Strengthening lower control arms
Posted: 02 Nov 2017 20:16
The rear suspension's lower control arms are probably the parts of the Patrol's suspension that are the most prone to damage. We have seen a number of these bend, probably due to bround contact, but when that happens they just fold up the next time they are loaded heavily...
The easiest way to beef them up substantially is to sleeve the tubular section
Effectively, buy a piece of 1.25" (32mm nominal bore) Schedule 80 seamless tube. This has an actual OD of 42mm and a wall thickness of just over 5mm.
Cut this to a length of between 15 and 40mm shorter than the tube section of the control arm, and then split it length-ways with an angle grinder. Then chamfer the edges of the split, so that when you put the two halves together, you have a v-shaped groove.
Clean up the tube section of the lower control arm, and then clamp the two half-pipes around it. Then weld it all together. Especially when welding near the ends, weld short sections at a time so as not to overheat the rubber bushes...
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The easiest way to beef them up substantially is to sleeve the tubular section
Effectively, buy a piece of 1.25" (32mm nominal bore) Schedule 80 seamless tube. This has an actual OD of 42mm and a wall thickness of just over 5mm.
Cut this to a length of between 15 and 40mm shorter than the tube section of the control arm, and then split it length-ways with an angle grinder. Then chamfer the edges of the split, so that when you put the two halves together, you have a v-shaped groove.
Clean up the tube section of the lower control arm, and then clamp the two half-pipes around it. Then weld it all together. Especially when welding near the ends, weld short sections at a time so as not to overheat the rubber bushes...
- LowerControlArmMod-1.jpg (240.69 KiB) Viewed 5568 times
- LowerControlArmMod-2.jpg (238.91 KiB) Viewed 5568 times
- LowerControlArmMod-3.jpg (239.48 KiB) Viewed 5568 times
- LowerControlArmMod-5.jpg (264.23 KiB) Viewed 5568 times
- LowerControlArmMod-4.jpg (268.67 KiB) Viewed 5568 times
