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I installed the tension rods I fabbed this evening and everything went well as planned. The results are fantastic. No more shimmy and no more mysterious 'CLACK!" when I hit the brakes or turn in either direction hard (which ended up being a loose bolt in the tension rod bushing - driver's side). These are fully adjustable and are made from cold rolled steel. The ball joints were ordered from race-stuff.com for $32 each. I ended up paying $80 for the rods themselves - I was a bit disappointed with the machinist as he originally told me it would be less than that. I think I'm gonna find a new machinist at this point, he actaully pissed me off pretty good with this, also considering he took 1.5 weeks longer than he said it would take. However, they are on and working well. I went out afterwards down a remote road and did some low speed hard braking to test their tensile strength. Everything worked flawlessly and no more erratic shimmying of the wheel when I apply the brakes hard at high speeds. Here's some pics.. 
Please excuse the dirtyness. :) Note the 13" cobra rotors? Still working beautifully. :) Time for new past tho. :-( The ball end is right hand threaded and the other end is left hand threaded. There is a flat-milled piece in the center of the rod for putting a 12mm wrench on it to turn it. With the opposing thread patterns, when you turn it one way it lengthens the assembly and vice versa when you turn it the other way. There are locking nuts on both ends to secure the assembly. The ball end is held in position by some of the threaded barrels you see which were cut to length and one end was semirounded to eliminate interference when the ball joint body twists as the suspension moves up and down. A nylon locking nut was used on the grade 8 4-1/2" long main bolt and lockwashers were used on the grade 8 10mm bolts on the lower control arm. The assembly has a calculated tensile strength of ~16,000 pounds, which is well more than it will ever see even under the harshest braking conditions. As for a group buy, I'm honestly not happy with my machinist. I bring him business and he turns around and bitch slapped me this afternoon with a whopping bill. KEep in mind it was late AND it wasn't complete. I had to tap the end of the rod, cut it to proper length and drill the holes in the endpiece for connecting to the control arm. I also had to get the damn bolts and nuts myself. Owell, screw him. I have a good buddy who is also a machinist, I went to HS with him and he now builds dragsters, funny cars, etc etc at Chassis Dynamics here in Gainesville. I know he can easily do this stuff and I already have diagrams for upper and lower control arms. I'll probably drop by there friday with them. :) I'll post about the progress...
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[ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] [ Zemulator Information Sheet ] When pigs dance, you better get it on video... "You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive."
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AshSpec tension rod fab complete.Dizzam what a differee!!! - 
