[DeTomaso] a arms

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/15/10 8 52 46, boyd411 at gmail.com writes:


> Who can tell me about replacing my stock a arms with either new 
> replacements
> , or billet replacements , or replacements that are supposed to improve 
> the
> camber and Castor.
> 

For awhile, the vendors tried to convince people that switching out the 
stock A-arms to billet aluminum ones was an improvement.   Besides the bling 
factor, the premise was that because they were aluminum, they were lighter.

The reality is far different.   My lower rear A-arms were a bit rusty and 
one broke when Jack DeRyke was helping me out, pressing out a totally rusted 
lower shaft way back in 1989.   He welded it back together but I was always 
dubious of their structural integrity (it should never have broken to begin 
with!) and so I 'upgraded' to billet aluminum ones (just the lower rears).

Turns out the new ones are insanely heavy!   Like, 3x the weight of the 
stockers!

Chromemoly steel is the way to go as far as I'm concerned.   Although I'm 
not getting rid of my aluminum ones, if I had to do it all over again I'd 
definitely go with steel.   Dennis Quella is the only one I know of who sells 
replacements for the lower rear A-arms; they are beautifully made, and not 
all that expensive (they are less than the billet aluminum ones, I'm sure).

Really though, if you don't have an actual need to replace your A-arms (due 
to crash damage, rust etc.) then why bother?   Some cars have collapsed a 
bit in the center, and can benefit from longer upper A-arms.   Some vendors 
sell replacements that have heim joints replacing the stock bushings (on the 
inside), or alternately, heim joints replacing the stock upper ball joint 
(on the outside).   But I think the best, smartest and certainly the cheapest 
solution is to just buy fixed-length, slightly longer upper A-arms.   This 
then corrects any alignment problems, and lets you set the alignment in the 
rear using shims on the lower A-arms as was originally intended.

Precision Proformance is the only outfit I know of that sells them; they're 
cheap!

http://precisionproformance.com/sc2020.htm

You really don't need to do anything to the front, although the front 
A-arms are only spot-welded together, and Dennis Quella likes to seam-weld them 
for increased strength.

So, my recommendations would be:

1)   Do nothing, unless you have to.

2)   If you have to do something, do as little as possible, as cheaply as 
possible

3)   Whatever you do, don't waste your money on expensive, heavy aluminum 
A-arms like I did!!!

Mike