[s-cars] Help with rear control arm replacement

[Dave Ellis]

Hey Sean!

O.k, now I'm a little confused.  In previous posts on the topic of 
squeaking appearing after installing lowering springs in the rear, the 
consensus was that new control arm bushings were needed.

Where I'm getting confused I believe is figuring out what part the rear 
"control arm" being referred to really is, and what part is really at 
the root of the squeaking.

So far I have two possible culprits:


Possible Culprit #1:
--------------------
   Track Control Arms (ETKA)
   Transverse Linkage (Bentley)
      p/n 443 505 351 P -left
          443 505 352 P -right

Possible Culprit #2:
--------------------
   Trapezoidal Arms (Bentley)
   I can't even find this one in ETKA


Any insight you may be able to offer to clear this up for me would be 
appreciated Sean.

Thanks!
-Dave



Sean Douglas wrote:
> Dave:
> 
> Having just gone through a complete suspension overhaul, this is still fresh 
> in my mind.
> 
> Bentley refers to them as "trapezoidal arms". Have you priced out a new set? I 
> hope you are sitting down :-)
> 
> The trap arms are very robust, and are coated with a rubbery-like paint to 
> limit corrosion. Working on a donor set, I used a wire wheel to clean them and 
> painted them with an epoxy chassis paint and installed new bushings - actually 
> if you contact Gabriel, he has my old set which were in pretty good condition 
> and he may sell these to you. That way you can work on them ahead of time.
> 
> Dave K's advice is spot on, I torched out the rubber and punched out the 
> centre piece, then used a sawzall, and carefully cut the outer ring. Then I 
> punched out the ring with a drift.
> 
> I used a press to install the new bushings - perhaps a machine shop can do 
> this for you if you don't have access to one.
> 
> Also, you may want to consider reconditioning the toe-adjustment bracket at 
> the rear and the front support bracket and related bushings.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Sean D
> 1997 S6