If I had a camera I would snap a shot, but the Passenger side rear shock went straight through the floor of my car yesterday. Shattered the sheet metal that holds the top part of the shock to the body. The T.Arm bushing fell off about a week ago from age and I am waiting for one in the mail now. Had it all welded back together (bottom and top) looks a hell of alot stronger then it was haha.

Hear a smacking under the car when you take off, CHECK OUT THAT TORQUE ARM! or you will find a shock being put through your back seat like I did.

 

Yeah I bet it would. Also if you drove it long enough it would be hard on u joints and all sorts of wonderful things. I really hope you didn't drive the thing at highway speed without the end of the tourque arm securly mounted? Cuz if were me I'd be leery about driving it at all.

 

My new Spohn torque arm keeps working itself loose every two weeks or so and starts slamming itself around down there. Really starting to **** me off. Especially now, since my friends broke my jack and I can't get under there to fix it. So I'm immobilized again...

 

I don't think I'd blame any of that on the torque arm bushing.

 

Nothing to do with the torque arm bushing.

Whis is NOT to say, ignore the TA bushing, or that it's not important to keep it in good shape; only that the 2 things aren't connected.

The upper shock mounts break out of these cars ALL the time. It's very very common. In fact, I'd suspect that a substantial fraction of them on the street, are running around with that problem; especially any that have over 150,000 miles or so. And, the better the shocks and the more carefully maintained (i.e. the more the shocks are actually doing), the more likely it is.

My car completely broke out the pass side one, and the driver's side was just about to go. I found out when it started making a funky clunking noise all the time, and I took the back seat out and had somebody ride back there listening for where it was coming from, and the carpet was moving up and down as the car went over bumps. Clearly a deviation from the plan!!!

 

which torque arm do you have? what is loosening up? been looking into these and if this is how the work out i may have to look elsewhere

 

I must be lucky then since my camaro had rust in some of the common places, but when I took my rear shocks out and replaced them everything seemed pretty good.

 

Ahhh Thanks guys, I figured it would crush eventually, I neverk new how poorly supported the Rear shock towers were until I changed out my shocks a year ago. I had figured since the torque bushing fell out and I had been getting some smacking from time to time from this last week *damn thing finally came in the mail, going on tommmorw* It would of hastened it. MAybe... Maybe not.

 

Yea a messed up torque are bushing I think causes things like broken tail housings... and such... Only reason I can think my tail housing on my t-5 is broke.... right under the speedo gear housing. heh.. but yea. which spohn torque arm are you refering to? i am looking into a major suspension chassis upgrade here this winter....

 

Me and my brother in law were just talking shop one day, and he mentioned this happening to his old friend with an early Z28. He suggested doing something to prevent something like this and I replied "my car doesn't have a speck of rust, I'm not worried about it" but after seeing this thread, and remembering another last year of a guy having the same problem...

When I replace my rear shocks (soon, they're done for) I'm going to fabricate two plates for each side. My desired effect is to sandwich the mounting area between these plates and better distribute the forces the shocks apply to the the thin metal between them. I think I'll also weld the top plates in place. I don't think I'll need that big of a piece to do it, more like oversized "washers" rather than plates.

Anyone forsee any problems with this? I'd like to hear now.

 

has anyone done anything about supporting the rear shock towers? I'm scraping all the seam sealer out and welding up eerything to a full bead instead of stitch welding like the factory did. And I'm just about to get to the shock towers. So any ideas to prevent this. like a plate welded all the way across or something?

 

Spohn has a similar setup for thier rear coil over shock assmblies.. they have you put a plate in the rear shock area in order to keep it from ripping the thing right out.. he also has one for the front strut towers..

 

Yeah...I had that same horrible knock when I laid on the pedal. I just had a bmr torque arm and bushing installed and a new trans bushing. The stock torque bushing was all broken apart, but intact in the housing.

 

I remember reading a post back in the day, RB_83L69 posted (I might have that underscore in the wrong place...)... He's the only one i've ever seen posting about that. He mentioned welding in a giant washer, like a fender washer, right above the sheet metal. Might be able to strengthen it more too, if you wanted.
Look for that thread, I think he posted a picture too.