HI: I am considering changing the rear lower trailing arms. During the summer I had to replace the upper arms as they had disentegrated and popped the metal shell. I used the UMI parts and was satisfied with the quality of the product.... much stronger.
Curious. Planning my spring budget. Will have to do a complete rebuild of the rear end and might as well do the links at that time.
I was planning on using Lawrence Transmission in Toronto on Bydon Drive. They advertise in Old Autos and I talked with them last summer and they said it could be done in a day if all went well..
Cliff, since I'll also be doing the complete rear end rebuild like yourself, I've been looking around for replacement arms for a while now.
UMI is a good company to deal with, and their products are very well built. The lower arms from them are good and they accept the stock stabilizer bar, but the fact they are all poly isn't optimal as they'll bind. I'm to now believe the best setup for free articulation, is to have one stock rubber or poly bushing, and the other being a swivel type bushing. Global west has lower arms in this configuration, unfortunately they are $400, and will not accept the stock bar. Although one could probably modify them to fit a GM bar. The best would be to just buy a Hotchkiss bar, but then you don't see it hanging down. If I could buy a swivel bushing, I might just modify a stock arm myself. Box it, one swivel, one rubber bushing
Mark: You have brought up some interesting points. The sway bar that I have does hang down.. I wondered about that as the UMI has holes drilled in it to attach the bar. When my car went in for the restoration there was a brand new GM swaybar in the trunk to be fitted. 2 years later when I got the car back.... no sway bar.... Oh Well....
Last summer I had to replace he two upper arms and used UMI.. Shipping was very quick and I thought the price reasonable.
