^ agreed. If you dont have the money buy a honda where you can buy stolen parts for what you think is fair.
Creative Steel WIDE WHEEL TRAILING ARMS
O.K. Guys, These things are finally available. We started to make these wide wheel trailing arms years ago but pulled away for one reason or another and since MAP and KillerNoodle were filling the need, we focused on other projects. Recently there seems to have been a break in the supply chain of these arms so we thought we would answer the call of our fellow CTS and CTS-V owners.
We've had this version of our trailing arms on our car for about three years now with no issues, they were on the car when we were at the drag strip testing our 8.8 rear differential kit, had no problems.
The arms we make now are essentially the same but we did make some improvement in the bushing department. Originally we reused the OEM bushing in the hub where the arm connects. Now we have made new bushings that are a 90A durometer that are grease-able while the arms are on the car. This way if the bushings start to squeak six months down the road you don't have to remove the arms in order to grease them. The mounting bolts at the hub end are drilled and cross drilled with a zirk installed. A few pumps with a grease gun and the bushings are quiet again. The other end of the arms also have grease zirks installed, these bushings are a 70A durometer due to the fact they act as a hinge when the suspension travels up and down. If there is a large enough demand for a spherical bearing at the front end of the arm, we will explore that option.
I'm not sure what the clearance is between the factory arms and the factory wheels are but if my memory is correct it's about ONE inch (dumb), with our arms you will have almost 5" of clearance. That's more room than you will ever need, but that's what we ended up with after we went around the lower shock mount. The brace in the corner of the arm has also been formed to clear the bottom of the lower shock mount portion of the hub meaning no grinding is required like arms offered by others.
There have been problems with the tubes that the mounting bolts pass through made by others of wide wheel arms, we did not make this mistake. Even the prototype set that have been on our car all these years had tubes with a .220 wall thickness. These new wide wheel arms have the same tubes and will not collapse when the bolts are torqued to 130 ft. lbs.
We are offering these arms with and without the bushing that go in the hub. For those of you that wish to reuse your factory (softest bushing on the whole car I might add) the arms are $375 +frt, with the new 90A bushing the arms are $435 +frt.
These arms are not on our website as of now (7-19-13), give us a call if interested or you have questions.
These arms have been a LONG, LONG time coming, these are happy days.
Hope you guys back East get some heat/humidity relief soon, I hate being sticky !!
Peace Out all, have a good weekend...........Max
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We've had this version of our trailing arms on our car for about three years now with no issues, they were on the car when we were at the drag strip testing our 8.8 rear differential kit, had no problems.
The arms we make now are essentially the same but we did make some improvement in the bushing department. Originally we reused the OEM bushing in the hub where the arm connects. Now we have made new bushings that are a 90A durometer that are grease-able while the arms are on the car. This way if the bushings start to squeak six months down the road you don't have to remove the arms in order to grease them. The mounting bolts at the hub end are drilled and cross drilled with a zirk installed. A few pumps with a grease gun and the bushings are quiet again. The other end of the arms also have grease zirks installed, these bushings are a 70A durometer due to the fact they act as a hinge when the suspension travels up and down. If there is a large enough demand for a spherical bearing at the front end of the arm, we will explore that option.
I'm not sure what the clearance is between the factory arms and the factory wheels are but if my memory is correct it's about ONE inch (dumb), with our arms you will have almost 5" of clearance. That's more room than you will ever need, but that's what we ended up with after we went around the lower shock mount. The brace in the corner of the arm has also been formed to clear the bottom of the lower shock mount portion of the hub meaning no grinding is required like arms offered by others.
There have been problems with the tubes that the mounting bolts pass through made by others of wide wheel arms, we did not make this mistake. Even the prototype set that have been on our car all these years had tubes with a .220 wall thickness. These new wide wheel arms have the same tubes and will not collapse when the bolts are torqued to 130 ft. lbs.
We are offering these arms with and without the bushing that go in the hub. For those of you that wish to reuse your factory (softest bushing on the whole car I might add) the arms are $375 +frt, with the new 90A bushing the arms are $435 +frt.
These arms are not on our website as of now (7-19-13), give us a call if interested or you have questions.
These arms have been a LONG, LONG time coming, these are happy days.
Hope you guys back East get some heat/humidity relief soon, I hate being sticky !!
Peace Out all, have a good weekend...........Max
21 - 40 of 109 Posts
I'm kind of leaning the same way with the front bushing. Ideally you don't want very much resistance for the up and down rotation this joint sees. You don't want it too soft either or else you'll end up with increased wheel hop and poor wheel stability. I'd be curious to see how easy it is to deflect a 70A poly bushing with the long moment arm of this trailing arm. I'm assuming it moves fine but I'm not sure how long the bushing will last from a durability perspective since poly isn't as soft and forgiving as rubber. Typically a bushing setup of this nature isn't meant to see more than 5° of side to side deflection.
Another thing to consider when replacing a rubber bushing with a poly bushing or cross-axis ball-joint is that it will definitely transmit more road noise into the cabin. For some this is a deal breaker, for others not an issue. Anybody that has a BMR trailing arm can comment on this as it should feel the same as what Max is offering, just have less wheel clearance.
Keeping in mind if enough of us want a cross-axis ball-joint in place of the poly bushing Max said in his original post he was willing to consider it based on interest. From a construction standpoint it shouldn't be too difficult to replace that captured bushing end on a jig with a self contained balljoint to weld on. Having a press fit balljoint insert put into the "pipe end" wouldn't be advisable due to the required material thickness needed to hold the balljoint in place. You'd want at least a 3/8" surround holding it in, preferably a cast iron link to maintain the "press fit".
I think I'd fall into the prefer a balljoint category. I'd already be degrading ride quality with a poly front bushing over stock setup and stepping up to a cross-axis ball-joint should be very similar in noise transmission to the poly bushing. I'd take the cross-axis balljoint for durability purposes at that point, only problem being that if they don't last very long, you'd have to replace the entire arm, versus replacing a removable bushing unless they were somehow rebuildable (ballistic fab weld on balljoints are rebuildable).
I think If Max offered this welded on to the front end
http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/263-Heavy-Duty-Ballistic-Joint_p_1226.html
it would be the perfect trailing arm.
Keep up the good work Creative Steel. We appreciate the never ending options that you are developing for this platform!
21 - 40 of 109 Posts
