Hello-

I am a bit confused as to how the rear compensator arm attaches to the body. I know it screws into a nut, but the hole is blind. The problem I am having is that the bolt will thread onto something but doesnt stop threading into something.... leading me to believe its just getting caught on the sides of the hole.

I am referring to part number 14, and bolt number 38.



Thank you!

 

Inside the blind hole is a threaded nut. You will probably notice the hole is more of a slot than a round hole. That is because the nut inside is able to move from side to side. This movement is how your rear toe settings are changed when you get an alignment. If you are only catching the side of the nut, then you will have to keep poking around until you get the bolt properly threaded.

Major problems occur if the nut is broken loose from its track inside the chassis. If the track is dented, the nut may be able to spin freely, obviously you will never get the bolt to tighten all the way down. Also, if the nut fell completely out of its track into the chassis, you won't even be able to get the bolt started. In this case, you would have to cut a hole in the chassis to access the nut & repair the sliding track.

You should probably first try getting under the car & threading the bolt in without the compensator arm in place whatsoever. This will give you a good "feel" for where the nut is. You may be able to just slide it into a position that will be much easier to work with once all the suspension arms are in place...

 

ahhh ok. I was thinking something like that was in there!

On this side (driver) the compensator arm -to- trailing arm bolt is still only hand tightened. I think I spoke with you before, I got this setup off of a 95 teg so some of the parts were replaced.

How do I determine the correct orientation for the compensator arm -to- trailing arm setup? Will it right itself once the other connection is fixed?

Until I get this thing running, and get an alignment... where should I try to place the nut within the chassis, closer to the edge or closer to the center of the car?


THANKS!!!

 

Well, the connection between the compensator arm & the trailing arm should not be tightened until everything is in place & the car is back on the ground. You need the suspension at it's final ride height before tightening any bolts that go through the center of any rubber bushing. This is so the rubber is completely untwisted when the car is on the ground. If you find it's too difficult to fit tools under the car to tighten the suspension bolts after it's back on the ground, you can try this:

- all bushing bolts should be loose
- put car up on jack-stands
- Jack up LCA until car barely lifts off nearest jack-stand (double check ride height via fender gap)
- tighten & torque all suspension bolts at that corner to spec
- let car back down & move to next corner of car

As for where to put the position of the compensator arm to chassis connection, I would just put both sides where the original ones where before you took the rear apart. There should be some marks in the paint that show right where the bolts used to be. This is what I did & the car still drove relatively straight. You will still need an alignment because it's going to be off no matter what...

 

okay, great advice. Does this mean I should loosen all the other connections where a rubber bushing is? The reason being is that this suspension came off of a stock ride height car, and my car is lowered.

 

Yeah you should loosen all bolts (LCA=3, UCA=1, CompArm=2), get the car at final ride height, and then tighten & torque each bolt...

The funny thing is that most people don't realize this is something you must do at EVERY corner of the car EVERY TIME you alter the ride height of the vehicle. If you don't reset all the bushings, they are always twisted when the car is on the ground. It is this constant stress that causes the rubber to wear out prematurely.

If you haven't done the bushing reset to the front end since you lowered the car, then I suggest you take care of them too before you go get that alignment (LCA=3, UCA=2)...