Build your own trailing arms and Track bar

[JDMitchell]

I just bought my Expy a month or so ago and got a killer deal, but it needed some work that I knew about. My trailing arms and track bar need to be replaced. The upper trailing arms are the worst, so I decided to order some aftermarket arms from ebay ($165 + shipping). The lowers and the track bar were in decent shape but still need to be replaced. I decided to have my own made instead of paying PMT $700 for the five piece set. I did quite a bit of asking here on this forum and talking to the guys at Red9Fab (Red9Fab.com). They made some recommendations that I ended up going with. So here is your shopping list for tubing and supplies that you will need if you decide that this is something that you want to do. Keep in mind you will need to buy extra materials if you are making your own upper trailing arms.

I will warn you that most places will not sell DOM tubing under a full stick (10 or 20 feet depending on where you go) So this can get really expensive if you aren't as lucky as I am. Red 9 will sell you pretty much any length that you need so if you don't mind paying shipping they will hook you up.

Here is my list of supplies that I am using

8 ft of 1.5 o.d. .250 wall DOM tubing (trailing arms and track bar main piece) $80
1 ft 2.5 o.d. .500 wall DOM tubing (trailing arm bushing sleeves that need to machined to 2" I.D.) $10
1 ft 1.75 o.d. .375 wall DOM tubing (track arm bushing sleeves that need to be machined to 1.33")$7
1 package of 1/4 inch grease zerks $5

Here are the measurements that I have taken from the stock pieces (all in inches).

Trailing arms:
overall length- 20 3/8" on center
bushing mount sleeve- 1 7/8" wide
bushing mount I.D.- 2"

Track bar:
overall length- 47" on center
bushing mount sleeve- 1.35" wide
bushing mount I.D.- 1.33"

I am having everything welded up tomorrow and should pick it up on Friday. I will post pics of the finished product before I give them a coating of bed liner and install the new polyurethane bushings.

 

[panda24619]

that should give you some more flex too! and better handleing. i would actually make the track bar adjustable just in case you do lift it you can adjust it a little bit. just a though! i want to make a 4 link and i saw some who has his 2 upper links on the rear. kind of weird.

 

[JDMitchell]

that should give you some more flex too! and better handleing. i would actually make the track bar adjustable just in case you do lift it you can adjust it a little bit. just a though! i want to make a 4 link and i saw some who has his 2 upper links on the rear. kind of weird.

I wanted to keep it simple, I can alway cut my tubing (one of the reasons why I chose round tube) later down the road if I decide that I want to add in some threaded adjustment points.

 

[JDMitchell]

I bought stock sized polyurethane bushings from Energy Suspension for everything

trailing arms (I will have some extra since I bought the uppers with poly bushings already installed)- $89 shipped

Track Arm bushings- $15 shipped

Bolts, nuts and washers (total of 10 sets, 8 for trailing arms and 2 for track bar)- $40

Paint/Prep supplies- $20

Labor- case of beer for the Welding instructor at the VoTech

Total for everything including buying the upper trailing arms- $449 and a case of beer

To buy the steel and build the upper trailing arms would have knocked the cost down to about $300

So I am happy I went this route instead of paying $700 for PMT to weld up $100 worth of steel then powdercoat it and mark the price up about triple of they have invested in it. And before someone gripes at me about running a business and "keeping the lights on" a more reasonable price of $450-$500 for all five pieces would still make them money and I would have been happy to give them my business at that price.

 

[JDMitchell]

Still waiting on bushings....................

 

[panda24619]

that must be frustrating! got everything and one company has yet to ship the one thing you need! are they welded up yet? or just going to do it all at once?

