well I have damaged the teener...

I was driving in to work this morn and I was turning left and someone rolled into the intersection in the middle of my turn almost hit me and I swerved to avoid him and ended up spining me into a raised median

only damage is now when the car is driving straight the steering wheel is crooked ( hopefully an alginment?!

but the worse damage is when I hit the median it was only w/ the rear pass side wheel .. it was able to be driven home w/o issue but when I got home and inspected further the wheel appears to be toed in ...

I had to jump in the regular car and head out to work ..

anyone have any posible ideas on what to check out first . seems like it might similar to a sipn out autocrossing may be you guys have had the same type thing happen and have some info for me .

this morn has sucked !

Probably bent the trailing arm. BTDT. They are meant to bend to save chassis damage, however after repair you will require an alignment. Check to see if the suspension console it cracked also. That is a bigger job, but lots of cars require it.

is a trailing arm something I can replace? are they diff for diff year cars ? any idea on cost?

A trailing arm is the main pivot arm for the rear suspension and can be replaced. You may have just bent a tie-rod though (part of the steering linkage), and that's a much easier part to replace.

Good luck!

is it possible to bend a tie rod if I never hit any thing in the front just spun out .

trailing arm.. so anyone know the normal $ and how much of a PITA it is to replace

No, didn't catch that it was just the rear wheel.

Replacing the trailing arm is a bit of a pain, but I'm sure you can find one for next to nothing from a helping club member. I gave my only spares away to brad a few years ago, sorry!

-- tie rods .. both wheels are straight and one is not diff than the other ... but the steering wheel looks like a left turn but drives dead straight?!... no shakes nothing ... Hmmm

so this is prob just a n alginment again or a steering whel adj?

if your rear trailing arm is bend a lot, this can make your car not want to drive straight. hence, the steering might be off. the rear is pushing you in one direction (away from a straight line) and you need to compensate with the steering.

this is *not* good. don't drive it like that!

rear trailing arms can be replaced fairly easy, they're not that hard to come by either.

call the usual suspects, HPH, EASY, Parts Heaven ...
Andy

I pulled the ones off the 74 in about 1 1/2 hrs. with my Nephew no big deal

and there are plenty out there. Put an add in the classifieds here, plenty of

guys are parting out cars. PM abearauto I am sure he has one for you,

he is quick, fair, and a nice guy.

PM sent Holmes. 3 trailing arms, no waiting.

Hey boys, should there be any difference between a 70 and a 73 on the trailing arm?

I got a trailing arm from a friend just north of Allentown for $20. The bearing was a bit dry so I re-packed it and have been driving on it since March.

Spoke

No diff. All the same.

Good Deal. Thanks Eric.

Mikey, we're in bidness.

Tie rods (new Turbo tie rods are a nice upgrade for 180 bucks) probably 100 for a nice set.

Trailing arm. 50 will get you a trailing arm, but you need a new wheel bearing, and bushing for it, and install is a PITA for a newbie.
125 should be enough..

Actually, the 'bracket' that secures the brake line is different. Early ones are a plate with a hole in it (an 'O' shape) the later ones have a slice in them (a 'C' shape). So to drop the trailing arm on an early car you need to crack the brake lines, whereas on a later car you can just slip the line out of place.

Old Style - BTW, I powdercoated these arms.
Click to view attachment

New Style
Click to view attachment

Um, instead of going directly for a bent trailing arm, perhaps the outer bracket moved. Nothing more. Take a 17mm socket to the 3 bolts on the underside of outer bracket and see if you can adjust the toe on the thing. Whaddya got to lose, alignment?

You need to start there anyway to remove it.

Well, first you have to look to see what is wrong, there is only speculation at the moment. I bent an arm when I got on some marbles on a 90º ramp and hit the curb with a tire; it is easy enough to do. When we know what is wrong then we can offer some concrete advice.

Your arrows are pointing at two differnt brackets.

The black ones with the really crappy powdercoat job is pointing to the handbrake cable bracket.

On the gay yellow arms (who the hell would put yellow arms on their car? ) it points to the brake line mount, which you're correct, is different.

Earlier arms even had a third bracket (simple tab with a tapped screw hole in it) on them for another, either handbrake or heater cable tie down... basically used on the -6 (Dave, weigh in here).

Just so we don't confuse da boys in Chitown (go Bears) with bracket minutia, any arms will work. If it's the arm.

(you guys are no fun to tease... )

Dammit, you're right.

yellow is faster ...