I recently purchased an 83 Z28, a different one from previous, and the PO removed the torque arm stating its no longer needed because of the aftermarket lower control arms. I have a hard believing this. I do have the torque arm but no bolts and worse, no trans mount for it. Its a T5 car and I cant find a torque arm mount for this vehicle. Is it in fact really needed? Where can I find a mount? Any help greatly appreciated.

 

Unless it's been set up with a 4 link rear suspension, it's gonna need a torque arm.
Pictures would help?

 

I have a complete torque arm & mount for the t5, less bolts on the differential. If lnterested pm me.

 

In stock form, the torque arm is absolutely indispensable. The car is not drivable without it AT ALL. Barely even towable.

There are aftermarket lower arms available, that attach to the axle housing, and are basically the same as ladder bars; with those, the torque arm cannot be used anymore. Can't recall who makes them, Hotchkiss maybe. But they are TOTAL CRAP for any but the weeniest of drag race applications, and TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE for the street. If that's what it has, get that out of there, ASAP.

The setup Gordon has sounds like exactly what you need. You'll HAVE TO get rid of that other crap, so you'll need stock-like lower control arms and Panhard bar as well. I'd recommend NOT stock since those are so weeeeeenie you can bend them with your hands, but rather, ones like some of the board sponsors have, such as BMR & UMI. You most likely don't need adjustable, or rod ends or anything fancy, just plain old fixed-length ones with poly bushings should be fine, especially for the control arms. The Panhard, adjustable MIGHT be desirable, but probably not necessary.

 

Sorry, it was Lakewood that made that crappy thing, not Hotchkiss.

 

Thanks for the reply's guys. I thought so. Gordon, I sent you a PM

 

 

So this is what’s under there. It appears to be a boxed lower control arm but a bolt going through the back of the mount attaching the control arm for limited movement. If that makes any sense

 

First, I am not an expert on this just using think through this process. It appears to me that if you hit a bump and compress the coil springs, the fixed end on the axle will not move and all the vertical motion will have to pivot at the frame mount. To me that means the differential will turn rotating down in front when the rear springs compress. Not sure what that would do but seems like when one side hits a bump it causes torsion on the differential housing as one side tries to rotate forward and down while the other side tries to stay put. Hmmm, weird wheel hop if you hit a bump??? Stress on u-joint?? Wear in pinion??

 

Yeah that's ... ummmmm, yeah.

Get it out of there and put it back right.

 

I second the putting it back to stock... A couple of people have the front torque arm bracket (mounts to the tail piece on the transmission) for sale on EBay... The bolts from the rear of the torque arm you can probably find on a donor car or maybe even on EBay.. Maybe somebody knows the size and you could order it from a Fastenal or Grainger.. There are thick washers that go on the differential torque arm bolts.

 

Yes I agree, but does anyone know what kind of set up this is?

 

curious, any other pictures?

 

As for me, I have never seen anything like it....

 

I will try to get some more pictures up this evening. Thanks guys

 

Hack job.

Hopefully that weld at the shock bolt doesn't connect the control arm to the shock bracket directly; you'd have to cut that off to get rid of it all. If it's just some kind of loop that goes under the shock bolt it wouldn't be so bad. Doesn't look like that though, looks to me more like there's a wizz wheel in your future.

I notice also, that whoever did this, in their infinite wisdom, left the parking brake cable off. That's illegal in most places besides just being bald-faced STUPID.

 

That setup took away articulation and results in suspension binding up.

 

What company would have sold something like this??!! I asked the guy I bought it off of, and he cant remember. He has owned the car for 30 years and this was a kit he bought back in the 90's for it. It came with the control arms as pictured along with the subframe connectors and a drive shaft loop.

 

No idea. I can think of very few WORSE ways to modify a suspension, however.

Who made it, doesn't matter anymore. I don't think your local sanitation engineering firm will treat it any differently emptying it out of your dumpster no matter whose mistake it was.

 

Nothing coming off the top of the axle somewhere........3 link?

 

Nope. I did manage to find the receipt. I'm at work now, but I will post it later. "Lift bar/Subframe Connectors" Part # SSM-P1316 I think. I might have the numbers wrong. Purchased from Summit Racing in 1992. I'm guessing the SSM is for South Side Machines??

 

Yup, South Side Machine was a significant vendor of racing suspension things back then. Could easily be theirs. Might be a version of what they called "lift bars".

 

 

You can read about the SSM bars in the booklet: How to run 11 second ET's 82-92 Camaro/Firebird
see page 12

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ml#post5737204
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ml#post5737412

Here is the actual book to view: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ml#post6373984

 

Awesome old throw back there. I’ll check those articles out when I get to my desk top tomorrow. Thank you

 

You're welcome.
That booklet doesn't even come up on Google any more.

 

Old school lift bars, they made them for a few different chassis. Essentially they try to keep the rear pivot from moving turning the rear suspension into a ladder bar setup, in the process you need to remove any other links that stabilize the rear axle in a rotational axis (torque arm on f-bodies, upper control arms on things like mustangs...). They work at the dragstrip/for straight line use until you're making enough power/have enough traction to start flexing/bending the part that keeps the rear pivot from pivoting, and at that point they'll stop working and you'll likely start breaking things (I would guess U-joints first but i don't know for sure). OTOH, I know that people have run into the 9's with these kinds of setups, so if you just care about going in a straight line then you can keep them.

My overrated and underappreciated $.02:
- if this is just a toy to take to the dragstrip and maybe bracket race... then just leave it like it is until you baseline it and decide what you want to do with it/how fast you want to go, make sure the rest is in good shape first.
- if this is just a streetcar/driver that you care about ride quality in: get some stock parts and put them on
- if this is a streetcar that you intend to drive fast, take to the track occasionally... take a look at aftermarket torque arms, LCA's, PHR and LCA brackets and replace them with aftermarket. They are not necessary to go really fast (I would argue that aftermarket PHR is the only thing necessary to get a stock suspension in good condition into the high 9's), but most people end up swapping them well before they're really necessary.