Rear traling arm/mount questions, racer-gurus, comment! Options

[Brando]

Friday I dropped the teener off for new tiars and 4-wheel alignment. My rear-right is having issues matching the rear-left. At first I thought I may have a bent trailing arm, but Aaron and I think that the part where the trailing arm meets up to the ears/mounts may be ovaled out on the passenger's side, in-board towards the engine.

My understanding is that you just weld it up and drill a new hole that's the right size, then have it re-aligned... But I don't want it to oval out again. Is there some sort of extra bracing or support I can put in there to prevent this... without having to swap my rear traling arm or machine it. Does anyone have some small bent pieces of 1/8" or ¼" steel that I could weld right in there for extra support? I plan on dropping the engine within the next month or two for a 1911cc conversion and I've got a shitlist a mile long for "while i'm in there"... But this might be a major issue if left un-attended, and I would like to prevent it from happening again.

Any suggestions are apprecieated... except for cutting it out and going with a complete monoball/heim join setup with custom traling arms ... i plainly don't have the cash for that-- as enticing as it is. Thankyous!

[Brando]

QUOTE (Eric_Shea @ Jan 8 2006, 03:49 PM)

QUOTE I thought the washer trick was a problem as the axle shaft threads are not getting full engagement, no? I'm with Pat. I don't think it's going to be that much of a problem however. If I were to do it, I would weld, grind and work it so that there's no or minimal heigth difference. There's plenty of thread available. Nothing that a washer will hurt... of course it depends on the washer. One idea would be to have the hammer there while welding and tap it in as you weld around it. It should be hot enough to tap in easily and should sit flush. Finish it off with a bit of grinding and you'll be back up and running in no time. QUOTE I was thinking of welding a 1/8" piece on the inside (engine side) and drilling a hole that's the proper size, then running the bolt through. Maybe a longer bolt, if necessary? Is there anything that can be done to re-inforce the part where it mounts to the body? You on that crack stuff boy? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) The engine side is the outside of that mount, where the nut screws on to your trailing arm shaft (but I know what ya mean). Trailing arm shafts only come in one size (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif) What Mark said... you'l be reinforcing it by welding in the washer. You'll see what we're talking about when you dig into it. BTW, do we know that this is the problem? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

I won't know for certain if the suspension ear is the problem until I get the trailing arm out. Then I will be able to look at the mounting areas and see if there is damage, and can compare to a known good traling arm to see if it's bent.

I'll take your words for it... like you said, I won't know until I get my head under there with everything out.