Has anyone broke one of these yet? (Rear Lower Control Arm Endlink Tab)

[PQ]

I was under the car the other day and decided to inspect the entire underneath. Well, I found this broken braket peice that is basically the control arm. It is the peice welded onto the control arm that the end links to the sway bar connects to.

Pete, at Pedders, has gracefully offered me one he's had at the shop from early testing. So I didn't have to go buy one but I'm curious if anyone else has had a problem with this piece.

As you can see, the end link tore through the braket. Also pictured is the other side that seems to be good.

There is a split in the other side braket and I don't know if it's a crack or is it supposed to be that way?

Anyway, any feedback would be cool.







UPDATE: Repaired........

Ok, last night I replaced the LCA and puet Pedders end links and sub-frame bushing inserts on the car. I'll do the CA bushings today.

As you can see, it’s NOT a good idea to break one of these. The end link was completely outside of the LCA and had separated the whole ball joint.



Here you can see material from the LCA bracket between the end link nut.




Another pic of the damage from the top. Is it my imagination, or does the new arm bracket look a tad thicker?



More damage. You can clearly see how it broke through.





The ball broke clean from the assembly. Lol




No doubt this is tight. LMAO, I torque this with my body weight pretty much.




Here you can see where my old end link had come lose before and I moved it to the inside. (stiffest) And yes I moved the other side then as well. Lol



I attached the Pedders end link before I installed the LCA.




My professional work area.




I set the end links to the shortest setting possible. The set nuts could be tighter but I did the best I could. They like to separate on the other one when tightening the first one.




As it turns out, when the finish is worn away, there IS a joint here. Can’t imagine why but I confirmed it on both arms. The coating disguises it but it’s definitely there. THIS IS NOT A CRACK. It’s an absolutely PERFECT joint. WAY to perfectly straight and true to be a crack.




Pedders most definitely more ‘Robust’ as Pete put it.




Ok, so inspect my work………. Lol




Front sub-frame insert.




Rear sub-frame insert. See that pin at the top? That was a BITCH to get to go back right. The struts were not wanting to align with the LCAs and the front cradle joint was up so I had to wedge something between them to hold it down to balance it backward and zip tie the struts to a position in the LCAs to get them to guide in place………… OMG, that was a pain.





Nother Update:

Second arm is failing......

[Indpowr]

PQ + Bonnie on the hood = split in the other side braket

Just saying...

[PQ]

Originally Posted by Indpowr

PQ + Bonnie on the hood = split in the other side braket

Just saying...

It's a rear braket......... LMAO

Which would actually make more sense.

[Camaro21]

I will have to look at mine, but I haven't noticed anything like that before....

[Silver2SSRS6spd]

Wow, that is not good. I'm putting my car on jack stands tonight for some other mods and will be checking mine out to make sure the same hasn't happened to my car.

[LightningSS]

That's a pretty poorly designed bracket from a strength and loading stand point. The amount of material on the upper side vs the diameter of the fitting is way too small. I'm willing to bet other people will find this broken too.

When load is applied to the rod it will twist the fastener in the hole. Since this is a suspension part it obviously sees many many loadings and unloadings everyday (every time you drive it actually). You can clearly see how repeated loading made the hole oblong shaped until the fitting pulled out.

When I changed out my sway bars my first thought was this style of rod should have a forked end instead of the single-sided end.... Now you can see why.

[LightningSS]

Son of a b!!!

I just went out to look and mine, and look at what I find on the driver's side:

The nut is gone, but bolt undamaged it seems. The passenger side nut was loose, I could turn it with my fingers....

I hated these tierods the moment I installed my sway bars. To torque the nut you have to use a hex key to hold the bolt or the fitting just spins. Which is ok, but apparently I didn't do a good job.

I can't believe I didn't feel the problem, but it is winter around here and I haven't been ripping around much...

This is my fault for not checking the instl after a time, but those lower fittings are still a crap design (but mine look ok for now).

If anybody makes tierods with forked ends let me know I'll be the first in line... Time for a locking nut or some safety wire too.

[TJ91]

wow are you guys serious?!
Pq, did the pfadts cause it or no? Not sure if you would know or not but im just trying to figure out whether I should do drop springs or not because of a poorly designed piece that will or may eventually fail

[MIQ]

I'll be installing my rear springs today and will inspect them. I only have 500 miles on it right now so I don't expect to see anything wrong. Or will I? :(

[IPS Brandon]

Originally Posted by PQ

I was under the car the other day and decided to inspect the entire underneath. Well, I found this broken braket peice that is basically the control arm. It is the peice welded onto the control arm that the end links to the sway bar connects to.

Pete, at Pedders, has gracefully offered me one he's had at the shop from early testing. So I didn't have to go buy one but I'm curious if anyone else has had a problem with this piece.

As you can see, the end link tore through the braket. Also pictured is the other side that seems to be good.

There is a split in the other side braket and I don't know if it's a crack or is it supposed to be that way?

Anyway, any feedback would be cool.

Well that sucks.

I would chalk that up to a rare and unusual production failure. I have not seen that yet, and I wouldn't consider that to be the norm by any stretch.

Regards

[Darth_Emma]

Originally Posted by TJ91

wow are you guys serious?!
Pq, did the pfadts cause it or no? Not sure if you would know or not but im just trying to figure out whether I should do drop springs or not because of a poorly designed piece that will or may eventually fail

PQ doesn't have the Pfadt end links. He has the Pfadt springs and sways. His end links are stock.

I have the Pfadt end links (with springs and sways) on mine and I don't seem to have this problem... right Brandon?

[hypurone]

Originally Posted by Darth_Emma

PQ doesn't have the Pfadt end links. He has the Pfadt springs and sways. His end links are stock.

I have the Pfadt end links (with springs and sways) on mine and I don't seem to have this problem... right Brandon?

I have run the Pfadt bars on stock links with no problem for 5000mi before deciding to switch to their links (still no problems).

I hate to say it, but in looking at the pics, I see rust around the mounting holes which usually indicates they were run "loose" and that will chew sh1t up real quick!

[PAUL SS]

Hey PQ, are your springs binding? I was looking at the first photo and noticed the ring of rust on the coils like the paint had been worn off by rubbing on each other. Just something you may want to consider. Good Luck.

[Scott@Bjorn3D]

Yeah those springs do not look good at all. Something is very wrong.