Club 80-90 Forums

Clearanced my R̶a̶d̶i̶u̶s̶ Trailing arms today to allow a bit more tyre space






The last picture shows the clearance with a 235 70 16 tyre on a 7J x 16 ET33 wheel.

Would you say thats enough clearance?

PS how do you post pictures direct in a post rather than a link??

On the image link tab copy and paste the one that says img code. Picture will the appear instead of a link.
Looks like you have enough clearance there, are you going to need spacers to run that size at the front?

Thanks for that Lloydy.

Yes i will need a spacer on the front, havnt got that far yet. I might not go that big on tyre size. It was just an old Landrover tyre i had knocking about so thought if i made radius arm suitable for that size then i should be ok.

[pedant] that's a trailing arm, the radius rod is on the front suspension. [/pedant]

Simon Baxter wrote:[pedant] that's a trailing arm, the radius rod is on the front suspension. [/pedant]

I think i knew that as well ! Cracking up i am

I have a concern... As far as the mot test is concerned repairs to suspension components is not allowed and is a fail...that could be viewed as a patch repair and may result in failure...just a thought..

max and caddy wrote:I have a concern... As far as the mot test is concerned repairs to suspension components is not allowed and is a fail...that could be viewed as a patch repair and may result in failure...just a thought..

Good point, I will have to see if it gets picked up on. Probably wont for me as I have a friendly MOT inspector.
I'm quite happy with the welding and I don't think I will of lost any strength. I have seen this md done plenty of times before.

agree^^^ , though for future proofing as far as it goes its maybe worth considering modding these in a way that looks more like vw would have done it and they could never be construed as a repair
mm

A wheel spacer would have brought the Tyre away from the arm, been a bit easier and quicker and it's reversible.
Plus, clearance depending it would give a useful increase in track.

I agree, it would have to look a good deal better to pass muster at my usual MOT centre, though will no doubt be quite serviceable provided the weld has penetrated well.

Looks a bit wider heat damage than expected, but until i do the same repair soon i perhaps shouldn't comment. Will think the reinforcement through a bit first, as that original flange is a good stiffener... fortunately most crucial parts on vehicles are heavily overdesigned from scratch, and it's rare to see or hear of something collapsing, even when old & corroded.

The last picture shows the clearance with a 235 70 16 tyre on a 7J x 16 ET33 wheel.Would you say that's enough clearance

?

Can't truly see from that last picture TBH.
Anything is good for when the real sticky clay starts flying, and sapping the power, though i suppose you could say a close fit cleans the tyre

HarryMann wrote:

The last picture shows the clearance with a 235 70 16 tyre on a 7J x 16 ET33 wheel.Would you say that's enough clearance

?

Can't truly see from that last picture TBH.
Anything is good for when the real sticky clay starts flying, and sapping the power, though i suppose you could say a close fit cleans the tyre

Should of said second to last picture.

Here is how it was done on Das Mule. I didnt want to go as far as that.




Im not keen on wheel spacers if i can help it. Also didnt want the sliding door catching on the tyre.

Had a trailing arm off my T5 recently and compared to the T25 arm its nowhere near as well engineered. The steel must be half the thickness. Thats why you can see the heat marks after welding, it took quite a few amps to get full penetration using TIG

Here's how Burley Motorsports do it


They remove all the pinch weld then weld on the reinforcement plate. Looks nice and could be thought to be standard by Mr MOT.

Here's Syncrodougs modified arm

A big lump of metal removed from that one, much more than i needed.

That's great documentation...
Burley re-weld the seam first, before laying the reinforcement over?
Not sure why they come all the way back to the bearing housing.

The T5 arms will have been stressed and optimised using CAD, as well as the
fact that weight and steel usage is more critical these days.
The bodies use boron steel to allow reduced thickness, doubt if the arms are though

Am I correct in thinking that Seikel make investment cast rear arms for the T3?