cheap roll center adjustment?

[95lstegman]

i'm a big fan of using the lowest spring/dampening rates necessary and using physics in 3-space to accomplish making those rates work to their fullest.

in any case, i was wondering if either:1) perhaps i could slightly shim the lower control arm (front and rear, either is up for grabs) with a special shim designed specifically to fit on the ball joint shank and into the knuckle/spindle. this method would be reasonably expensive and not offer much adjustment since there will still need to be a good amount of thread engagement.2) better yet, find a heavy duty spherical bearing that fits perfectly or nearly perfectly into the LCA and machine as necessary, then add C-clips on the top and bottom to retain it. then you could use a long shank on it and shim to your heart's desire, provided you have some sort of piece like the one mentioned above to make the shank fit into the tapered hole in the knuckle/spindle.

if you don't know why i would want to do this, please don't reply. post a new thread asking about roll center and i'll answer you there. here i want to see what people think about the possibility of this modification.

EDIT: a little research on availability of such a part:i don't know exactly the dimensions of the stock ball joints, but i have a pair of front ones that i removed because the ball joints were horrible, but the casing size will be the same. i can get a 1 and 7/16" outside diameter bearing (thrust-rated spherical bearing) which will support up to 15,000lbs static load through the center. that should be way more than enough. i'll take a look at the numbers, but i think 15kip should be plenty. if i find a good bearing that is smaller than the hole in the LCA, i could just machine a spacer and again use c-clips to both retain the bearing inside the spacer and retain the spacer in the LCA.
Modified by 95lstegman at 7:24 PM 9/21/2006