 

[JDMitchell]

Everything is welded up and coated with bed liner. I ended up just using a wire wheel on my track bar and giving it a coat of bed liner since I couldn't get the bend right on the DOM tubing. I am seriously pissed off at energy suspension right now. I spent three hours trying to get the inner sleeve on one of the track bar bushings (the other side was perfect) big enough to get a 16 mm bolt through. I spent $20 on a 16.9 mm drill bit since the sleeve was out of tolerance. If my trailing arm bushings are the same way when they get here, I will be making a trip to their headquarters and will burn it to the ground.

After all of this time, effort and money I should have just bought all four aftermarket trailing arms from the guy on ebay (sillybeef) and the track bar from PMT. I would only have an extra $100 invested in the project over what I have paid so far. Buying DOM steel is an expensive proposition when you don't need a full stick and having to buy every bolt and bushing isn't cheap either. I will go ahead and say that I am idiot for thinking I could make my own and come out ahead.

 

[Jeeper]

Hi JD, I tried to help in the decision making because I new in the long run the frustrations and time you would come across. I was really hoping you would have called me when I sent you the pm. I just wanted to explain to you what would be involved. The cost for a pair of my lower adjustable control arms are $220 and I could have offered free shipping. Think about the cost and what you are going through.

I really do hope it all works out for you. When they are done you can say to yourself that this is something you created.

 

[JDMitchell]

Hi JD, I tried to help in the decision making because I new in the long run the frustrations and time you would come across. I was really hoping you would have called me when I sent you the pm. I just wanted to explain to you what would be involved. The cost for a pair of my lower adjustable control arms are $220 and I could have offered free shipping. Think about the cost and what you are going through.

I really do hope it all works out for you. When they are done you can say to yourself that this is something you created.

The lower trailing arms were the easy part it was the track bar and it's bushings (still pissed at Energy Suspension ) that gave me the biggest headache. Once I get the trailing arm bushings in the mail then I will be done with everything except putting them on. But you are right I should have just bought everything and been done with it.

But what do I know, I just a dumb grunt that likes to learn from my mistakes.

 

[Jeeper]

You maybe a grunt but not dumb ( Thank you for your service ). You learn this stuff in life by mistakes, time and money. I have been doing this stuff for several years and I'm still learning.

 

[99 Expy]

Have you gotten your energy suspension bushings yet? When I bought mine this summer, the inside diameter of all of the sleeve inserts for the rear control arm bushings were 1/16" to small, so I had to get 5/8 drill bit to bore them out to fit the bolt through.

 

[JDMitchell]

Have you gotten your energy suspension bushings yet? When I bought mine this summer, the inside diameter of all of the sleeve inserts for the rear control arm bushings were 1/16" to small, so I had to get 5/8 drill bit to bore them out to fit the bolt through.

That is exactly what happened to me with the track bar bushings, hopefully the trailing arm bushings aren't the same way because that was a headache for me.
I won't drill out the sleeve again, I will just go and buy new 14 mm bolts instead of using the 16 mm.

 

[JDMitchell]

I got my upper trailing arms today and was surprised to find out they are made by Moroso. They are high quality pieces with glossy black powdercoating, and polyurethane bushings. I should have bought the lowers from them too since I would have actually paid less overall, since my track bar wasn't in as bas of shape as I initially thought.

Anyone else have a rough time with the rear bolts on the upper trailing arms? I bent an 18 mm combo wrench.........never had that happen to me before. I ended up cutting both of them off since once I finally got them broke loose they would get stuck somewhere inside the bushing, oh well my "one hour" job turned into two and half.

 

[99 Expy]

When I changed all my bushings this summer, I used a big breaker bar to break all of the bolts loose, and they were pretty tight with that, so I would imagine they would be pretty hard to get off with a wrench.

 

[JDMitchell]

When I changed all my bushings this summer, I used a big breaker bar to break all of the bolts loose, and they were pretty tight with that, so I would imagine they would be pretty hard to get off with a wrench.

I forgot to mention I used a 19 mm combo as a cheater to get some more torque. That might have had something to do with bending the wrench.

 

[firemann32]

Got any pictures?