Hotchikus lower control arms question

[dana]

when i had the suspension done they didn't grease the zerk fittings on the control arms. I drove it for a while before I noticed they weren't greased. I have no idea how long exactly but probably between 3 and 4 thousand miles. I greased them but now i noticed the grease is oozing out around the bushings. Is that normal or are the control arms going to have to be replaced. What damage could happen if the car is driven with bad control arms?

[SpectorV]

the greese has no where to go and will come out of the side of the bushings. The bushings are urathane probably and they will work with out greese fine for a bit, or at least should be perfectly fine as long as you drove them with out greese. They should be good to go now that you have greesed then, you will still have binding issues, thats the design of the bushing, not the type of bushing, you probably wont notice that though.

I wouldnt worry about it, just inspect them when ever you are under there.

[dana]

i haven't noticed any binding but i have noticed that whenever i park and turn the car off it squeaks in the back. like its having trouble holding the weight of the body if that makes any sense

[SpectorV]

the binding is noticable when you push the car to its limits, the car can react oddly. I wouldnt worry about it just GYI. The binding happends when the rear end moves up on one side while the other side stays the same or does not move up as much. This tq's the arms a bit sideways, the LCA does not have anywhere to go... so it binds.... it tries to turn sideways and the bushing wont let it, its just ford bad design.... the only thing that can be done is use MM's lcas with sperical bushing but its a crutch not a fix.

[Bane-]

depending on how forgiving those control arms are, id have our torque boxes reinforced. also, with good control arms you can take your quad shocks off if ya want. they just keep the rear end from wanting to walk around itself...aftermarket control arms eliminate that.

[SpectorV]

you wont rip a tq box out unless you are drag racing on it.

[Bane-]

still doesnt matter, if there is alot more stress on them you could still rip them out regardless. aftermarket control arms hardly give any, stock ones do alot. so now if they dont give all the stress has to go somewhere and will eventually rip out the torque boxes. better to be safe then sorry anyway.

whats the difference between drag racing and punching it to merge into traffic, when a light turns green for shits and giggles, etc...nothing all have the chance to rip the torque boxes out.

[SpectorV]

it is a good precaution but its not something you should go out of your way for. The track is alot harder on your car, 1.7 60ft vs a street take off is a good bit different. If you dont plan to do massively hard launches i wouldnt be so worried about it

[Bane-]

hows it going out of your way? its a flat piece of steel welded under ur car...you could make one if you wanted to. ripping open the rear end and replacing the tlok and gears would be out of the way..torque boxes are simple. besides, its a older car so who knows what pervious owners did and whatnot. good investment like subframes if ya ask me.

[SpectorV]

its going out of your way to have the LCA's installed at a shop that can weld up the TQ boxes. You may have a welder at your house but most dont.

I know people pushing 500rwhp doing 1.5 60fts and have done so for a very long time with out a single problem. For street use I dont see this happening... in the end its always better safe than sorry though.

[Bane-]

no I dont have a welder, but id pay a welder to weld them up and have some extra piece of mind. Id save the money from having a shop install the LCAs and do that myself :p

[dana]

i have a welder but my torque boxes arms seem to be fine. I have a panhead bar on it too. but back to the squeaking when i turn the car off. Could it be bad springs maybe

[dana]

what is GYI?

[SpectorV]

i would check my isolators, do you have the oem rubber ones? It may just be a bad shock. The springs wont squeek themselves. Spray a ton of WD-40 all around under there on the bushings and isolators etc etc if it goes away for a bit you can then start to narrow down where it is.

[Tbird232ci]

Turning causes more stress on torque box's than launching does.

Just because they *seem* fine doesnt mean that they are, roughly 46% of your cars weight is out back, when your hanging turns, thats 46% of your cars weight trying to go one direction, while your tires want to go the other direction...yeah...thats a lot of stress.