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Dean, a few days ago, I solicited questions about the Abbott Support Arm Bearing Kit. You provided me your usual excellent input. You said, “They will eliminate support arm movement relative to the chassis, but they cannot eliminate control arm fore-aft deflection as the large poly bushing that connects the control arm to the support arm will deflect. The text on the Abbott site is misleading! If you make this change, you do not know if that bushing, or the larger one, is contributing the largest amount of steering geometry distortion.”
I replaced a poly bushing with the bearing kit. I already had the larger poly that connected the control arm to the support arm. The difference is subtle but noticeable. It seems that there is a little less distortion and a little more control. Not much bang for the buck, but an improvement. From this we can conclude that the support arm to chassis mount does contribute to distortion and that the bearing does a better job of fixing it than does a support arm poly bushing. I think I now have my suspension as good as I can get it. Based on your input, I did not get the equivalent of an Abbott "Rear Strut/Body Brace" made and installed. My mechanic (and welder extraordinaire) concluded the same as you, it wouldn’t do much good. I wonder why Abbott sells it.
He does recommend that he build a roll bar. He said that would stiffen the frame even more. I have a 2002 9-3 SE Convertible so chassis problems are more extreme than those with hard tops. I would like your thoughts on this. I learn every time you respond to my posts. The added safety it would add probably wouldn’t hurt either.
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