Trailing Arms

4 SPEED

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
78
Location
New Jersey
I have a 74 Vet an wondering if there is an early warning that a trailing arm is going bad.
Is there a way to check it out.
Thanks,
4 SPEED
 
Many aspects to that question, # ONE is rust, and so 2 new actual steel arms in my car when I got it....all bushings on pivot too, of course, that also meant rebuilding the bearings/hubs and new spindles.....

then I got to move the ebrake cable tab to behind the rotor, for wider tires, on same center line as OEM....

:surrender: Yup, expensive....:eek::surrender:
 
what makes you think yours are starting to go out?

the humorist in me thinks - sure, after they go out and you replace them, you say to yourself "so that's what the noise was"

I'd get under the car with a big pry bar and see if I could parts to move in a direction to which they were not designed to go. Otherwise, it's just the general - bad noises, or steering seems vague (in either only one direction or both)
 
I have a 74 Vet an wondering if there is an early warning that a trailing arm is going bad.
Is there a way to check it out.
Thanks,
4 SPEED

As mentioned there are several areas to check on arms, more so if someone has already worked on them. I find many I get in for rebuilding are in worse shape if they have been worked on vs virgin originals.

You can check for endplay in the bearings, lateral play, arm condition for rot or being bent, check the pictures I posted on the rebuild threads as well.
 
Gary,

What do you think of the heavy duty offset trailing arms. My stock arms have been bent down in the spring bolt area, so the 1/4 inch steel of the aftermarket arms is appealing.
 
I just built a set of Tom's offset arms and those were pretty impressive. I haven't see or heard of any issues with them as I have with others out there.
I set these up with Toms 31's as well real nice setup.

On the other hand your originals lasted what about 200k miles & 36 years? The new USA arms I use are pretty nice pieces as well.
 
I just built a set of Tom's offset arms and those were pretty impressive. I haven't see or heard of any issues with them as I have with others out there.

Tom's partner, " Kinney" had problems with available offset trailing arms. Kinney was Tom's Corvette guru. (As I understand it.) Kinny initiated the Tom's offset tailing arms. The first generation trailing arms did not have provisions for the rear sway bar attachments since they were designed strictly for drag racing purposes, I understand that Tom's offset trailing arms are now drilled for rear sway bars. These are really strong offset trailing arms, I get the impression they were designed to handle up to 1000 hp.

Kinney was a Japanese American and he died at a very early age of a heart attack, I think he was 55. Another one of the sad events Tom has had to experince.
 
I just built a set of Tom's offset arms and those were pretty impressive. I haven't see or heard of any issues with them as I have with others out there.
I set these up with Toms 31's as well real nice setup.

On the other hand your originals lasted what about 200k miles & 36 years? The new USA arms I use are pretty nice pieces as well.

who's Tom? is that the CAD drawing on the downloads page?
 
Tom's Differentials in Ponderay ID. Tom has been building diffs for 40 years and now is just selling parts. You can find his site online and his posi tuning on you tube.

Kenny was not a partner to my knowledge in the business.

I used Tom's parts for years now and they have held up great. I spoke with him yesterday in fact.

All depends on what you want, as mentioned stock arms once welded are pretty strong for most applications.
 
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