Toby Tabs Rear Suspension

["Mike" <mquinto@xxxx>]

Rich, Dave And List,
I did speak with my Forman yesterday about the Pearce rear 
suspension. I showed him pics from his web page.
He definitely liked the look and the setup of the rear trailing arm. 
All the fixes are there. He's got it in dual shear locking out the 
movement of the pivot bolt. That pivot box is now locking out the 
forward and aft movement, that is what we want. But, the Rod End is 
still allowing that up and down
radial movement, that we need. His setup will prevent any stress on 
the bolt, pivot box and frame.

I know most of us can't afford a new stainless steel frame with 
rear trailing arms. Even if you can there are still the little 
things you have to buy, swap out or restore when doing a job like 
that. So here are some solutions if anyone would like to consider 
building or refine.

Fix #1 The Toby Bolt, an inexpensive solution to a bent OEM pivot 
bolt. But remember it's still only a temporary fix.

Fix #2 Use the Toby Bolt. Modify the rear trailing arm. Cut the 
end of the trailing pivot boss off, add a plate with a threaded 
bung, and add a spherical bearing rod end.
But, leaving the upper and lower connecting links stock rubber. I 
know I said in my previous post to make the outer connector links 
rod ends. 
I forgot about the forward and aft movement on the pivot bolt. 
Adding the rod ends there would make that worse.

Fix #3 Get rid of the trailing arm bushing 106716 , and the 
reinforcement plate 106708. Build a small steal box structure about 
the same size as the side of the reinforcement plate. You would then 
bolt the box structure to the frame using the same mounting holes 
the reinforcement plate used.
Then do the trailing arm modification in fix #2. But here I would 
scrap both upper and lower connecting links and replace them with 
all rod ends. This would allow for camber adjustment as well.
This fix would mimic what Pearce is doing to his stainless chassis. 
This also would definitely improve cornering.

And those of you that are skeptical about using spherical rod ends 
as suspension pivots. The off-road community have been doing it for 
years. Some use them as pivots for there front a arms and rear 
trailing arms. And they are driving in a more brutal environment 
without failure. 
On our cars we use delrin as pivot bushings on both front and rear
suspension pivots. We use rod ends for our steering system, drag 
link, connector link, and both tie rods. We also have a collapsible 
roll cage. So we use 4 rollbar struts on all 4 corners at an angle 
that have spherical rod ends. These allow us to adjust the preload 
on the rollcage. Our rollcage has gone through intense testing and 
passed without any damage to the spherical rod ends.

Here's a link showing the parts drawing of the trailing arm 
suspension.
http://www.usadmc.com/dmcstore/ViewDir.asp?PageID=69&PageCat=5%
2DSuspension+and+Steering

If anyone else has any more ideas or improvements I would love to 
hear 'em.
Regards,
Mike