Holy broken control arm Batman!!

[marc]

A few months ago I noticed that the right inner tie rod end was starting to develop some play. The other day I heard a thumping noise from the right front and the car pulled slightly when braking. My thoughts were "I better address that tie rod" and "I can't believe that tie rod end got so bad so quickly". Well I had the part, I just needed the inner tie rod removal tool. So off to Harbor Freight this morning. Jacked up the car and what do I discover, a broken control arm. Luckily I had NOS control arms in the basement.

[wheming]

Yikes!
Glad you found it and things didn't go differently.
This could have had the makings of an entirely different kind of post!

[marc]

Glad you found it and things didn't go differently.

Me too! I believe the sway bar helped to keep things in place. I do check the front end from time to time. But just for looseness. You can bet I'll be looking for cracks along with looseness for now on. And the forgotten rear suspension too.

[2.216VTurbo]

I was thinking being a rust belt state might have contributed but there's not much rust on the arm and really none where it broke right?

[Johnny]

Oh Cr-p! Glad you are safe.

[marc]

I was thinking being a rust belt state might have contributed but there's not much rust on the arm and really none where it broke right?

I think it was just fatigue. It's not a box section. Kind of a flimsy.

[ShelbyTC16v]

The driver side control arm broke on my '85 shelby charger back in like '92 or '93 same spot, stub strut bushing. No idea why. No rust, potholes or 4 wheeling. It simply snapped.

[marc]

Oh Cr-p! Glad you are safe.

Johnny, you may be hearing from me. I believe the twisting of the rubber bushing from suspension travel slightly flexes the bracket fatiguing the metal.

[going4speed]

That's a fatigue failure for sure. Looks like it was 2/3 cracked before full fatigue failure.

[fixit]

wow.. i've gotta check mine

[iTurbo]

The driver side control arm broke on my '85 shelby charger back in like '92 or '93 same spot, stub strut bushing. No idea why. No rust, potholes or 4 wheeling. It simply snapped.

I had the same thing happen on my '86 Omni GLH once too. I decided to look under the car after it was making a thumping sound and the steering started feeling vague.

[ajakeski]

Rust Belt icy roads. A couple good slides into curbs will play hell on control arms.

[ShelbyTC16v]

I had the same thing happen on my '86 Omni GLH once too. I decided to look under the car after it was making a thumping sound and the steering started feeling vague.

That's exactly what got me to looking, it was the thumping sound. I knew it didn't sound right.

[marc]

iTurbo and Shelby TC, what kind of mileage did your control arms have on them? The 89 Shelby that I used for the swap had 105,000 miles and I did 25,000 miles.

[iTurbo]

iTurbo and Shelby TC, what kind of mileage did your control arms have on them? The 89 Shelby that I used for the swap had 105,000 miles and I did 25,000 miles.

I can't say on the mileage. They were control arms from an '89 Caravan I got from a junkyard. I used them when I rebuilt the suspension/chassis on the Omni GLH Turbo and used new Energy Suspension poly bushings on them. They weren't rusty, but I think I may have torqued them down improperly. When I replaced it, I put the car back down on the ground before tightening them back to spec. It's been fine ever since (10+ years ago).

[DevoBuzz]

I would go ahead and replace the other side right away too

[wheming]

And speaking of control arm bolt torque, does anyone have the recommended torque spec for the two bolts? And how about for the control arm stub strut torque like on the 89-90 van control arms. Would be nice tohave it at least referenced here.

[ShelbyTC16v]

iTurbo and Shelby TC, what kind of mileage did your control arms have on them? The 89 Shelby that I used for the swap had 105,000 miles and I did 25,000 miles.

I can't say for sure, it was so long ago. But it was definitely under 100,000 miles, probably around 75 or 80,000. I believe I did replace the stub strut bushings some time before it happened with a urethane one piece design. Maybe it had something to do with that?

[marc]

I can't say for sure, it was so long ago. But it was definitely under 100,000 miles, probably around 75 or 80,000. I believe I did replace the stub strut bushings some time before it happened with a urethane one piece design. Maybe it had something to do with that?

I can see how a polyurethane bushing can cause that. In the case of a dual pivot control arm a polyurethane bushing would allow for easier rotation I'm guessing.
I'm most definitely going to replace the left side arm. Being its the older arm, I'm first going to try polyurethane bushings just in that arm. Polyurethane bushings are not everyone's cup of tea. So if the NVH is acceptable to me, I'll install those bushings in the left new arm and do the same to the right side arm .

[iTurbo]

I would also recommend only doing the final torque on the control arm bolts and outer sway bar bolts after the car is sitting back down on the ground with the suspension loaded with the weight of the car if you haven't done it that way already.