Broken Trailer Arm

[Canadian Mike]

Upon having my winters replaced with all sesaons and repair of a power steering leak, my trusted mechanic advised me off a broken trailer arm . I knew something wasn't quite right but chalked it up to the potholes of the 2nd worst road in Atlantic Canada for 2015. The Voy sat in the shop for a week. Here are some photos.

Old

New

New Shocks

 

[Sparky]

Welcome to the club. I've broken and replaced both rear uppers. Lowers seem to be stronger.

I think the arm gets seized up in the front pocket (rust etc) and it won't pivot, so the arm then starts to flex instead of the bushing. Add in some rust and boom failure. Not positive on that but even on my rustbucket the arms, while rusty, weren't rusted through when they broke.

I'm pretty sure my passenger rear one broke due to a crater of a pothole on the interstate I hit, as it also blew my front alignment way out at the same time.

 

[Canadian Mike]

Welcome to the club. I've broken and replaced both rear uppers. Lowers seem to be stronger.

I think the arm gets seized up in the front pocket (rust etc) and it won't pivot, so the arm then starts to flex instead of the bushing. Add in some rust and boom failure. Not positive on that but even on my rustbucket the arms, while rusty, weren't rusted through when they broke.

I'm pretty sure my passenger rear one broke due to a crater of a pothole on the interstate I hit, as it also blew my front alignment way out at the same time.

Thanks for the "Club Welcome."

Did a quick search and haven't seen any postings on broken trailer arms.

 

[Sparky]

I think they're technically called trailing arms, not trailer arms. That said, it isn't an overly common thing so you probably won't find much anyway. Our club is pretty exclusive

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

I call them control arms, so info may be found under that.

I found my ZJ heep has rusted out ones last night.

 

[Mooseman]

I remember reading another member having one fail, same place. At least I have spares from my differential replacement.

 

[steveO]

I broke one two years ago... I had spares from when I had to swap out my G80 locker rear end that had damaged gears... what a disappointment that was.
I'm waiting for the mount to break off! GM did a poor job of designing that mount to the frame. It collects dirt and road salt and is rusting out.

 

[Sparky]

Yeah, mine has rust holes through the outside part.

 

[Canadian Mike]

I think they're technically called trailing arms, not trailer arms. That said, it isn't an overly common thing so you probably won't find much anyway. Our club is pretty exclusive

Anyway for a Mod to edit thread title. I knew it was a "trailing" arm but somehow "trailer" consumed my thinking that evening. And no, alcohol was "NOT" consumed.