How bad is bent rear control arm? (1 Viewer)

[PhuckItImDone]

Bent my rear passenger control arm today, but only the tiniest bit. How bad or crucial is this? Drove it home 2+ hours and it felt fine. I'll get pictures in the morning when I have some light. Its almost unnoticeable, and I don't know if I'm just being overly sensitive to it. Thanks

 

[CharlieS]

It messes up your alignment. How bad it is depends on how much you care about having your rig correctly aligned.

 

[Markuson]

Bent my rear passenger control arm today, but only the tiniest bit. How bad or crucial is this? Drove it home 2+ hours and it felt fine. I'll get pictures in the morning when I have some light. Its almost unnoticeable, and I don't know if I'm just being overly sensitive to it. Thanks

Mine was bent for 6 months or more. No noticeable handling change or wear, but replaced both with SPC when I could get to it.

post a photo though, since “bent” could mean a pretty wide range...

 

[bloc]

It is possible to have a bend that is visible but cause almost no change in length, which is what would actually throw out your alignment. I had an easily seen bend in a LCA of my 80 but you couldn't measure any difference and alignment was spot on. That said.. a bent arm isn't as strong in compression as it once was.. but this also depends on the severity of the bend.

Maybe try and measure the length of both of yours while you are down there getting pictures.

 

[PhuckItImDone]

Measurements seem equal on both sides, parked on level ground. First 2 are passenger side, 3rd is driver. Passenger is the one i hung up yesterday. Thanks

 

[bloc]

If this were mine, it would be in the back of my mind to find a replacement.. probably used. Only because the bend in theory weakens the link so if you (for instance) go to moab and are climbing something very very steep it will see some compressive force.

That wouldn't be worth parking the truck or anything for me though.

 

[TeCKis300]

From the looks of it, that bend is mild enough that I wouldn't be concerned from a structural standpoint.

The impact already mentioned is alignment. Particularly thrust angle of the rear axle. Not something that's readily measured with a tape measure to know if it's in tolerance. Thrust angle can cause the vehicle to crab down the road. Or cause the vehicle to drift or steer from the rear.

The question here is the degree of which the alignment is affected. If it's almost unnoticeable, it might be okay. It can impact tire wear.

 

[PhuckItImDone]

So, not catastrophic, and something I can turn maybe 2500 miles on before replacing? Even under throttle, 40-70 it didn't feel like it torque steered awkward or anything.

 

[grinchy]

Do you have a metal plated bridge near by? Usually a drawbridge, but anywhere you can get the front and rear tires on a more slippery surface works. If you feel a push out of line on a surface like that it's had an effect

 

[PhuckItImDone]

@grinchy ill see what I can find. The more I look at it the more it bothers me. Like I should already have new ones ordered.

 

[bloc]

Or have a competent local shop sleeve your existing ones so it doesn’t happen again. Fix the problem and upgrade it at the same time.

 

[KLF]

An idea: Grab the little scissor jack out of a small car, slide it in there above and straighten it back. Check with a decent straightedge metal rule.

 

[619TOY]

I wouldn’t even give it a second thought, but that’s me. If you’re set on fixing it, I’d recommend upgrading too. The easiest and cheapest fix I know of is to truss it/them with angle iron. Angle iron doesn’t require cutting the arm, you just straighten it and weld on the angle iron. Here’s the 80 that I did myself after running into too many rocks on the Rubicon

 

[TeCKis300]

I like the angle iron truss trick.

Wonder if trussing above the tube might be better from a clearance standpoint. Probably not as strong as trussing below, but perhaps worth the trade?

 

[bloc]

At some point you just start smashing the tube flat if it is so strong that it won’t give but as thin wall as ours are. Angle on bottom prevents that too.

 

[Markuson]

If this were mine, it would be in the back of my mind to find a replacement.. probably used. Only because the bend in theory weakens the link so if you (for instance) go to moab and are climbing something very very steep it will see some compressive force.

That wouldn't be worth parking the truck or anything for me though.

/\This /\
Non-emergency.
Get to it when convenient.

 

[PhuckItImDone]

Awesome. Just gonna tie this, hidden winch mount/winch install into things to be done by LCDC

 

[TeCKis300]

At some point you just start smashing the tube flat if it is so strong that it won’t give but as thin wall as ours are. Angle on bottom prevents that too.

The stock arms are actually reasonably stout. Not thin wall jobs likely to be flattened.

@Taco2Cruiser cut one here that shows the composition.

I agree that angle would better protect and support from the bottom. My thought is that it's always better to avoid contact in the first place which by putting the angle iron below, surely gives up breakover clearance. The opposite what we generally want, which is high clearance, or stock clearance for that matter. It almost comes full circle in that it increases the likelihood of contact, with increased bending pressures on the arm.