REAR Control Arm - HELP !, Need Help Options

[ajracer]

Just thought someone might know the answer to my questions.
Problem is my Control arms appear to be really, really stiff in their
movement (after the struts were removed) With nothing restricting
their movement I found it very diffficult to move them up or down
to simulate the normal suspension travel !

The bushings appear to be just the factory "rubber' ones and nothing
seems to pivot very well. Is this normal ? Should I be concerned ?
Any comments are appreciated. Thanks

Allan

[ArtechnikA]

QUOTE (ajracer @ Feb 25 2005, 01:05 PM)

The rubbers appear to be in great shape, just really tight. Regarding the actual force required to move the control arm up or down is about 50 lbs... Since it was mentioned that the bushing is "rubber mounted to both the control arm AND the shaft that might explain the reason it is so darn tight... ...My main reason for removing the arms was to install the boxed arm reinforcement kit in preparation for the V8 conversion.

yes - not just "rubber mounted" -- the inner pivot shaft is BONDED to the rubber bushing - which is BONDED to the trailing arm. IOW - it's a big torsion spring.

if you remove the molded-in rubber bush you will change the spring rate of the rear suspension, for which most people compensate by adding stiffer springs. i gather you already have stiffer springs on your shopping list with a V8 conversion...

but we can save you a bit more work - nowadays the boxed arm reinforcement is seen as a BAD thing. it adds unsprung weight, it adds thermal stresses to the trailing arm, and it adds stiffness to a part that doesn't needed it.

one of the jobs of the trailing arm is to bend in an impact to protect the suspension pickups in the tub. if you don't have an impact, you don't have stresses enough to require reinforcement.

look at it this way - the trailing arm is a fuse. you can put a bigger fuse in your house breaker box, but it just means that when you get an overload your fuse will survive at the cost of your house.

but - it's your car - do what you want...