[SpeedTorque]

I have a problem:

the part in the diagram labelled as "2" is bent on the offside and it's knocked the tracking out. I contacted my local dealer but the cost for one arm was £300!!!

Does anyone know of an alternative source of parts or would anyone recommend a suspension parts fabricator that could make a pair for cheaper?

Thanks

John

 

[xlineiain]

Scrapyard?

Sent from my Vodafone Smart ultra 6 using Tapatalk

 

[SpeedTorque]

I tried the scrapyards with no joy...

Eventually I spoke with a local garage who looked after race cars and they suggested fabricating links with spherical rod ends. They also explained this was a common problem with JDM AWD cars which have similar rear suspension. I made a set using 12mm rod ends and 1" bar with lugs brazed in the end.

The part was easy to fit as I could alter the length since I used opposing threads on each end of the bar. This allowed me to extend the bar by about 10mm to make it fit without any tension, then shorten the length to re-align the tracking.

Hopefully it all works, the main fail point would be the neck of the rod end. I used motorsport grade 35CrMo with a static load test of 74kN and I replaced the outer bolt from an 8.8 to 10.9 grade. Theoretically, there should be no additional load other than more NVH from the deletion of the rubber bushings.

If anyone has any advice or comment, please feel free to chip in

 

[gmonster]

You sound like you know what you're talking about, so I hope it works. I'd only say that the Peugeot designers will have spec'd that part for sound reasons and you've altered it. Are threads and nuts going to stay tight during use? Does this mod affect your insurance? If you had a bad accident with third party injuries and inspectors checked over your car, you might find you had no cover and that could be catastrophic for you. For the sake of £300, I'd take it in and get it done.

 

[SpeedTorque]

You have a good point about insurance and as you are aware any modification poses a risk. With rubber boots covering the spherical rod ends it looks legitimate enough, only a detailed comparison against the fiche would illuminate modification. The part from Peugeot still remains expensive and no pattern part exist as yet. What I have seen is a few complete rear sub frame sets come up form breakers yards. The option would be to persuade the breakers to remove the part for me at a cheaper cost.

 

[gmonster]

Yes, I suppose breakers don't want to "break" too much sometimes!