[s-cars] Help with rear control arm replacement

[Sean Douglas]

Hi Dave:

The "track control arm" is a threaded rod with a turnbuckle in the middle with 
a balljoint at one end and joint at the other. This is used to support the 
upper part of the wheel housing and adjust the camber of the rear wheels. The 
balljoint may be causing the squeeking.

I doubt the trapezoidal arm (trailing arm in ETKA) is the culprit. The rear 
main bushing typically goes bad, but there is no real metal to metal contact 
here.

Also, I forgot what year you have, but if its a 92-spec with the rear sway 
bar, the sway bar links (balljoints) may also be a source of the squeeking.

I'd have a helper bounce the rear of the car up and down while you crawl under 
to see if you find the source.

Sean

Quoting Dave Ellis <UrS4 at sympatico.ca>:

> 
> 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
> 
>