[mech]

Elephant Racing





I installed these in place of the stock castor blocks which were very worn.









The install was very easy, as we pulled the bolt on the control arm the castor eccentric did not move, hence we did not need to realign the car after install. It took about an hour and we were goofing off.



On the road, there is a noticeable difference, my stock blocks were very worn so this isn't a straight comparison. My current suspension is completely stock with a blown swaybar bushing...anyways back to the road, the first thing I noticed is that the car tends to follow the road and there is slightly more feedback in the steering wheel and in the chassis, you can feel the texture of the surface you are on, both changes are subtle; those are the only cons I have noticed, I would not consider them cons in all cases.



Steering response has improved, the best examples I have are during a lane change, previously at 80 mph when changing lanes it took much more control input to perform a smooth semi-quick lane change, now its a small input to turn and a small correction to straighten the car additionally I got to test it a lot on the way home, I had to dodge a deeply sunken manhole on a newly paved road, the car arced perfectly around and correction was again easy. Over large bumps I did not feel a increase in harshness. The blocks are completely silent at the moment.



I like these blocks, I'll keep ya updated.

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[Jason Judd]

I'm not aware of these people...the part looks well made, though.



Probably should add them to the list...



Let us know how they last.



Jason

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[mech]

I drove around a good bit today, these things make more of a difference than you might think...



there is a curve near me that is a diving downhill turn thats pretty bumpy, usually I need to keep both hands on the steering wheel to maintain a clean line, same turn today was still bumpy but I needed less effort to stay true and with one hand on the shift lever <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Exiting turns is much cleaner now...



When you look at the A-arm, the front bushing looks to be to carrying most of the load, the connection at the castor block is more of a pivot point, With the new bearing/monoball it can only pivot with the rotation of the arm, I think that the old bushing allowed alignment to shift slightly when the rear of the arm moves vertically and horizontally in the rubber bushing, giving the steering and front end a "loose" feeling, that is gone now.



Try it out, I had my doubts, but now I'm very glad I installed them.

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[flash]

very cool road responses - many of the things i have recently done have had the same effect - it's much better than the gooshy stock feel



still waiting to see how long the bearing holds up though - i've had some spherical bearings give out lately because they were lesser grade bearings than should hvae been used in the particular application - tough spot for that part to be in - high side loads - i'm planning on contacting them to see what bearing they are using



i wouldn't be so quick to say you didn't need to do an alignment - unless you took measurements of where the block was with the weight on the car, you have no way of knowing whether or not the arm moved - if the bushing was worn, it would likely settle off center - when you lift the car up, the old one would likely fall back to center - then when you put the new one in, it would go back to center - IF the alignment was done when the old bushing was new, and assuming it didn't change (extremely unlikely if it was over a few thousand miles) then you may have gotten lucky - more than likely though, you still need a new alignment



in either event - keep us aprised - i'm contemplating this as my next step too

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[mech]

Hey flash,



They are pretty well built, in comparison to the stock stamped plated these things are tanks. I don't know how big the bearing is, from its angle of movment it seemed like it was rather large. I'd like to know what you find out about them.



I wanted to do an alignment but there were a few cars lined up for the rack. I am thinking of replacing my dampers and adding a strut brace so it didn't seem worth taking up my friends time.



These bearings are really cool, I don't think the price is unreasonable after I have used them. I don't know how they will hold up, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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[flash]

yeah - i'm very interested too - this is exactly the kind of thing i am doing in many other places in the suspension - i'll let you know what i find out - i'm just hoping they didn't skimp on the bearing



since you are doing the brace and such, it makes sense to hold off - i'd do a brace (whichever one you like) soon though - you'll be amazed at how much better the car will handle when you do that and a performance alignment

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[mech]

I'm looking forward to those upgrades, I'm still deciding what I'm gonna do. I will most likely end up going with the H&R springs and koni's but I really want coilovers, I keep emailing KW bugging them to make a variant 2 system. I'm interested in seeing what brace you develop. I'd love to see some extra mounting points for braces into the body ie.

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[flash]

i have something in the works that should make you very happy



coilovers are no biggie - very available

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[mech]

Hey guys,



I have driven a good bit now and I'm just gonna blabber some more about it cause I like to. These blocks make a nice difference, the car feels enjoyably more precise in many ways. I don't really notice the additional feedback in the chassis at this point, you will get used to it fast; the benefits from this point in the suspension are worth trying this mod if you are going for performance. There is an improved feeling in the response of the car and in the "tightness" of the steering system.



There are some guys out there with the full racers edge kits and maybe they can chime in and comment how adding bearings throughout the suspension can benefit or annoy and maybe some comments on the how they hold up on the track.



Drive safe...

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[Ryan]

It seems like you would also replace the front "A" arm pivots with the castor block as a matched set. With the front bushing still being rubber it will stress the bearing in the castor block.

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[mech]

Ryan,



The bearing in the block moves on multiple axis, it will move in any direction, moment in the front of the arm is rotated about the bearing.



-vinay

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[Ryan]

OK then...It looks like the castor block bearing is a single axis movement. My bad....good to know.

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[Anchorman]

Interesting. How much is ride harshness increased? Is that what you mean when you say you no longer notice the increased feedback?

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[RS Barn]

I have a slightly different view on Elephant racing castor blocks. I thought they were a great deal price wise when I was putting together the 968TS/RS. Iwas installing Charlie arms but could not get the Charlie castor blocks. I was trying to avoid the Racers Edge blocks due to color and size. The Charlies and Elephant's are much more compact and not red! I ordered the Elephants and during installation I was a bit concerned about the movement of the bearing and the seal. Any bearing movement had drag from the seal. I tryed to lube the seal to no avail. I even put bearing grease under the seal. there was still drag on the bearing. Even though they are torsionally much better than stock they don't stand up to the quality of the Racers Edge bearings for drag and movement. I guess you get what you pay for.

I believe Elephant offers a nice upgrage over stock. If you are going to commit the money go for the Racers Edge stuff.

BTW- I will be selling my E blocks soon if anyone's interested.

Pete

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[mech]

hey pete,



I didn't think the torque required to move the ball was too much, I could move the bearing by hand with a medium amount of force. To me the moment seems pretty decent, overtime they should move more freely; the amount of movment that the a-arm can travel is pretty limited anyway. The seals are important for me, I have a PS steering link that has been very troublesome, so I want some protection for the bearings. I would like to get a hold of a set of racer's edge bearings so I could do a direct comparison.



Anchorman,



The what I meant by feedback was referring how much I feel the road. You get more of the finer texture coming thru.

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[flash]

pete - what do you want for them? how long were they in the car?

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[RS Barn]

    Flash,

Sorry I didn't get back to you. I've been trying to get 968RST ready for 968 celebration. A few electrical bugs. Also I have a customers 951S that ate a turbo so my lift has been tied up a bit.

The castors have been used a total of about 10 minutes on track. I will come up with a good price for you. These units are a big improvement over stock but I think the Racers Edge are much better for track. The bearings are much larger with a better seal arrangement, less friction (but costly).

Pete

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[flash]

we'll talk during the week - sounds fine

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[Scott Collins]

Just installed the Elephant Racing castor blocks. My car had the 944 turbo blocks, which were solid rubber. And here is what they looked like when I pulled them.



   



Just a trip around the block tells me that the Elephants are excellent and installed none too soon.



-Scott

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[jaap]

Those are the old style blocks only used during the start of the 968 life. There is an updated version which has much less rubber. Mine also looked like the ones in Scott's picture before I replaced them with the newer version.



Jaap

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