I bent the living hell out of mine and need an aftermarket one. All I hear about people running is the spohn piece. Why not edelbroke or SLP or some other company? I don't like spending $400+ on a TQ arm.

 

People don't use Edelbrock because of how you spelled it. There have been cases of their TQ arm threads stripping out and pulling out.

Don't know about the SLP one.

If you want to know what happens when you buy inferior products, take a look at the thread about the broken A-arm. That's why you don't buy cheap stuff (granted, that was the only one available at the time of her purchase, but I'm simply saying that Spohn is the way to go for any part that he makes).

 

Don't forget Kandied's Edelbrock one breaking at the weld.

 

I'm not saying I disagree.

But one "High Profile" member breaks a part, and now their stuff is crap? I never see people complain about Hotchis (who makes edelbrocks suspension parts).

Aftermarket parts fail, there are defects, and things don't fit, that goes for ever manufacture, big, little, sponser or not.

I guess I won't list out all the parts that I have had break, or not fit. You'll would be in trouble, you couldn't buy from anyone.

 

Andris broke a hotchis TA, after examining it he diagnosed the problem as being just plain crappy welds, it broke a bunch of welds on a launch.

I suspect that a lot of the broke TA problems have to do with geometry issues (ie, I’ve seen quite a few aftermarket rears that don’t quite line things up right) and install problems.

Not that this is the issue in your case, but from my experience, I would bet that more then half of the broken parts out there are in some way caused by the end user.

And I’ll second the listing broken parts thing… you can break anything if you try hard enough and *** knows I’ve tried (in most cases inadvertedly, but still).

 

I agree with both of you, and I will have to check Kandied's post again, but I believe his broke just pulling out of the shop/garage. That is wrong and really shows poor "engineering" from the manufacturer. If it broke while doing a burnout or at the track then I would say operator error but in this case his was not his fault.

Let me go back and dig up his post.

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How is that any diffrent my broken Spohn parts? If one person breaks something, it does not mean that the manufacture has a bad design, or has quality problems.

 

because the people that talk online, do just that... talk about the popular parts over and over.

goto the track and you'll see people running BMR, Jegster, ect....

 

I already have a spohn x-member, so I don't need the combo deal. And frankly, spohn's $hit weighs a ton. Do jegster and BMR make cheaper ones that just bolt to the tranny? I did a search on summitracing and they just came up w/ edelbrock. Maybe I'll search by manufacturer.

 

I totally agree but if the welds on his from backing out of the garage broke then I am more leary of their part, whether the batch or only one is defective.

 

BMR makes one that bolts to the tranney but the Jegster units bolt to a tranny tunnel bracket, I'm very happy with the way my adjustible Jegs is performing.

 

I went ahead and ordered the jegsters piece. It looked stronger and I wouldn't have to attach it to the trans, so it would be easier to work on. It's shorter so less weight, and stronger than a longer piece. Is it hard to install? Remove?

IHI, Do you have pics of it installed?

 

if you dont mind, could you snap pics of it when you get it?

thats the one i was thinking about for my car..... theres only one reason i havent bought it..... i donno anyone with a street car with one....

with that sliding link it has, im wondering if theres any audible "thunk" on decell/accel...... also, unless im POSITIVE its going to work, im leery of the number of holes it makes.... if its permanent, i dont mind modding the car... but if i may take it off... eeeh, thats alot of welding and grinding to repair.

pics of the install would be great.

 

I dont have any torque arm specific pictures, but I can tell you with 100% truth there is no audible thunking going on. To be completely honest after i greased it up and installed it I made a mark to see how much if any sliding of the torque arm actually takes place. To be perfectly honest, there is no tell tale signs of any sliding taking place and mark is still in exact spot as it was last year when I installed, hundreds of passes ddown the strip and thousands of street miles...

It is a beefy unit, only reason I went with it was thought of having more room in tunnel to run my dual 3" exhaust, well with this stout peice in there my idea was quickly shot in the foot. tranney removal will forever be easier though

I'm very impressed with it thus far, it gets pounded on EVERY weekend with 60's in the 1.48-1.53 area so there is some stress hitting sinc eI go off a transbrake. thousands of street miles (yes I actually drive the snot out of this during the summer) so IMO it's been through the ringer and still standing tall.

