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Spohn Torque Arm CLUNKING!

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Old Jul 29, 2007 | 04:44 PM
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Default Spohn Torque Arm CLUNKING!

I'm about 1" away from throwing this thing away.

http://www.byunspeed.com/product_inf...2dbb2d7ddc01aa

That's the arm I have, crossmember fits fine, even under my 4" I-pipe. I have the poly bushing front mount model, it's also chrome-moly with the front loop. Totaled to about $550.

I had to cut the hell out of the bracket to make it fit my Moser. I even had to grind a bit of the rear end down. It fit the first set of holes in the rear mount fine, but the bracket was hitting the tunnel. Now I've got the second set in and everything bolted up and it clunks like CRAZY.

I've been under the car 10 times tightening crap down and I can't find ANYTHING. It sounds like something is literally flopping around on the ground. The top of the rear end bracket is STILL hitting the tunnel, but not much.

When I back out of my driveway, it seems to be fine. I go over a few bumps, speed up, slow down, etc. As soon as I get on the gas at all, it starts clunking its *** off and doesn't stop until I jack the car back up and mess with it. It sounds like it's coming from the rear of the car. This is the ONLY thing I modified since it worked perfect. The car has full suspension minus a-arms and sway bars (no front, stock rear). I've got a new Spohn 1" rear sway bar to put on, but don't like to do more than one mod at a time so when something starts making horrendous noises, I only have one thing to trace it back to.


Here's some pictures of the cutting I had to do. First pic you can see how the bracket digs into the body when you load the rear suspension. You can also see in the other pics the reason why the second set of bolt holes won't work on the Moser 12-bolt without cutting, and what I had to do to make it fit. The whole reason I bought this thing was the "100% bolt-in installation".

After running into these problems, I find out that other people ran into the same grinding/cutting problems as me. I have it fitting fine after a couple hours of work, but it now clunks to the point that the car is not drivable.

Anyone have any suggestions? I am going to call Spohn and see what the hell is going on tomorrow.








Last edited by TheBlurLS1; Jul 29, 2007 at 05:01 PM.
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Old Jul 29, 2007 | 04:57 PM
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Mine is pretty darn close to the tunnel as well..

DO you have the clearance to move it to the other set of holes tword the DS?

Maybe get some spring spacers to jack the rear back up and away from the tunnel.

EDIT: Duh... I see what you did.. Disregard...
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Old Jul 29, 2007 | 05:04 PM
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The whole modifying the bracket doesn't bother me, I understand fully that custom **** is custom ****. I have a problem with the fact that the advertisement specifically states that it WILL work with a 12-bolt and it doesn't. It would be different if it didn't say anything about it, or flat out said it would need to be modified.

I think the clunk is related to the front link somehow, even though it sounds like it's coming from the back of the car. I wish it wasn't a Sunday so I could call someone, and I haven't ruled out the possibility that I may just be a no-installing caveman.
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Old Jul 29, 2007 | 05:09 PM
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Not sure if this will help or not, but this is how I set the pinion angle to 2.5* down.

Originally Posted by TheBlurLS1
You can jack the car up with the rear end loaded, then take a reference angle off the output shaft of the trans. If the driveshaft is still in it, you can take the reference angle off of the crank pulley.

Set the pinion at the same angle, then rotate the rear end toward the ground the desired amount of degrees.

http://rosslertrans.com/Tips/Pinon.htm
Am I wrong in doing it that way?
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Old Jul 29, 2007 | 05:15 PM
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I have the same style on my 3rd gen, but mine is for an LT1 T56 swap and a 10 bolt. Mine has been hitting the seatbelt and fuel/brake line mount on the drivers side of the tunnel. It's actually done that enough that the bolt head has ground a groove through the upper bar on the arm. I just bought this car, so I'm inhereting little problems (like this one). I have to pull it off of the car, move, remove, hammer, grind, etc the bracket and then weld up the arm and paint it to prevent rust.

Yours might be hitting in the same location, take a look at the seatbelt mounting bracket in the trans tunnel.
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Old Jul 30, 2007 | 05:28 AM
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Bump!
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Old Jul 30, 2007 | 09:46 AM
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Sounds like you need to get the old 4 pound back from Chris and make that floor pan your bitch.
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Old Jul 30, 2007 | 10:22 AM
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^ FWIW: This sin't the first time I've heard of people having Tq Arm problems on the Moser 12b's..
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Old Jul 30, 2007 | 09:55 PM
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Set the angle to 1* and see if that helps. 2.5* is alot of bind for a driveline.
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Old Jul 31, 2007 | 02:23 PM
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How do you get the measurement? Where do you measure the distance?
I beleive that will make the differents of my car hooking.


