Need help bending flange on trailing arm

[TauMau]

As the title says, my inner pivot bolt falling out caused the spring plate flange mount deal to bend. Is there someone in the Orange County area who could help me out bending it back? Maybe someone with a torch? Anyone know of a well priced shop I could take it to?

[TauMau]

I've added a picture for reference

[kibbetech]

that happened on the baja i built. i heated it bent it back. welded the bolt on part together and ran a 1 1/2" .120 4130 tube across as a gusset been good ever since even with 35's and 500hp

[TUBETECK]

Is that shock bent or has the coil been overloaded one to many times? Anyway heat and bend back weld in a gusset and drive it like you stole it.

[TauMau]

Kibbe - I responded to the PM with an e-mail.

Tubeteck - Both the flange and shock were bent when the inner pivot bolt came out and my trailing arm folded. This last weekend I rebuilt my shocks and CVs. This is kind of the last "so-so" thing on my list. Today while trying to get the thing back into shape I ended up putting an S bend in it...so I may just sandwich a spacer in there for now and be done with it. I'm planning to replace it all with a microstub setup soon enough anyway...

[TUBETECK]

Ouch! Yep been there done that. My pivot bolt came out during prerunning for a race, even though I put the 1-1/2 sleave with the bolt through it and red loctite on it. Now I use a socket welded inside of a piece of tube that is welded to the torsion housing and red loctite. No probelms yet(knock on wood) after five or six races.
Good luck on the micro stub switch. When I did my car I bought the sprtsman setup from Kartek, Talk to Nick he'll make sure you have everthing you need.

[TauMau]

Ouch! Yep been there done that. My pivot bolt came out during prerunning for a race, even though I put the 1-1/2 sleave with the bolt through it and red loctite on it. Now I use a socket welded inside of a piece of tube that is welded to the torsion housing and red loctite. No probelms yet(knock on wood) after five or six races.
Good luck on the micro stub switch. When I did my car I bought the sprtsman setup from Kartek, Talk to Nick he'll make sure you have everthing you need.

Yikes it still backed out with red loctite? I just replaced my pivot bolt with some oddball one that has a socket head with a hole drilled through it. Conveniently the previous owner welded a small nut right next to the pivot housing so I think I'll use that as an anchor for safety wire. Thanks for the tip on the microstubs. I have to compare pricing with my racer discount, but after talking to Rick Crum(b?) I found that his microstub/trailing arm/axle package is pretty much the cheapest I've seen around so I may go with that...then I'll just have to get an adapter to convert the bolt pattern his package runs to Wide 5.

To fix the S bend in the trailing arm I used an 1/8" steel plate as spacer to get the rest of the way. It'll work for now...Thanks for the help. DAMN V-DUBS

[jps1145]

Now I use a socket welded inside of a piece of tube that is welded to the torsion housing and red loctite. No probelms yet(knock on wood) after five or six races.
Do you have a pic of this? I'm having a little trouble picturing it in my mind.

[kibbetech]

heres an idea...did this with the LS1 Baja, should hold up

[Ryno]

Why not weld a piece of tubing on the outside of the pivot shoulder, then put a big cotter pin through? It would literally have to bend the cotter pin to back out. I'm thinking a cotter pin 1/8 thick.

[TauMau]

Why not weld a piece of tubing on the outside of the pivot shoulder, then put a big cotter pin through? It would literally have to bend the cotter pin to back out. I'm thinking a cotter pin 1/8 thick.

I've seen it done this way and it's definitely what I prefer.

[Ramsey_ElWardani]

Why not do it right and never have a problem. Use a 4130 sleeve inside the bushing and "crush" on the sleeve. The sleeve should never move and thus the bolt should never loosen. The bushing should rotate around the sleeve, not the sleeve around the bolt.

[Sparky]

Why not weld a piece of tubing on the outside of the pivot shoulder, then put a big cotter pin through? It would literally have to bend the cotter pin to back out. I'm thinking a cotter pin 1/8 thick.

Cheap simple solution that works great.


Why not do it right and never have a problem. Use a 4130 sleeve inside the bushing and "crush" on the sleeve. The sleeve should never move and thus the bolt should never loosen. The bushing should rotate around the sleeve, not the sleeve around the bolt.

Or just replace the bushing with a uniball?

[TauMau]

Why not do it right and never have a problem. Use a 4130 sleeve inside the bushing and "crush" on the sleeve. The sleeve should never move and thus the bolt should never loosen. The bushing should rotate around the sleeve, not the sleeve around the bolt.

I'm not sure that's necessarily the only "right" way to do it. The way I have seen it done with a cotter pin was take a 17 MM allen key, cut enough off to fit into the bolt head and still have some sticking out. Then weld that piece of tubing we were talking about with a couple holes drilled in it, lined up so that you can put a cotter pin through the outer tube on both sides, and the allen. That way when you want to remove the bolt, just pull the pin and use 17 MM socket to put on the end of the allen.

I saw this on user "getrdone"s car. Ingenious and convenient solution.

[Ramsey_ElWardani]

I'm not sure that's necessarily the only "right" way to do it. The way I have seen it done with a cotter pin was take a 17 MM allen key, cut enough off to fit into the bolt head and still have some sticking out. Then weld that piece of tubing we were talking about with a couple holes drilled in it, lined up so that you can put a cotter pin through the outer tube on both sides, and the allen. That way when you want to remove the bolt, just pull the pin and use 17 MM socket to put on the end of the allen.

I saw this on user "getrdone"s car. Ingenious and convenient solution.

You are correct you can do all sorts of thing s like that to keep the bolt from coming loose - heck you could weld it in. But, if you get the bushing sleeve the right length and get it tight, you won't need to do all that.

[TUBETECK]

Why not weld a piece of tubing on the outside of the pivot shoulder, then put a big cotter pin through? It would literally have to bend the cotter pin to back out. I'm thinking a cotter pin 1/8 thick.

yep tried that trick with a 1/4" bolt and yes the big bolt bent the little bolt right out the end of the tube.