Torque arms welded to control arms?!

[jaypauljetty]

So I bought a 2000 LX470 last weekend, no rust, ran well and the price was right so I felt good about it even though it was a little beat up.

Had some slack in the drivetrain so I got it on the lift to look at the wheel bearings.

The mechanic pointed out something I never would have looked for in a million years, someone had welded the torque arms to the control arms so as to make indexing the torsion rods impossible. The rods are permanently clocked in a way so as to have no adjustment left in the anchors.

All the mechanics in the shop came to puzzle over it and the a veteran mechanic told me he'd never seen its like in 28 years of working on IFS Land Cruisers.

There's some evidence of an undisclosed impact on the front end and I'm anxious to know why this kludge was deemed necessary.

I'm afraid I might have gotten poked.

Anybody here ever heard of such a thing?

 

[3_puppies]

need pics

 

[Mike NXP]

Weird..... Maybe they stripped out their splines and welded the torsion bar in place to prevent slippage.


LX470....Does it still have AHC ?.....Is it lifted ?

 

[2001LC]

We see heavy, lifted rigs with oversized torsion bars (AKA: T-bar. AKA: torque arm). Where the bracket reinforcement mount not used. Result in damage to LCA at T-bar mounting point. Perhaps, weld was someones' cheap fix.

 

[excessive]

we need pictures to see whats going on ....

 

[jaypauljetty]

Weird..... Maybe they stripped out their splines and welded the torsion bar in place to prevent slippage.


LX470....Does it still have AHC ?.....Is it lifted ?

The AHC was deleted and it was lifted, w/ diff drop.

We see heavy, lifted rigs with oversized torsion bars (AKA: T-bar. AKA: torque arm). Where the bracket reinforcement mount not used. Result in damage to LCA at T-bar mounting point. Perhaps, weld was someones' cheap fix.

View attachment 4134543
View attachment 4134544

Thanks! This definitely seems like a possibility although I thought the bars were the standard diameter for 100s, I need to put calipers on them to see what the spring rate is.

need pics

It's going back to the shop on Wednesday, I'll post pics then.

we need pictures to see whats going on ....

This guy is welded to the control arm, the torque arm bracket.

I'll post pics Wed when it's up in the air, my knees appreciate your patience.

 

[GTV]

Perhaps, weld was someones' cheap fix.

Ridiculous when the gussets are only like $20

 

[jaypauljetty]

Ridiculous when the gussets are only like $20

Yeah, this rig spent some time in the country recently pretty far away from a competent Toyota technician.

The big question, I suppose, is would grinding the brackets off weaken the control arm? The part cost is a thousand bucks to do it right....

 

[jaypauljetty]

There are bump stops on the control arms, they welded those too....

 

[GTV]

If you’re paying to have the work done it will probably be less expensive to just get new arms.

 

[jaypauljetty]

If you’re paying to have the work done it will probably be less expensive to just get new arms.

I'm sure you're right, there's no book rate set for "fix stupid"

Thanks for the help everybody, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[jaypauljetty]

we need pictures to see whats going on ....

Here we go.

 

[excessive]

wow. you were not kidding. unfortunately that is going to be expensive (but not too difficult ) to reverse.

 

[2001LC]

If you don't need to re-clock T-bars, don't worry about the bracket being welded on. Wait until day LCA bushing needed. Then R&R LCA & T-bat brackets.

If you do need to re-clock now. One cheap option "may" work. Get out the angle grinder, cut off weld bead. Avoid cutting into LCA. Which will frees up T-bar bracket. If, bracket to damaged after grinding. R&R T-bar brackets, adding in OME ARBFK27 brackets supports if needed.

 

[jaypauljetty]

wow. you were not kidding. unfortunately that is going to be expensive (but not too difficult ) to reverse.

Yeah, so there's this to look out for, posted here for posterity and a head's up to others.

 

[GTV]

At least the welds look good.
I'd wait until you have a reason to take it apart. It isn't hurting anything now.

Also, extend your a/c drain before it rusts out the sway bar mount.

 

[jaypauljetty]

At least the welds look good.
I'd wait until you have a reason to take it apart. It isn't hurting anything now.

Also, extend your a/c drain before it rusts out the sway bar mount.

One side is all the way up on the anchor and the other side is a half inch taller, but yes it'll be fine until I put a bumper on I suppose.

Thanks for the drip tip!

 

[Scotty UZJ100]

Wow that's super interesting, you're going to end up cutting those off eventually. Don't think you can even get the LCA bolts out with out moving those first and you definitely can move the T-bars without moving those mounts.

 

[jaypauljetty]

Wow that's super interesting, you're going to end up cutting those off eventually. Don't think you can even get the LCA bolts out with out moving those first and you definitely can move the T-bars without moving those mounts.

At his point I'm worried about weakening the parts with a grinder so it's looking like a thousand bucks of new OEM parts between the control arms and bar mounts. I'm looking for salvage parts now because new factory ball joints are cheap.

 

[adventurezoutside]

unless you need to re do bushings or re clock the torsions leave it alone. i hou absolutely have to split it, using a die grinder isnt going to weaken anything to remove them, id use the OME gussets when you put it back together