Interesting new find…and not a good one.

UNBROKEN · Oct 11, 2023

Interesting find on the alignment rack today. I never saw it any time I was under the car but my buddy noticed it while he was setting the toe…the adjustment is maxed out and is actually bending the subframe. Notations on pics below. When it bends the subframe, it moves the tab the eccentric rides on outward which reduces the range of adjustment to get the toe “in”…this is an alignment killer. I don’t know the cause…I do drive this thing extremely hard on curvy roads so maybe that’s where the load is coming from?

When you make an adjustment the eccentric rides on these tabs that are just punched in the thin subframe. All the tension/pressure is in this location.

Something is exerting enough force to cause the ends of the subframe to curl around onto the bushing. These bent spots should be straight. One side of the driver side was bent so far it was touching the toe link.

This is after a pry bar was used to bend it back straight.

Cruising68 · Oct 11, 2023

That is strange for sure. Not sure hot force could be applied to bend them like that. May be a candidate for welding a reinforcing plate. Curious what others have to say.

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TMac · Oct 11, 2023

I would bet the bushing material is too soft. That's causing the mounting bolt to move which causes the eccentric to "ride up" over limit tab bending the ends of the mount.

Those are the aftermarkets from FenFab, right? They should have used a higher durometer bushing.

Cdubya · Oct 11, 2023

TMac said:

The OEM part does not have those bushings sandwiched between there. Neither does the steeda part. they both have a bushing around a beefy steel collar which is what gets sandwiched. The Fen Fab design simply wont do for our particular application. You might replace the bushings with same thickness washers but why experiment?

UNBROKEN · Oct 11, 2023

Cdubya said:

All poly bushings have a steel sleeve inside…including FenFab’s. It’s literally the only way they’ll work. The bushing style in Brett’s links is just like Steeda’s non-adjustable.

GearHead_1 · Oct 11, 2023

That's weird. I'd have to imagine that the bushing is softer than the OE. I'm sure all kinds of fixes are going through your head right now.

If it were me I'd probably look at pulling those links, straightening the sub-frame to the best of my ability (not easy, I know), essentially starting over. I wouldn't reuse those pieces as I suspect they're likely softer. I'd be tempted to try Steeda's adjustable toe links hoping the durometer rating of their bushing is stiffer. I have no idea but a few phone calls may reveal the specs of the bushings used in each application.

The picture of the Steeda parts looks like either the sleeve is super thick or it has a collar on it. It doesn't appear to have a large surface area for open bushing. With Steeda's you'd also get the benefit of more adjustment in setting the toe. Then I'd keep a very close eye on them to see if there is a repeat.

You could of course put your OE links back in assuming their length gives you the reach you need to set the toe. Short of replacing the sub-frame and starting over with OE parts, I'm not sure what else I could suggest.

GearHead_1 · Oct 11, 2023

The sleeve on Steeda's adjustable links looks different than the one in the fixed link pictured above. If the color is consistent throughout Steeda's line then their black bushing is stiffer than their red bushing. At least that is the way it was on their Differential Brace. As I said in the above post, I'm spitballing here.

Question here, is the bushing in between the link and the subframe on the FenFab link pictured above?

UNBROKEN · Oct 11, 2023

GearHead_1 said:

Steeda posted a while back that their black bushing is harder than their red…most of the time. Sometimes they’re the same so we can’t go off color alone. At any rate…the FenFab bushing is 10X firmer than the oem. I made a video showing that when I got the links from Brett.
I agree on the wider footprint of the sleeve in the Steeda adjustable links. I think I’m gonna order a set tomorrow because even after straightening the bent spots on the frame it’s still maxed out on toe adjustment and I need some more.

GearHead_1 · Oct 11, 2023

I'm interested to see how this turns out. Best of luck.

88lx50 · Oct 12, 2023

TMac said:

It might be the opposite. The original was soft and made to flex. The polyurethane doesn’t flex and pulls the whole bolt and washer into that bumped part under tension, causing the ear to bend.

Cajun Heat · Oct 12, 2023

Watching. I just went out a looked at mine and they are still straight, although my FenFab links have not been on very long.

UNBROKEN · Oct 12, 2023

Cajun Heat said:

I don’t think it has anything to do with the links.
I think it’s due to pulling hard AF on the eccentric to get the toe in more while everything was loose and the pressure tried to fold in the ends of the frame.

MikeyP · Oct 12, 2023

UNBROKEN said:

This makes sense. I was looking at mine and trying to see how those ears could fold from driving, and the pivot points of everything don't seem to allow that much movement. It would need to be a large amount of fore/aft movement at the spindle to do that, and I'm sure something else would have broken or bent if that was the case. I understand these arms are transmitting more force to the joints than the cooked-spaghetti factory toe arms, but I just don't see where the movement could come from without leaving your rear suspension behind in the turn.

Are you going with the eccentric again or using the lock-out plate the Steeda includes? As for the durometer, like was said earlier, Steeda is usually consistent with red being softer and black being harder, but in the case of these arms, they told me the duromenter of the black bushing in the adjustable arms and the red bushing in the fixed-length arms is the same.

UNBROKEN · Oct 12, 2023

I’m gonna lock them out and only use the arms adjuster. I’m confident that’ll fix this issue. They’re already ordered.

Dark Knight · Dec 24, 2023

is it possible the strengthened parts transmitted more force to parts that bent?

UNBROKEN · Dec 24, 2023

I don’t believe so, no.

Polo08816 · Dec 25, 2023

UNBROKEN said:

Interesting find on the alignment rack today. I never saw it any time I was under the car but my buddy noticed it while he was setting the toe…the adjustment is maxed out and is actually bending the subframe. Notations on pics below. When it bends the subframe, it moves the tab the eccentric rides on outward which reduces the range of adjustment to get the toe “in”…this is an alignment killer. I don’t know the cause…I do drive this thing extremely hard on curvy roads so maybe that’s where the load is coming from? View attachment 19966

When you make an adjustment the eccentric rides on these tabs that are just punched in the thin subframe. All the tension/pressure is in this location.

View attachment 19968

Something is exerting enough force to cause the ends of the subframe to curl around onto the bushing. These bent spots should be straight. One side of the driver side was bent so far it was touching the toe link.

View attachment 19969

This is after a pry bar was used to bend it back straight.

Does anyone have a picture of the factory part to compare against this?

bavarianblessed · Jan 4, 2024

@UNBROKEN have you checked for anymore bending since installing the Steeda links?

UNBROKEN · Jan 4, 2024

I have actually…just the other day. All is well.

bavarianblessed · Jan 4, 2024

UNBROKEN said:

So do you really think it was the surface area of the bushing sleeve that made the difference? If anyone else has had the same issue using the Phenfab links I haven't seen it reported.

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Interesting new find…and not a good one.

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