Trailing arm/alignment question Options

[Mueller]

Hopefully this makes sense to someone besides me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Pictured below is a bad representation of the trailing arm shaft and the inner trailing arm ear.

When adjusting the alignment on the trailing arm which side is tightend down first? (mount or inner ear)

I cannot see how the face of the trailing arm shaft and inner ear are perfectly flat against each other, if the outer mount is moved and tightened so that it mates perfectly flat with the shaft as well something has to give.

The 3° in the picture is just number I came up with...but ideally, one would want 0° on both planes where the mounts mate with the shaft.......with the current design, both mating surfaces can be perfectly flat with one another, but the alignment more than likely will not be correct??? IMHO

Opinons?? / Flames??

[HotRod]

Mike, I agree. I would guess that the inner tab would have to be aligned to whatever camber the rear trailing arm is set at. I would also imagine that using the rubber (stock) bushing that this difference is made up for in the play provided by the rubber bushing. Using solid bushings which would be less forgiving would aggrevate the problem and probably accounts for why I have broken the bushings at that point on my race car. Maybe Weltmeister has considered this because I've noticed that their rear bushings are less solid or hard than the ones that they make for the front.

Which brings me to another point, wouldn't this be even more critical if one were using needle bearings instead of bushings? Also, as you are aware, I'm looking at moving the outside pivot point back. If I were to do this by extending the ear that provides the outside pivot point, wouldn't this allow even more flex in the outside pivot point and make the problem even worse? Can the ear be reinforced enough to minimize flex if I go that route? Or, would it make more sense to move the suspension pick-up point rearward instead of extending the ear? I guess as far as the inside point is concerned, the best that I could do is to estimate the angle that would be consistent with the camber that I intend on running and set that point at that angle. Did that make any sense to anyone but me?