 

There is some movement. About 3/16ths of an inch. I remember Steve telling me that George Baxter had a MadMan Torque arm on his 97 SS vert that had a fixed mounting point for the front of the torque arm. I was actually at Maple Grove the day that Steve, his dad and George was trying to figure out why the car wouldn't 60' worth a damn. Later Steve noticed that it was fixed and told him that he needed to make it moveable. So George did and guess what, he went from running 10.1's or so to 9.2's. lol He gained 4/10ths in the 60' just by doing that.


Like I said there is some movement but not much.

Kat

 

So when I mount the x-member piece I should take into consideration that it will slip in and out 3/16th? I'm assuming this is something I'd have to grease on a reg. basis.

 

I usually take even the stock ones appart and shim them so they fit tight around the end (stock they usually have about a 1/4" gap) and then grease them up. If I don't have a reason to take them appart I will spray some silcon in there... donno if it really makes a difference, but I seem to be getting consistently better 60' then most people with much less work done to the suspension

 

I have the Jegster adjustable TA as well. It's pretty beefy, was nicely built, and went in without any surprises. It wasn't a fun install though. That's all I can say because I have no experience driving on it yet.

 

When I tried putting mine together last night the 2 bolt holes don't line up at all. The holes that connect the actual arm to the rear end bracket. I can get the top one in fine, but the bottom one (w/ the adj.) is way off. It might work if I adjust it so the adj. nut is pretty far out, but the instructions said to start w/ about 5 threads showing. Using those specs it looks like the 2 bars on the arm are too close together. The bracket has them farther apart, top to bottom. Did anyone else run into this?

 

Just a small correction - it was a Herb Adams decoupled torque arm that broke, due to bad weld penetration on the thin 1/8" to thick base plate steel, and also was a major stress riser at the corner the way it was designed. HA did send a replacement piece, but unfortunately, that didn't fix the bent driveshaft. I ended up grinding out all of their welds, and TIG welding it myself, as well as a bunch more trianglation braces to spread the load. That Tq Arm has since been removed and sold, and I'm in the middle of designing a 3 link setup that should weigh much less and be much stronger as everything is strictly tension and compression without bending as on a torque arm.

 

A three link would be a very neat setup. I assume it will take some major surgery to make that fit though. I'm more interested in how you plan to mount the upper 3rd link to the housing.

 

Weld it. I'm running a 9" housing already, so the only concern is to jig it and ensure it stays straight after welding. Hell, maybe I can get a degree or so of camber into it! It will need a cut in the tranny tunnel, but the front will mount to the tunnel and rollcage crossbar/seatbelt bar interstection. Add multiple holes up front, and you can adjust the anti squat from 50% to 150% easily. Offset it from centerline, and you counteract the tendency for the rear wheels to plant unequally on launches too, which will depend on your axle ratio, so no more airbags, although it's specifically for road racing in my situation.

Bill Mitchell SVD had a setup for SCCA American Sedan cars that attached to the 10 bolts directly, and didn't need a hole in the tunnel. I think his site is down, but it is in Google's cache.

 

I see. With a 9", there may be aftermarket mustang parts available to make most of the parts. IIRC there are a couple of mustang manufatures that make 3link kits.

 

ok, the 3 link is fascinating, but what about the bolt holes on my TQ arm that I just bought?

 

you might try to take the rear springs out (if they are not already), and maniplate the pinion angle with a jack, see if you can get the bracket to line up.

 

have the car sitting with jackstands on the chassis..

then place the jack on the rear of the axle... behind the axle centerline, but not just on the cover... as you lift, it will tilt the front of the axle down... and you can line up everything.

 

Ok, apparently I'm not real clear about my problem. I haven't even tried to bolt the TQ arm onto the car. Just trying to get the "arm" part to bolt to the bracket that goes on the rear. The TA was disassembled when I got it.

 

Here's a crazy idea. Talk to Jeg's? They'll likely send you a replacement (and you ship back what you have) after you talk to their tech.

 

Try running the adjustment nut in or out until you can pass the bolt through the hole. Once you have the bolt through and the nut on it you can re-adjust the TA to the "5 threads showing". I think mine was slightly off too but it was easily corrected.