Reply to "Cracked control arm"

Ghostrider,

I think Mark Charlton has hit the nail on the head. Assuming you haven't hit anything, this looks like the result of lower shaft seizure. Your not even running big wheels. My car was seized on both sides when I bought it, although it had not gone as far as snapping an arm.

I think you should replace the arm because that whole area around the crack will be work hardened. It is repairable or coarse but I dont think you will have a hard time finding a replacement as quite a few people have changed to billet aluminium arms. I dont like the ally arms because they are much heavier than the steel ones.

What you need to do is buy two lower shaft rebuild kits form Steve wilkinson. This kit includes a new shaft, bronze bushes, thrust washers, end caps and seals.

The reason these things seize in the first place is because there is no way to grease them. I overcame this buy drilling and tapping the hub carrier for a grease nipple. Then (and this is the most important bit) have an engineer make a spiral cut on the inside of your bronze bush so that the grease can get to the bearing surfaces and also reach the thrust washers.

Dennis Q from Pantera Performance does a lower shaft kit that has a grease nipple in the end of the shaft and a hole in the middle to let the grease into the hub carrier. This would save you having to drill and tap your hub carrier. You would still need to have the 'spiral cut' cut into the bearings though.

Another alternative is to take the hub carriers to your local engineering shop and ask them to do the whole job for you. They can turn down your original shafts to remove the worn bit and then make the bronze bushes to that size and cut the spiral. You would still have to get the thrust washers from Wilkinson though because these are unique and have some kind of teflon surface. Make sure you use that black molybdenum grease.

The best to check for rear hub carrier wear is to jack the rear of the car off the ground, grab hold of the wheel top and bottom and feel for movement. If there is any play at all it's your axle bearings. Then grab the wheel side to side 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, if you can feel any movement at all it's your lower shaft.

Johnny