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heims street legal?

ROBERTK said:
a hiem in double shear or with a saftey washer is plenty safe! 10K is a joke. All full tractions kits come with at least one Heim somewhere, and theres Many more manufactures of lifts and such that include them in thier lifts.

There is nothing illegal about them. There is no law that says you cant modify your suspension, or drivetrain, other then Still meeting DOT (which is very leinient, and vague, or CARB which is very strict and spells everything out for ya...
Click to expand...


I thought F.T. stopped using heims and are using some other encapsulated ball rod end....

As to the laws there is an ASS full rules and regulations which one can be written for... ANY modification is illegal... do they enforce them... 99.9% of the time nope... they are dumbass laws left over from the 50s & 60s.

I've ran heims on my lower control arms since 97... I like greasable ones... Aurora or FK... as mentioned there are cheap ones & quality ones. I get about 3 yrs. out of them, then they start to get noisy... a shot of grease and they quiet down for a little while...

Curt
 
Xtreme XJ said:
I thought F.T. stopped using heims and are using some other encapsulated ball rod end....

As to the laws there is an ASS full rules and regulations which one can be written for... ANY modification is illegal... do they enforce them... 99.9% of the time nope... they are dumbass laws left over from the 50s & 60s.

I've ran heims on my lower control arms since 97... I like greasable ones... Aurora or FK... as mentioned there are cheap ones & quality ones. I get about 3 yrs. out of them, then they start to get noisy... a shot of grease and they quiet down for a little while...

Curt
Click to expand...

F.T. used them for many many years all the up till at least last year. They do use one end with a orbital eye ball type on thier lowers and uppers, and the Trackbar has Heims.

Show me where it spells out no heim or any dirivitive of such?? Its not written anywhere. Niether is vertually ANY suspension geometry or manufacture allowed specs.

Ever go down and try to get car that is piece mealed, registered? They follow the only real specs, DOT standard lights, glass, frame hieght, headlight placment, safety restraints if in production year or new assembly, and only a few others.

FYI for the longest lasting and best quality for our type use. Use a NON-liner, Non greasable style high quality heim. Reasons. Liners distort and thin out and then get spit out and you get that extra space between the ball and race = clicking and excessive wear, Greasable are machined a few different ways, and both remove some material either for a grease channel, or slight irregular shape, either to allow for grease to actually leave a film. Both = quicker wear and more chance at noise and need for replacment sooner. WHen you fill it with grease your only adding a grease film to that excessive tolerance it has obtained and is not fixxing anything.

Run a quality heim, LARGER then you need and after every water, sand or mud trip, spray them out with alot of brake and parts cleaner, drive it some then use a good silicone spray on them and drench them. you should see a good amount of use before you notice any noise. I have beat the hell outa mine and am going on about 3 yrs now on the lower control arms, and 2 yrs on the track bar. Oh and as I mentioned and CAL, use a saftey washer on any single shear location just for piece of mind...
 
Jump This said:
What the heck is a safty washer?
Click to expand...

Well lets see if by the time I attach a picture and brief discription I am the first to do so or get beat to it...

It is when you have a bolt going thru a heim ball then thru a mounting point (say a steering arm) and thats all. You basically have a single shear setup in that case. if the ball somehow, never seen it but it can, separate from the race/body of the heim then you now lost that positive attachment. Very bad. now left wheel and right are allowed to do two completely different angles. uncontroled..

Now take this..
safety34_thumbnail.jpg

And put that on the end of the heim on the bolt, then thru the heim then thru the mount. Now if that ball separates, the heim body is still attached somewhat. Unless the heim body gets very distrorted and then you have other issues I am sure that created such a force to do so... The washer is larger OD then the ID of the heim body/OD of the ball.
 
Single shear and looks like not one saftey washer, if one ball gets pulled outa the race or the race gets pulled outa the body, bad bad bad...
passengerknuckle.jpg
 
My XJ has the same heims on the steering for over 5 years. The rod ends on the lower control arms on the buggy are over 8 years old. Race cars use heims for nearly everything, it's sort of silly to think they won't work on a street driven rig. Nothing illegal about them.
 
Looks like it's personal preference... non greasable or greasable make sure you get a good quality heim.
I agree I can't think of any reason to not use heims...
I'll stick to quality greasable ones though... I also use Seals-It seals on them.


Curt
 
Heims are used for the pitch control rods on helicopters, they are perfectly safe if they are good quality. I wish there were some elastomeric rod ends available at a reasonable price.
 
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