I saw this and thought it looked like a good piece and a change from the norm. There is someone else that makes a short arm TQ arm....is it Spohn????

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...1317&langId=-1

 

BMR makes a short torque arm, it comes with a weld in cross member, where the JEGS arm just bolts up to your tranny tunnell. but youl gotta spend a lil more money for the BMR. and yes, spohn makes another one too, seems to be one of the best arms for our cars.

 

also note that the BMR unit has to weld to subframe connectors to be installed. - why would you want to go shorter? Unless you've made some drastic changes in your car and moved quiet a bit of weight to the back, you need all the leverage you can get. The longer bar has more leverage to plant the rear-tires.

 

Shagwell, I had to pipe in to help set the record straight so to speak I'm not flaming so please dont take this wrong either since I think one tends to see things at face value as opposed to whats really happening.

While one "think" the longer torque arm is planting the tires becuase we've all seen countless pictures of these F bodies squatting down out back, what is relly happening is the energy is being transferred into the chasis itself and the rear end itself is actually being lifted off the ground and not planting the tires like onw would think. 57kid had an excellent way of explaining it in techincal type terms of for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. so when the car body is pushing down, the rear diff is actually pushing up. It looks cool and all, but is not working right because anti squat is in the negative range.

A shorter torrque arm actually applies positive anti squat and when this happens you'll see the rear of the car either stay neutral and not move at all, or the rear end of the car will actually raise at the momnet of inital acceleration. This is because the IC is moved back with the shorter tq arm and thus increasing anti squat-this actually plants/drives the tires into the pavement/ground and is what you want...to a certain extent. You can achieve too much anti squat and the result is too the tires themselves are now taking all of the energy instead of bleeding some off into the suspension, so it is a balancing act to achieve max performance and getting as close to the fine line without going over for traction.

for the record the shorter arm works very well for lower hp cars, I was just over the 500hp and honestly consider with my set up is the max you can realistically take the short torqur arm and achieve consistant traction since I did have days in teh summer with greasey tracks traction was moving around a bit. Once your over that 500hp mark and have some suspension updates-especially a heavy duty rear sway bar like the wolfe craft unit or drag race inspired unit like I run, you will need to then go back to a longer torque arm to make the chasis absorb some of the power and not over power your rear tires.

Also if running slicks you have to have a certain amount of shock to make them work consistantly, a term called ptich rotating. If your not hitting the tires hard enough you will unload the chasis which will also unload the tires a split second after you let it eat and then your back to no traction again.

 

thats the arm im ordering on monday. (assuming i dont do too much superbowl partying... lol)

 

Very good explenation IHI. I may look into this for myself seeing it's a little less than a sphon unit. Only Question i have is how is this on the street? I plan on driving my car mainly on Sat. and Sun. Is it going to jolt the car at every bump in the road?? Thanks, dave

 

The only thing I can say honestly Is I dont know. I never really paid attention to what the car felt like before I started doing all the mods and even after all the modifications to everything-"I" dont feel or see anything out of the norm to say it's not livable on the street. I've lived with everything thus far and have no quams. If I wanted a cadillac I would've bought one, but I want a car to go fast and hook up, so I built it

When building a toy, you get by with ALOT more than if building a day to day cross country treking car, so built it to enjoy it.

 

I understand how the rear suspension works upon launch. - You actually "throw" the diff down to plant the tires, although most say it squats, due to the weight transferring to the back. - This is why double adjustable shocks are so nice. You can loosen extension and tighten compression as desired to let the rear go out easier, but keep it from re-bounding. I guess I'm used-to higher hp cars. Most of our 10.5 outlaw cars seem to be running point of center somewhere between 44" & 52", so I couldn't see a reason to go to a shorter arm. Leverage is leverage until you start spending to much time trying to go up instead of forward... W/ a 3-link, the torque arm plants the tires, the control arms move the car. So, using a longer torque arm gives you more leverage to plant the tires, you then adjust lca angle to either allow the rear to travel down faster/easier, or slower/harder to either try harder to hook the car, or to move forward.

- I do understand where a lesser powered car can throw the rear down easier w/ the shorter arm, thus providing more traction. As I stated, I guess I'm just used-to higher hp...