While some people were out drinking Thanksgiving eve I was in the garage replacing a rear wheel bearing in my track car. In process I noticed a lot of lateral play in the trailing arm. I tightened the mounting nuts, but it didn't change the lateral movement. I only assume that movement isn' t normal? I'm running polybrionze bushings. They were installed 6 or 7 years ago, or roughly 50-60 track hours.

Next step check for ovalling of the mounting holes?

Obligatory bearing and beer photo below.

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Agree....could have ovaled the hole.

You are at the point there where you might as well just take the whole arm off.....

and have another Thanksgiving beer.

Also could be the bushing. Have they been replaced ever?

Happy Thanksgiving....waiting for my crew to come over.

Oh....and I hope it isn't...but:

Take the control arm off and make sure the suspension console isn't cracked.

Yeah, my next plan is to take the arm off. I'm going to take both off this winter to install the tangerine suspension ear reinforcement kit so I guess you could say I'm just getting an early start now. Coincidentally the bearing install was smooth as butter.

Oval bolt holes.

I've searched but not found the preffered approach to fix an oval led bolt hole. Simply weld and file? I recall someone talking about welding a washer...

So I got the driver's side trailing arm removed. Once I got the shocks, brakes, etc, unbolted from the arm my unscientific wiggling did suggest that the inner ear bolt hole was the source of the wiggle. I was surprised, however, to get the arm removed and not see much by way of oval-ing.

Could even a small amount of out of roundness cause the noticeable wiggle?

Is there a best practice for bringing the hole back to round?

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Weld a washer in there, easy.

Over drill the hold and build a new seat by machine and welding in a piece, that replaces your washer, it would be a step washer.

Weld in different rear inner ears.

Replace the arm mounts with a Tangerine Racing Pieces, and fix it for ever!

Obviously price goes up from cheap to $$$$.$$ for the solutions.

Also how are your bearings?

Thanks for the input. I actually have the tangerine reinforcement that just showed up in the mail today, so that is going to supplement my repairs. The washer repair method seemed a little too easy to me, but I suppose if that works it's a good ways to fix quick.

Some time easy is the way to go

BTW, you can also move the positions around if you need to to dial in a bit more camber or toe if you are finding you are limited in you adjustments. Don't worry about loosing the heat treating of the washer either, as the factory ear hole was not heat treated.

Ihave done my number 1 solution several times. I now have access to a lathe so number 2 would get my vote, just to allow the German in me to come out and play. Also a stronger repair, maybe

Number 3 is the solution I am going to use on my conversion car. As it allows me to be a perfectionist, and over engineer a solution with a minimalistic approach while spending the most $$$ to complete a task. And Chris' parts are so

the hole does not look ovaled, the console looks compromised and cracked around the hole. that would cause plenty of movement until it fails completely. i would grind down to bare metal and check the integrity of the console.

So lets see here.... The trailing arms have play and the hardware was tight on both sides of the pivot shaft with no load? Sounds like the bushings are worn or not properly shimmed. Pretty common for the arms to be out of spec in the bushing sleeves when using poly bronze. Can shim with copper sheet or bond with JB.

Clean off the paint on the console check for cracks. If no cracks return to bushings/arms.

Despite how it may have looked in the metal the ear did not appear cracked or compromised in person. Regardless I ground it down to bare metal and confirmed there's I cracks, tears, etc.

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I have the tangerine reinforcement I'm going to add. While the hole doesn't look too ovaled I'm going to repair it and investigate whether the PB bushing end needs to get shimmed. This side should be pretty easy. I found a lot of work on the other side, however....

It looks like the pivot shaft is spinning against the mounting ear.

I vote for shimming is the issue.

I'd put Chris kit in anyways and weld the washer in.

You're right, it looks like the shaft is machining the ear.

Did nobody mention bushings yet? Or did I miss something in the thread that addressed this.

The rubber bushings inside the trailing arm could be disintegrating.

Missed it me thinks. He posted that he had installed polybronze so assumed he had replaced them.

I.d post a picture of the ends of the bushing to see what is going on.

The poly part of the bushing could be worn out and moving inside the trailing arm. Perhaps they need to be re-seated in the arm.

The outboard mount / adjuster 'plate' could be ovaled.

You might need to loosen the mount / adjuster, then tighten the shaft nuts.

Car has polybronze bushings that we're installed less than 1,000 miles ago.

So the money shot would be what the pivot shaft and the polybronze bushing look like and how installed.

Pics would be helpful.

In my experience all PB bushings should be fitted and checked for play without the zerk fittings installed. I have installed a few sets and in various folks arms. What I find is the inner arm bushing sleeves are many times out of spec for what ever reason. They may be just made that way?

I don't like the idea of chemical welding urethane to the arms so I find copper shim stock works well. I dab of JB between the arm and shim stock plus the zerk fitting keeps it from rotating. Easy no fail solution.

The other problem I have found is with the pivot shaft to bronze fitment. The one in the photo does have lateral play and this is a new unit that was assembled only. I can say for certainty its not a wear issue but simply poor quality control. Luck has it that one of the other bronze sleeves is tight so mix and match works out by swapping the loose one for a tight one.

So yes the money shot is when the poles in the hole.

IMO, the shaft to bushing fitment isn't from poor quality control. The tolerances are loose because the installed bushings are never truly co-linear. Close tolerance bushings would bind in that case.

Hey Chris,

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ya!

I get that but one bronze bushing is so loose it actually clacks when you rock it by hand on the pivot shaft. The remaining three are snug. With the durometer of the urethane bushing enough deflection is present to allow for any mis-alignment however small so as not to cause any bind. Loose tolerance provided and floating on a thin layer of grease. On the positive side mix and match of the bronze bushings solves the problem. This is not the first time I have seen this, its the bronze that have slight variances. Even on the far end if this equated to a 32nd of an inch in toe change I would not lose sleep over it.

Any amount of dynamic toe is a problem, IMHO.

It doesn't take much wear of the bushings (less than .005") to create some lateral play and create a bit of a problem. The shimming needs change depending on how tight you had them initially and how they wear. At least in my experience.