Front Lower A-arm Mod

[Bob Cowan]

I'm using your tubular front LCA'a on my MIII. I would like to replace the rubber bushings with rod ends, for all the obvious reasons.

Can you tell me the tubing specs used in this part? Either ID or wall thickness?

I could easily find out by cutting the bushing off. But I'd like to have all the parts on hand before I start cutting things apart.

[Brian Z]

Bob,

Here are the specs for our front lower control arm bushings:
BUSHING, POLYURETHANE, 1.274" BARREL OD x 0.863" BARREL ID x 1.345" OVERALL LENGTH

Best regards,

Brian @ FFR

[Jim Schenck]

If you mean the arm tubing it is 0.125 wall, with a 1.0 in. outer diameter. There are a couple different ways I have seen people make the change, one is Alison Hines car which she documented the process on her website: http://alison.hine.net/cobra/ under the tweeks section. Because the tubing is too large to be tapped for 3/4" rod ends I made a set where i slid a male threaded section into the tube then welded it so I could use a turnbuckle to adjust. The only problem with this is you still have to remove the spacers on at least one side to allow the rod ends to move relative to each other due to the angles of the arms. (even if the tubes are parallel there is still some distance change so you have to be a little careful to not put the arm into a bind)