Jump to content

Aftermarket trailing arms?


Wroth
 Share

Recommended Posts

I went to a salvage yard the other day looking for exhaust parts and bumpers, and I came across this pathy that turned out to be a veritable gold mine. It had a heavily modified looking rear end in it, with air bags in place of the coils and a bunch of other modifications that confused me (I haven't done much to my rear suspension yet, I'm way more familiar with the front suspension and steering systems right now since I've been having to fix so much up there). Anyways, it had these really beefy trailing arms on the back, so I grabbed them.

 

IMG_20180401_134458.jpg

 

The one from the passenger side looks bent, but before I think about straightening it, has anyone seen any like these before on a pathfinder? Are they aftermarket, stock on a different year than mine, or stock on another vehicle? The ones I have in now are just those rods, and these seem way stronger. I'm not sure if they'll fit though, since my rear end is pretty much stock (I have LSD on my XE!!!) and that one was customized. If anyone can identify these and confirm whether that one is supposed to be bent, I'd really appreciate it. It looks bent but the coating isn't cracked around the curve like I would have expected. Either way, I'm really excited about my finds that day. I couldn't figure out how to get the air bags off the rear, let alone into mine, but I did get a working onboard air compressor for about $50!

 

IMG_20180323_203230.jpg

Edited by Wroth
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that is from the earlier WD21. I think those are the same as mine on my 1991. Mine look like a cast materiel instead of the steel tube like my 1994.

 

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the quick response, djeffrey, that's very interesting. I wonder which is the more durable... Cool. Learn something every day on here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Score on the compressor!

 

And yeah, the earlier WD21s have the I-beam shaped trailing arms instead of the tubes. I've read they're tougher to bend, but it looks like the PO of that rig managed it just fine! I'd look for a straight arm rather than trying to straighten that one. They're not exactly rare and I don't think I'd trust a straightened cast metal anything.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both of those front trailing arms are supposed to be straight as an arrow. I have no idea how you do that to a cast steel piece but I would bet an attempt to remove the truck from where it was stuck was the culprit. I'm pretty sure those are only on the early WD21s (my '90 has them) and suspect that they are on up to 1992/93 when they started making changes (round dash models). Don't bother trying to straighten that though, you'll need to bring the piece up to at least cherry red (preferably orange) before it will even move, at that temperature the bushings will be on fire (press-in bushings) and you need to have an alignment bar to make sure that she's beyond straight by 3 degrees and comes back to straight once it cools. 1/8" out won't kill you but it's going to be tough to get the bolt in and threaded! Once you've done that the thing is going to need to be tempered in an oven a 200 degrees C. for about an hour. Then you need to install new / used and good bushings at both ends.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...