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| Spherical Bearing Comparisons |
The spherical bearing (sometimes called a mono-ball) is the most important part of the camber plate. It's basically a heavy duty ball and socket joint. It serves two purposes.
1. First, the vertical loads from the front suspension are transferred through the McPherson strut into the spherical bearing. These loads can be substantial, in the range of 5000 lbs in the case of a pothole impact load.
2. Second, the angle of the strut relative to the chassis changes as the suspension moves through it's range of travel. The Spherical bearing accommodates this movement by allowing rotation about the center of the sphere but eliminating movement in any other direction. (axial rotation)
3. In addition, the bearing must have zero free play. Any amount of looseness in the bearing leads to noise (typically a light tapping / clunking sound)
To summarize, the bearing must handle a substantial thrust load from the strut, move freely about the center point of the bearing. It must operate in harsh conditions (dirt, water, heat, cold) and do so with a long service life. The spherical bearing isn't exactly the place to cut corners when building a camber plate. Yet that is exactly what some of our competitors do...
(note: Since 2006, MotorForce = Vorshlag)
A picture says a lot. The Spherical Bearing on the left is the one used in the Vorshlag camber plate (from MotorForce Engineering's original design) - big, beefy and strong. The little bearing on the right is used in one of our competitors' camber plates (actually, no one else's BMW plates use the same size or larger spherical than our's). And people wonder why their camber plate bearings start clattering and fall apart after a short while? A quick technical comparison of the two bearings:
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Vorshlag |
Competition |
| Part Number |
Aurora Performance Racing Series PWB-12T Teflon Lined |
Aurora Commercial Series COM-10T Teflon Lined or Chinese Equivalent |
| Outer Diameter |
1.375" |
1.1875" |
| Inner Diameter |
.75" |
.625" |
| Width |
.875" |
.625" |
| Maximum Load Rating |
7730 lbs |
~4200 lbs |
- The load rating on the Vorshlag Spherical Bearing is considerably higher than the competition's.
- The larger spherical will have a much longer service life. Service life is defined as the point at which the bearing has noticeable play, and should be changed.
- The larger bearing has a much larger factor of safety (Engineering Factor), with respect to impact loads. Assuming a 5000 lb impact load on the bearing from striking a pot hole at speed, the Vorshlag bearing will be unaffected where as the Competitor's bearing will likely be permanently damaged.
Given the importance of the spherical bearing to the overall performance of the camber plate, it was a simple decision for Vorshlag to incorporate the larger bearing into our design. We decided that the increase in performance was worth the increase in bearing cost versus the cheaper, smaller bearings used by our competition.
 
Vorshlag camber plates are the Best in the World - because we have the best design and use only the best bearings!
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