Some of you guys have discussed the various types of dogbones out there and price vs. quality always comes up. First let me state that what you're getting for the price of the product from these vendors is the time it takes for them to source and package an appropriate kit, sometimes with well detailed instructions for installation, and then of course shipping the product to you. For the discerning buyer who does not want to screw around with sourcing parts and trial and error, this is absolutely the best way to go...

For the DIYer out there, here is some useful info for building your own "dogbones" for the rear upper replacement.

What does a "Dogbone" do, anyway? Rear upper control arms on the Porsche 911 are fixed rear mount links that attach the rear upper spindle to the rear sub frame. Swapping these fixed "non-adjustable" units with adjustable units will allow you to adjust camber for the rear wheels beyond the OEM cam adjusters. They'll also replace the rubber mount point in the OEM upper link. Also, the GT3 control arm adjusts camber from the bottom of the hub/carrier, the dogbone does it from the top of the hub/carrier.

An upper rear control arm replacement, or Dogbone is simply comprised of four easily buildable links. There is no fabrication required in these parts, other than measuring the size of the aluminum or steel tube to be used. In the case of my example I'll use the Agency Power units as a baseline for "size" and measurement.

For each dog bone you have the following:

1 6inch long Tie rod Tube of either steel or aluminum. Most are aluminum.
1 each right and left hand threaded Heim Joint in 5/8th size. Beware that not all heim joints are created equal. You want a quality heavy duty piece with Teflon liner and a load rating above 15K#.
2 inserts of the appropriate SAE to metric size.
2 Dust Seals for each heim joint of the appropriate size.

Remember, there are FOUR dogbones in a set. The above "total" accounts for only ONE of the FOUR required. So where do I source these components to build my dogbones? A number of sources are available for building the perfect parts, and I've used a number of them over the years when I used to fabricate suspension components for first generation Datsun Zcars. Stockcarproducts.com, colemanracing.com, portcityracing.com, swracecars.com and others can provide most, or all of the components required to build these yourself, if you're on a budget and need to compile your parts over time.

However, if you are not 110% certain you can do this on your own, DO NOT attempt to source these parts and build the perfect dogbones yourself. Instead, rely on one of the many vendors here and just "pay the man" for the parts! After all, these are important components within the rear suspension of your car. Failure of one of these links would be catastrophic.

I'll post pics of the OEM link and the Aftermarket link later today!

Hope this helps!

Mike

 

Interesting, had no idea anyone "built" their own suspension products, but it does sound tempting. Would be interested in knowing if it's cost effective, which upon first thought I'm thinking you could build one for a fraction of the cost (like 25%).

Keep it coming.

 

Stock Upper Control arm/ Dogbone:



Aftermarket adjustable Dogbone:





Mike

 

Nice Mike...

What about using Metric sized parts? Or does the 'adapter' that converts the bore to metric also serve to 'fill out' the width of the heim joint to match the factory mount...and is needed anyway?

I assume these are steel joints threaded into 6061 or similar aluminum?

A

 

Quality Heim Joints are not cheap. You also need a LH & RH thread tap plus the ability to drill the rod before tapping. I have built sway bar drop links but I already had the heim joints.

Peter

 

The tubes I reference are "pre-drilled" right and left hand from the suppliers listed above... I've got lots of experience with these parts, as I sold a bunch of suspension components previously and although I had taps for various sizes left and right hand, there was no need to use them for these... Do a search on those suppliers I reference and you'll see. Good quality heim Joints? $30 each. You'll need 8. 4 Pre-drilled aluminum 6inch tubes will run you less than $80 for all four, and depending on the supplier, they'll include the jam nuts, and the tubes will be anodized in a variety of colors.

ARD, You could certainly do the 12mm ID metric heim joints but you'd still need spacers to take up the space.

Mike

 

subscribing

 

Great useful info for track junkies.
Keep up the good research and sharing Mike !

 

After reading this old thread, i decided to make my own rear dog bones and see how it goes!! Just wanted to share some pics...

 

Some more pics... Im not done but i will post some pics of the finished product..

 

I made my own dog bones a few months ago. Work very well. I lowered my car 2" front and rear and got it perfectly aligned without bumpsteer issues.

 

$600 for a set, wow. My buddy makes stuff like this, I just may send him this link...

 

Well done!

 

While you can source most of these parts, i decided to make my own... I used 1" Aluminum 6061-T6 rods for this project, i drilled both sides of the rod with just enough depth to make the 5/8-18" LH / RH taps.

One thing I did different from what is recommended on this thread is the length of the rod. I made them over 3/4" longer (total rod length 6.75").

For the spacer i used the same material (Aluminum 6061-T6). On the lathe i drilled the rod using a 12mm tap drill (ID of the bolt). The OD was machined to approx 0.624" to fit the rod end bore (snug fit). Since misalignment is approx 1.5" and the rod end is 0.75" wide, both spacer should fill a gap of approx. 0.375" on both sides of the rod end.

Hope this help!!!

 

So sounds like about $350 if you source the parts yourself or $1000 if you buy a kit? Major rep points for whoever provides links to exactly what you need to buy