[DeTomaso] Adjustable Rear upper a-arms

Mon May 31 15:12:59 EDT 2010

Julian,

    Do you mean like these:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Mr-Roadster-4-Bar-Rod-Ends,25122.html

Ken

--- On Mon, 5/31/10, Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Adjustable Rear upper a-arms
To: tborcich at msn.com, kenn_green at yahoo.com, "De Tomaso List" <detomaso at realbig.com>
Date: Monday, May 31, 2010, 11:25 AM

Tom,

You don't have to use heims, take a look at the aftermarket aluminum pieces that PIM or Byers sell and they have screw in poly bushing holders. Keep them narrower than stock and you can have some fore/aft movement, although personally I'm not convinced there is any real benefit in the fore/aft adjustment in the rear, other than perhaps to compensate for any small individuality of our cars.

FWIW both my cars are set up with aftermarket rear arms thet have a heim in place of the ball joint, like this;

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=20217

The fact is that with either the inboard adjustment or outer heim you still have to disassemble the suspension to make an adjustment (albeit a little less cumbersome with the outer heim IMO). If your fabricator is a good one he should be able to come up with a more typical race car design that uses opposing threaded tubes with lock nuts so all adjustments can be made on the car. I looked into this for a while for both front and rear, but it never culminated in an actual working piece, although it's something I might come back to when time permits.

Take a look at SPC Performance (www.spcperformance.com) they have all the adjuster tubes and inboard parts, all you really need to fabricate is a means to mount a Pantera taper ball joint in the outer ball joint plate.

I have 4 upper rear a-arms on the shelf, I think they fetch ~$100/pair on a good day. Adding heims or the screw ends with bushings to them on the inboard side would be a relatively easy conversion.

Good luck,

Julian

> From: tborcich at msn.com
> To: kenn_green at yahoo.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 10:05:27 -0700
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Adjustable Rear upper a-arms
> 
> 
> Ken, that's a good thought...I thought about just adding rod ends at the chassis side of the A-arms which would then allow quite a bit of adjustment (fore and aft/in and out). That would also be an easier modification by just adding a threaded bung to the tube of the OEM A-arms. Only bad thing is by adding rod ends/heim joints at the chassis, you eliminate all the give/shock absorbsion that the bushings have. Not sure that's such a big deal especially with the new harder bushing material already doing that. 
> 
> I do remember now that you mention it there was mention of binding.
> 
> Tom
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 09:52:12 -0700
> From: kenn_green at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Adjustable Rear upper a-arms
> To: tborcich at msn.com
> 
> Tom,
> 
> If you have new upper rear control arms fabricated, you might want to have the adjustment in the carrier end and include a front back abjustment, like the front caster adjustment, so you can line up the ball joint with the lower control arm. Pat Mical claims that there is a binding in the rear suspension because the ball joint tape in the top of the carrier is not aligned ball joint. 
> 
> I guess you could look at it and see if you think it's a big deal. I never checked to see if there was much miss alignment.
> 
> Ken
> 
> --- On Mon, 5/31/10, Tom Borcich <tborcich at msn.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: Tom Borcich <tborcich at msn.com>
> Subject: [DeTomaso] Adjustable Rear upper a-arms
> To: "Pantera REALBIG forum" <detomaso at realbig.com>
> Date: Monday, May 31, 2010, 9:32 AM
> 
> 
> 
> This thread got me thinking about adding the adjustable rod end joint to my upper rear a-arms while their off. I see two options:
> 1. Modify the stock ones by cutting out the old ball joint and adding a 3/4" rod end. Not the cleanest way to go. OR
> 2. Have my fabricator make new rear a-arms from chrome moly with the adjustable rod ends.
> 
> My fabricator is leaning to doing all new arms first because he doesn't like modifying the original part (their original after all). What's an original a-arm worth these days? Anyone been there done that?
> 
> Tom
> 
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