[s-cars] Help with rear control arm replacement

[Peter Schulz]

Dave:

Have a help push down on the car while you listen closely...

I made the mistake of replacing the track control arms on my 91 200 
avant ( same rear suspension) with ones made by OCAP instead of Lemfoerder.

They squeak.

I may try to add a grease port to the ball joint to see if adding 
grease will get rid of the squeak.

Replacing them is relatively easy, they essentially are mini tie rods 
for the rear.
Just be sure that you understand how to properly loosen and tighten 
them, and use anti seize liberally on the threads.

Eyeball the existing adjustment by measuring it and then transpose it 
to the new parts.

You should have an alignment done shortly after the R&R...


-Peter

At 01:10 PM 8/9/2006, Dave Ellis wrote:

>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
>
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-Peter Schulz
Chelmsford Ma, USA
http://www.naaclub.org/

1991 200 20v Q Avant Titan Grey
1991 200 20v Q Avant Indigo Mica
1991 90 20v Q Red

1990 CQ silver (awaiting S2 engine transplant)
1991 CQ silver  (potentially replacing the 1990 for  the transplant)
1990 CQ red ( to part or not)