Opinions on AWD rear toe arm replacement.

[1LE]

So, we replaced a whole bunch o' stuff in the left rear recently. Went for the alignment and was sad to find that the rear toe arms were now frozen on both sides (and the left rear is horribly toed in). Looks like I'll be cutting them out. The question comes on the repair side...

The arms on the car have beautiful looking balljoint dust covers, but the arms are horribly rusted and I expect that the eccentric bolt/bushing will never come out of the arm again. So, those are likely a complete loss.

Besides the arms on the car, I do have a spare set left over from the rearend we used to do all the other work that made me need an alignment. Those arms are not rusted, with perfect condition eccentric bolts, but the bushings and balljoint dust covers are in horrible shape.

Is it worth my while trying to put new bushings (I assume prothane makes some for that application?) and new dust covers on the spare arms I have? How can I verify that the balljoints are good before I do so? If those balljoints are not good, are they replaceable? Time & labor is not an issue (I only had 1 race on my calendar this year, and well, with this discovery now, I'm probably not going to make it no matter what), but I really want to keep parts costs down to a minimum.

Or, do I just need to scrap everything and order 2 new arms anyways?

 

[Dsmkauai]

Check these out bro! Or new oem bars with new bolts and hardware. Megan Racing

 

[estoyaqui30]

Don't bother with Megan racing, these are much better. Less money too..

2G tubular & spherical rear Toe Arms - DSM Classifieds

 

[Dsmkauai]

^^ yes these are much better and I would highly recommend over the Megan!! I was waiting for him to have these available for my cars!! Soon as I have the funds for 3 sets I'm buying mine from him!!

 

[MITSUMURDOK]

Check out the freelance section of the classifieds, you might find something that interests you....that is the route I'm going if I ever get money again

 

[estoyaqui30]

^^ yes these are much better and I would highly recommend over the Megan!! I was waiting for him to have these available for my cars!! Soon as I have the funds for 3 sets I'm buying mine from him!!

I have set in transit. He has them in stock ready to ship.

 

[1LE]

Thanks for all the input!

I put in a call to my local shop to see if they carry the Megan Racing arms. For my particular use case those are my first choice. I want the adjustment on the bar like they both have, but I don't have any need for the spherical bearing and bump steer adjustment on the DSM classifieds unit. With all the dirt and gravel my car sees, the less moving , and less exposed, parts the better.

 

[dsmspick]

Another route is using a rear toe arm from a Sebring or avenger. It adjusts on the rod like the ones posted above. One thing is you have to find a ball joint for one of the sides since the Sebring arm doesn't have it. There is a thread about it some where on here. That's the way I'm going to do mine cause mine are seized and it seems the cheapest/simplest.

 

[1LE]

Another route is using a rear toe arm from a Sebring or avenger. It adjusts on the rod like the ones posted above. One thing is you have to find a ball joint for one of the sides since the Sebring arm doesn't have it. There is a thread about it some where on here. That's the way I'm going to do mine cause mine are seized and it seems the cheapest/simplest.

Interesting. I'll definitely keep that in mind. Those parts should be readily available locally too. One of my concerns is always future parts availability (having recently run into issues with discontinued parts for both of my cars and my motorcycle!), but there's a billion Sebrings on the road, those parts should be around for awhile.

 

[dsmspick]

Found the thread. Guess it was off an intrepid in his post. But none the less still all available at parts stores if needed down the road. http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/handling-tech/382953-cheap-rear-toe-arms-solution.html