvious hardware, such as ladder bar or four-link components, but there are typically more rod ends in your car than meets the eye. We did a bumper-to-bumper maintenance overhaul of the Project Rover Camaro and asked John McCrory from Aurora Bearing to chime in on what to inspect and replace when each application’s maintenance intervals come about.
Project Rover is an old-school Super Stocker that has undergone a pandemic-induced overhaul from bumper-to-bumper. We included a close inspection of every rod end on the race car.
The Big Ones: Ladder Bar and Four-Link Rod Ends
Beginning with the rear suspension, we investigated the condition of our Camaro’s ladder bar rod ends. First, we completely removed our ladder bars for an inspection of the bars themselves, including all chassis and differential mounting brackets. We then checked the ladder bars’ spherical rod end bearings.
Our inspection process prompted us to replace several rod ends due to varying factors. Overuse, such as with our main ladder bar rod ends, was obvious. In many other places, there was evidence of “micro-welding,” a phenomenon that can take place with rod ends exposed to high motion and load.
Our Camaro reportedly began its life on the dragstrip way back in 1972. Humorously, our front rod ends on the ladder bars appear to have seen use since those days. McCrory explained to us what we were seeing with these aged rod ends.
“In a drag racing suspension, motion isn’t really the driving force when checking rod end wear — it’s actually the force or load itself. In Aurora seminars, we illustrate how much load is put on that joint. But plain and simple, if you have two cars with the same power, one with a four-link and one with a ladder bar, the one with the ladder bar rod ends will see more load on those front rod ends than the four-links.”
The condition of our old rod ends prompted us to also carefully…
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