i would still recommend replacing all of the bushings.
also, check the control arms AND the frame mounts for damage from the bolts slapping back and forth.
i wrecked the hell out of a race car once because the right side control arm had wallowed out and was slopping back and forth. this meant that the rear axle housing was actually steering the rear of the car from side to side as the housing moved forwards and backwards out of alignment with my direction of travel. we had wondered why we couldn't get the car to handle, then we found out one night.
accellerating up onto the straight the RR moved back, steering the car towards the wall. i shaded out of the throttle and started steering left but the car just wouldn't stop going right. when i touched the wall is when things got REALLY exciting. the RR tire had, up until then, been somewhat in position. once it contacted the wall it yanked the control arm completely apart and folded the RR tire under the fuel cell cage. now, normally there's not more than 8" of clearance between a fuel cell cage and the ground. i fit an entire wheel+tire under there.
i spent the next second or two desperately trying to steer left ( i thought that all the wild thrashing was coming from the car trying to climb the wall ... completely wrong ) and finally gave up and took my hands off the wheel. the car finally started calming down a little bit, slewed to the right and then started trying to roll over. didn't quite get there though, it slammed back down on the track.
looking at the car later, the right side sheet metal didn't really have much damage on it. the left front frame horn on the other hand ... THAT was bent up out of square ~ 1 1/2". this was caused by the violence of the thrashing from bouncing off of the RR under the fuel cell cage. a rear spring pocket getting jacked up ( down actually, the pocket moving down raises the ride height on that corner of the car ) increases what is known as "cross weight" to the opposing front corner. when you see NASCAR teams adjusting a jacking screw on a pit stop? this is what they're doing ... only making adjustments that are just a teensy bit finer than what i had just done. i applied enough force to tweak the whole damn frame out of shape.
if that gives you an idea of what my ride was like, you'll see why i think this might be a good point to make.
i'd have suggested this earlier, but one of your first statements was that you weren't getting movement out of *the housing*.
this might also be a good time to consider fabricating lower control arms from scratch:
http://www.teambuick.com/forums/view..._trailing_arms
Last edited by bob k. mando; 10-02-2012 at 07:19 PM.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Lenin
Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)
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