Just kidding, mine was coming apart on the bottom where the bolts go through. I decided to build a replacement.

If you are interested,

• The housing plates are 3/8 x 2
• The tubing is 1.250 x .100
• The tailshaft plate is 1/4 x 1.5
• The color is primer. It will be black.

If you are thinking about making your own torque arm, make a jig so you can have the housing plates bolted down out in the open while you weld it together. That way they will be right when you are under the car trying to put it on. Mine came with the Moser 9" Also, make sure you get the pinion angle right if you aren't going to make it adjustable.

 

Looks like what I wanted to do for a while now... use the factory torque arm for the bushing and fab the rest. How did you go about checking your pinion angle?

 

Yea, I was going to drill a big hole through my bushing, but the stock setup fits so nice in that area I decided to let it alone. Also, a new bushing costs $3, so I can replace it anytime if I need to.

Pinion angle:

• Measured the angle of the u-joint cup at the trans. output relative to level (using a bubble level)
• It was pointed down 2.5 degrees
• So for 0 pinion angle I needed to make the pinion point up 2.5 degrees relative to level

I made the lower bar and plate, and bolted it to the housing. I used that as a lever to twist the housing till I had the right angle, then I measured how much bend the lower arm would need so that it would hit the front plate at the bushing. Then I heated and bent the tube, put it back on and double checked. All good, so I tacked the plate on, took the lower arm off and built the upper arm.

 

Hmmm... I always thought that any positive pinion angle was bad.. it should always be -2 -4 degrees down (toward pavement) BW

 

Yea, -2 to -4 for drag racing. You want 0 when you are doing whatever it is you do. So you go for -2 or so if you have lots of HP and drag race a lot. Then under load it goes to 0. Otherwise under load it would be positve. If you don't drag race a lot, or don't have lots of power, I hear that you should stick with 0 or maybe -1 so you aren't messing up the harmonics.

 

stock and most street cars is negitive a couple of degrees.

drag racing and some other high horsepower road racing is usually a lil more.

really the concept is, when under load, the driveshaft is as straight as possible to limit the load (and wasted power) on the U joints.


so if yuo have a flexible rear suspension, like a leaf spring car, you might want more of a angle then a ladder bar or 4 link car.....

 

Freakin' awesome. Nice job!

 

Good job, looks to be very nicely done. I want some pics when it's all mounted up on the car too

 

any new pix?

 

nicely done. will u make me one if i pay enough?

 

Yes, I am disappointed in myself for that. If only I would have built a driveshaft safety loop when I built the torque arm, I wouldn't have fsck'd the floor when the rear u-joint broke. (I was WOT in 2nd gear, went over a bump that unloaded the tires, then they rehooked...)

 

Front.

 

Sorry everything under my car is so greasy. Looks like I need to do some cleaning.

If you send me your torque arm so I can make a template and cut off the end to reuse, I'd do it. Steel is cheap. I don't know what I'd ask for one, but if maybe 2 people wanted them, they would go quicker. I would improve my design a bit, mine is wierd because of the Ford 9". PM me anyone if you think you are interested. (I would estimate $175 ABSOLUTE MAX, less if I was doing 2 or 3)

 

Looks good in there, I think that'll be my next project now.

At least it wasn't the front u-joint that released. That would have been even less fun

 

so how is the home brewed TA doing?

 

No problems so far, I took a look at it the other day. Next I am going to make some control arms and cast my own polyurethane bushings.

 

how heavy is that torque arm of yours, i kdian liek the design
! but it should be adjustable i think! im goign to build mine soon, any more suggestions?

 

Making an adjustable one is a good idea, because it was a pain getting the pinion angle right. Once I got it, and finished welding it together, it was right on as far as pinion math goes. However, I don't like the pinion angle and would like it to be 'flatter' because the spring perches on the housing are not level anymore, and the springs catch up on stuff now sometimes. I would estimate that my old torque arm setup was 'off' by 6-7 degrees, maybe more. I didn't break the rear u-joint until after I 'fixed' the pinion angle. I would advise people to try to get the pinion angle close, but make sure that the spring perches are pretty close to level (a few degrees), the shocks and springs are not going to catch on anything, and the panhard bar isn't being twisted. As for the weight, I think it is heavier than a stock one, but not much. In my opinion, it could be made out of thinner 1.25 tubing, or 1.00, probably even .060 wall. My housing end plates were way thicker than necessary; .25 or .1875 would be sufficient. You could add a few more braces in between the two bars, like the BMR Extreme torque arm, but if your bars end up nearly parallel, like mine, then the cross bracing doesn't do much.

 

how would u go about making it adjustable.

 

Do a search, there is a post about a simple adjustable bracket with dimensions.

 

my search button just broke