Bent lower rear control arms? October 25, 2005, 01:28:58 PM As I've mentioned before, my current project car came complete with a broken rear axle housing from being put in a ditch. It snapped the axle housing out about 2" or 3" from the passenger-side drum almost in two. My question is, how sturdy are the control arms, and if the axle took a hard enough sidewayshiznit to snap the housing, how likely or unlikely is it that one or both lower control arms are bent or out of center? What could I use as a neutral point to measure from to make sure they are still square? At a glance nothing appears to be wrong, but I don't want to try to mount a new axle only to find out that it's uncentered under the car. Thanks for any tips.Fordman3 Quote Selected
Bent lower rear control arms? Reply #1 – October 25, 2005, 03:06:54 PM wholy man...personally id just get another set of arms from another car. id be more worried about the torque boxes being messed up. how do they look? Quote Selected
Bent lower rear control arms? Reply #2 – October 25, 2005, 05:44:31 PM The control arms are faily sturdy on these cars. Your torque boxes would probably go first. That being said I'd have the car checked out by someone who knows their bodywork. Quote Selected
Bent lower rear control arms? Reply #3 – October 25, 2005, 09:10:17 PM man i just sent a whole rear end with the control arms to the s yard about 1:00 today . Quote Selected
Bent lower rear control arms? Reply #4 – October 25, 2005, 11:35:00 PM Quote from: Paul FlockhartThe control arms are faily sturdy on these cars. Your torque boxes would probably go first. That being said I'd have the car checked out by someone who knows their bodywork.exactly, check the boxes, pluss you can get those che jobs cheaper than new ones with poly bushings and they are tubular. pluss a body shop can weld up the boxes for you while your their if you are gonna do any modifying before stuff starts to brake back their. Quote Selected
Bent lower rear control arms? Reply #5 – November 05, 2005, 06:50:07 PM Hey guys,Thanks for all the advice. I finally got the axle dropped, except for the parking brake cables and the main brake line. From what I can tell, the torque boxes are not cracked or bent. I am gonna have to replace the LCA on the busted side, though, which probably means I should just replace both of them. But the damaged one took a good hit. I think the wheel might actually have made contact with it when it folded under the car. Something sure did. The two sides of the LCA are actually pinched almost together, with the sleeve that contains the bushing jutting out of each side. Somebody mentioned tubular LCA's. Where do I get them and how much are they? Would that be better than originals from another Fox car? I've actually still got my '84 Cougar with straight LCA's, except they are very rusty, all bolts included. Plus I really don't look forward to dropping another axle anytime soon.Oh, I'm trying to get in touch with HOTROD who recently had an '88 XR7 8.8 limited-slip axle assembly (3.08) with drum brakes, which would have gone perfectly under my car without doing all the disc brake changeover. If anybody knows how to contact him, or if anybody else has got the same axle they'd sell within a reasonable distance of Marshall, IL, please let me know. If I've got to replace the thing anyway, I'd just as soon put something good under there. Thanks.Fordman3 Quote Selected
Bent lower rear control arms? Reply #6 – November 05, 2005, 11:09:39 PM check the venders section for the CHE control arms. they are much better than stockers. depending on what your doing with the car they may be overkill though. Quote Selected
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