Are trailing arms reversible?

[Jonnyb416]

Seem to remember reading something about this but can't find where and don't remember the answer!

Can anyone help or point me in the right direction please?

Cheers, Jon.

[billy739]

in theory yes

in practice no.

vw make 2 halves and weld them together.

but they add a strengthener inside the top part for the extra load of the spring , as well as the spring plate.

spring plate can easily be moved but you cant move the strengthener

[Jonnyb416]

I thought that looked the only difference. Cheers Billy.

[CovKid]

You could make a new strengthener though - depends how good you are at fabricating. Then just leave the old one in situ on the bottom. Not exactly the easiest shape to make, or get at, but it can be done.

[jamesc76]

You could make a new strengthener though - depends how good you are at fabricating. Then just leave the old one in situ on the bottom. Not exactly the easiest shape to make, or get at, but it can be done.

and get it wrong and it could end in disaster!

[CovKid]

Well, not sure I'd paint such a disaster picture. If its competently welded it'll be fine. Its just that on the spring side this strengthener helps counteract sudden hard bumps that might otherwise dent the top of the trailing arm. Fact is, eventually that will be the ONLY solution as good trailing arms are becoming harder to find. Its not really in the lightweight halfords hobby welder class but any industrial welder could tackle that. I have a neighbour who does work like that every day and all the jobs he's done for me have been far superior to what was there. I toyed with making a towbar for hours one Sunday morning, offering up bits of steel - he watched what I was doing, laughed, then wheeled out a beast of a mig welder and some heavy duty steel and had made the lot in 30 minutes. Its probably stronger than the rest of the van put together and thats the same philosophy with trailing arms. Do them right and do them well.

[jamesc76]

thats the piont I was hinting at Cov, my mig would do it fine just the average joe 's aint gonna be upto the task

[fairwynds]

Seem to remember reading something about this but can't find where and don't remember the answer!

Can anyone help or point me in the right direction please?

Cheers, Jon.

This is a link to my query on same subject - with pics. Same answer though, 'no' ! I was lucky as not too much corrosion, but if you view my posts you will see the reinforcing plates I had made up, to be on the safe side (together with the Brickwerks spring plates, and the T4 upper spring seats used as lower T25 ones...)

http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=96969" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fairwynds]

..............and some other good pics on this one too, if they help anyone..

http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... 6&start=45" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jonnyb416]

Thanks CovKid. The bloke I use for welding has over 25 years experience and has spoken to me about welding girders and stuff like that so should be up to the job, but until then what do people think of the one arm I have off at the moment?





Would it be a similar task to weld a new plate in when I eventually get the spring seat off before then fitting a new spring seat?

[Jonnyb416]

Forgot to say the rest of the arm is in excellent condition.

Thanks fairwynds, I have looked through loads of your trailing arm threads and found them very helpful

Cheers James I will make sure my welder is up to the job before thinking about it.

Jon.

[fairwynds]

Always difficult to tell how bad the remaining metal is (by that I mean how thin). Once those plates are spot drilled and removed you can set about tidying them up by JUDICIOUS use of an angle grinder (tickle them!!!) and then show your welder. I made up a cardboard template initially then tok the whole arm to an engineering place near me, who kindly laser cut a couple of reinforcing plates (per pics on my other thread). These worked a treat. Even with these plates and the Brickyard spring plates and the T4 packing plates, there was no noticeable ride height difference to my stock van. Good luck...

[faggie]

there is no way i would re use that arm on my van, look out for good 2nd hand ones , the new arms from vw are reversable as they have the bump stop on both sides of the arm but are very pricey

[jason k]

That arms goosed, go get a better one rather than repair it. Much safer.

[Plasticman]

Agree its not happy, if I was stuck i would take the top off,add a stronger folded stiffener then make and fit a new top , be stronger than new but at the end of the day ,time wise not worth it,but as an excercise be fun to do
mm