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Lower control arm PSA

509 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  MartySzy1, 
J
2
Was going to add on to my 220 revival thread, but thought this was important enough to make a new posting.

Got a phone call from the youngest...the car was "sitting funny" on the tire. He had pulled into a parking lot and heard a big thump and a creaking sound; shut her down and checked it out. He pulled forward after finding nothing unusual and the car did its best imitation of a low rider on airbags:|

So got her home safely, and found the lower control arm had snapped off at the ball joint. Ironically I had given the underside a good inspection and completely missed this as it looked good, all the rubber was tight and greased, no vibrations etc.... a lot of the metal missing was flaking off from the inside out while the exterior remained decent looking.

Makes me a little queasy to think how different this might have turned out at highway speeds, so check them out very closely.

And pics of the inside out rusting carnage:

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J
Yikes... I took a wire brush and a flashlight to the remaining suspension pieces, nothing. For some reason this one was rusted through and hidden between the tire and all the stuff bolted on. I could flake away the metal from the inside out leaving just the paint.

Oddly enough nothing was difficult to remove, or rusted badly. Rubber joints are all in good shape, bolts greased, shock wasn't very old... this was just hidden. Of course salted winter roads for half the year and potholes large enough to lose small children in do not help. And, boy will approach the high angled entrances we have here a bit to fast I'm sure.

I'm replacing drivers side for piece of mind and since I'm taking the opportunity to put in some new shocks. Must make a big scene at 30 mph...fortunately this happened at near idle speed. Fender wasn't even damaged.
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