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Wide wheels rubbing your trailing arms? A solution!

17K views 142 replies 31 participants last post by  rand49er 
#1 · (Edited)
Well, if you are willing to cut up your stock trailing arms that is :) I had a problem with the linea corsas rubbing on the trailing arms on my lowered car. It was annoying and was destroying the inside lip of my wheels. Initially, the solution was to toe the wheels out a little bit, but that destroyed my tires in no time (a couple months of driving and the inside was worn pretty badly). BMR trailing arms were on backorder and the MAP ones are too expensive for my taste, so I went ahead and modified the stock ones.

In the first pic, you can see where the wheel was depositing some aluminum on the trailing arm. Not a nice noise!!!

In the second pic, you can still see where the wheel was touching and how much extra room I'm giving it. You can also see how I cut it at an angle so I could lay one piece on top of the other. The idea here was to have the arm come off the spindle at the exact same angle as stock, but to have the bushing end deflect more towards the center of the car. I used the other arm as a jig when I did the welding. This way, I maintain the same length as factory. When I finished welding the first one and verified it was the same length as the other one, I used it as the jig for the second arm. It actually worked out pretty well.

In the third pic, the initial gusseting is some 1" square bar (cant remember the gauge). It was mostly to establish the angle.

I forgot to take more pics, but I added some additional gusseting and reinforcement with some 1/8" steel plate and a lot of welding. Now I have about an inch more room on the inside of the wheel. I took the car out and did some launches (which I'm assuming would be the hardest on the arms) and they're still in one piece, so I think it was a success.
 

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#3 ·
They shouldn't. The only other thing that is in that area is the head of the bolt for the shock mount. I have about 1/2" clearance on that bolt head. Everything else has plenty of room, especially the wheels :)

One thing to note, This took me pretty much all day. Most of that time was spent lowering the subframe to get the arms out, then re-installing them. I put the bolts in the bushing end the wrong way the first time because I hate how they drop in from the top. I figured out why they did that. They are too long and would hit the body of the car with any kind of subframe deflection. In hindsight, I should have just cut the bolts shorter and put them in there how I want them. It only took me about an hour to actually do the modifications to the arms. If you are a mechanic and you are a good welder/fabricator, this isn't too difficult a modification.
 
#6 ·
Another thing to note, I'm pretty sure this will only really work on 19"+ wheels, unless I could get a set of wide 18"s and see where they rub. There may not be enough room for the modification for 18s.


I wouldn't mind getting a group buy started. Does anyone have BMR or MAP trailing arms and would like to sell your old trailing arms?
 
#7 ·
Dude, awesome job!!! That's exactly what I had pictured in my head when I was dealing with my LC wheels rubbing on my TA's. Unfortunately I have ZERO fabbing experience and ZERO welding experience (unless soldering counts...?), so I couldn't bring my plan to fruition. I contacted wheeldude and told them about the issues I was having. Since they'd assured me more than once that the wheels would fit my application without any fitment issues, they actually covered the cost of the MAP TA's for me, so that was awesome. Timing was perfect and I was lucky enough to get one of MAP's last sets of TA's (without bushings).
Since Adam is no longer producing the MAP arms, I think you'd have quite the little side project on your hands if you took this on. You'd be doing a huge favour for a lot of members, and probably even helping out wheeldude with sales! Just be aware that once you come up with a price, you'll have all the usual suspects griping about it being too expensive for 'something they could do on thier own'. lol
Also of note, the BMR trailing arms are NOT offset for wider wheels. They're actually WORSE for clearance because they're larger diameter tubing. Unless they've started producing a 2nd set of TA's that I didn't come across when I was looking for em...?

Anyway ... if you can cover the shipping, my old TA's are all yours if you'd like em. The MAP's didn't cost me anything, so I can pay that forward for sure. I can send 'em from Michigan rather than Ontario which will make shipping significantly cheaper and quicker too. Just let me know.
 
#8 ·
I didn't realize MAP arms were out of production. If that's the case, I may start building bulletproof fabricated arms for the car out of square steel tubing and a spherical ball joint as well as the modified stock ones. I would need a set to start building a jig as a start, so I'll take you up on your offer. If you can give me your paypal, I'll send you some shipping monies :)
 
#12 ·
#15 ·
Fair enough. I'll start getting stuff together to get this done. I'm thinking a set of premium arms that are totally fabricated from heavy wall square tubing with johnny joints instead of bushings and a set of widened factory arms. This way, we have an option for people who want to keep the stock rubber in the suspension and save some $$ and an option for those who want something bullet proof and stiff.

I still need to start with a set of arms to build jigs.
 
#18 ·
Dibs!!!!! I'll mail mine for a free set of fabed arms!!!
 
#21 · (Edited)
I have 18" stock wheels that I want to widen eventually. Engine is at the machine shop. Transmission is at the trans shop. She's not going anywhere soon.
 
#24 ·
You said what you did here wouldnt work with widened 18" wheels. Is there something else that could be done that would work? I'm just starting the process of looking into widening my wheels and looking for what sort of problems doing so might cause.
 
#25 ·
OP Sorry for the wait, but I still haven't had the chance to look into packaging and shipping my TA's to ya. To be honest, I don't even know where they are right now. lol. I WILL get to this; just need the time. Why don't you PM me your shipping address so once I do get a chance, I can send em off right then. We'll deal with the money afterwards.
 
#28 ·
Lol that's funny. I could have swore you said free set for whoever offered. So much for that deal I guess.
 
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