Close up, here’s a look at the respective rod ends for both the upper and lower a-arms. They’re chrome moly jobs manufactured by QA-1 Motorsports. The bottom a-arm is equipped with a sleeve and has a spacer on each end so that the arm fits directly into the stock a-arm pocket on the frame.
Some of the replacement a-arms available use OEM-style attachment points to the frame, complete with OEM bushings. Others use urethane bushings of one form or another. You’ll find those urethane bushings have a tendency to stick (or as Penske and other big time suspension folks refer to it: “stiction”). When you have “stiction”, the offending material (such as urethane) more or less freezes up the suspension component, rendering the shock (and more important, the shock adjustment) useless. Bottom line here is “stiction” is no good, particularly for drag race applications. That’s why I’m high on a-arms that incorporate some sort of bearing (like the rod ends used here) or use some form of Del-A-Lum bushing.
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