Originally Posted by TheBlurLS1
Not sure if this will help or not, but this is how I set the pinion angle to 2.5* down.



Am I wrong in doing it that way?
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Old Aug 1, 2007 | 12:24 PM
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Well, if there is nothing rubbing or hitting nothing, that heim joint mount in the front is probably what you are hearing. Since there is no bushing to absorb vibration and road noise, it goes through the joint into the chassis.

Mine does this!

Just my two cents here

Last edited by WFOWS6_IL; Aug 1, 2007 at 12:29 PM.
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Old Aug 1, 2007 | 03:46 PM
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I thought that spohn had notices about fitment problems with the moser 12 bolts. My strange 12-bolt is fine. It hit the floor with the very corner once or twice. Clearanced itself...no more clunk.

I have trouble with the joints and rod ends moving around a bit...but it doesnt bother me too much.

But everything is always 12 bolt and other axles.... then a different part number for the moser 12 bolt.

J.
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Old Aug 1, 2007 | 07:10 PM
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Originally Posted by WFOWS6_IL
Well, if there is nothing rubbing or hitting nothing, that heim joint mount in the front is probably what you are hearing. Since there is no bushing to absorb vibration and road noise, it goes through the joint into the chassis.

Mine does this!

Just my two cents here
I have the poly bushing front mount, not the heim joint. It's not road noise, it's a show-nuff ka-klunk.

Originally Posted by ghettocruiser
I thought that spohn had notices about fitment problems with the moser 12 bolts. My strange 12-bolt is fine. It hit the floor with the very corner once or twice. Clearanced itself...no more clunk.

I have trouble with the joints and rod ends moving around a bit...but it doesnt bother me too much.

But everything is always 12 bolt and other axles.... then a different part number for the moser 12 bolt.

J.
The very top corner of my mounting bracket hit the floor slightly, and I thought it clearanced itself. I though the bumps and stuff I was going over were not enough to make the rear end move up far enough to hit, yet still make the clunk.

Friday I'm going to adjust the pinion angle some, and do some bashing on the tunnel. After that, I'll see how it works. If it's still making noise, I may put the stocker back on. I'm having withdrawls.
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Old Aug 2, 2007 | 05:25 AM
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Bump!
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Old Aug 2, 2007 | 07:20 AM
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Opps! Glanced at the pics quickly and saw the heim's on the back.
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Old Aug 2, 2007 | 08:19 AM
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I can't see anywhere mine may be hitting and it clunks on and off. Can't seem to figure out what the hell it is either. The only reason I haven't gone back to the stocker was because I got this one for $250 and I already had the tailshaft break in two pieces after spraying the car.

Additionally, the weight on my driveshaft was placed right where the driveshaft loop is so I had to bend the driveshaft mount up a bit. It was too late to remove the driveshaft again and try to have it rebalanced with that weight somewhere else.

Last edited by DopeFedZ; Aug 2, 2007 at 08:27 AM.
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Old Aug 3, 2007 | 03:54 PM
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I just spoke with Steve Spohn. He's convinced that the top of the rear end bracket is in fact hitting the tunnel, said he's seen many times with the Moser 12-bolts.

He said the the Moser's mounting holes area about an inch toward the driver side as compared to the stock rear end. My car is also lowered, so that puts that bracket that much closer to the tunnel.

I do notice when I flop my 215lb *** into the car, I hear a clunk that I didn't hear before.


Dopefed - check your tunnel for a faint mark right above the top forwardmost corner of the mounting bracket, it's probably hitting there every now and then.
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Old Aug 3, 2007 | 06:22 PM
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I have the same problem. When I go around a corner and give it a little gas the clunk goes away. It is really annoying, and am thinking of going wit ha different brand because of this and no one seems to know how to fix it.
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Old Aug 3, 2007 | 06:54 PM
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FIXED!

I had to bash in that area where the top corner of the bracket was hitting the tunnel.

I was using a prybar, because I'd loaned out my BFH. I accidentally punched a few holes in the body, but I have a 5" OD bullet muffler in tunnel on the other side, so it's jacked up already. I shouldn't have had to do ANY of this, but that's the way it goes.
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Old Aug 3, 2007 | 07:36 PM
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I'll check that area this weekend. Thanks for the info.
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