Broken Fatman Control Arm!!

[tateg]

It's not as catastrophic as the title makes it sound. See attached photo.

Notice it wasn't the weld but the metal itself.

[Raven855]

Have you called them on it? Will they fix it? How long have you had it installed? Are you just going to get out the welder and fix it yourself?

[bob tweedy]

arm

this is a great cause for concern. what happens if it lets go at 100 mph? is this a case of lax quality control? is this a case of poor quality materials?
good questions what? i am sure that there will be more.
maybe be a good case to use roberto 2000 arms.
bob

[Horsewidower]

It broke off at the anti-roll bar mount?

[tateg]

I emailed the photo to Brent about five minutes before I posted this. He hasn't responded in the last 30 or so minutes.

The arms have been on there about six months but it broke last month. I heard it when it went but didn't know what it was until today. I purchased them on 5 Dec. 07 so I doubt that they are still under warranty.

It broke at the sway bar mount. No sign of any other issues.

No, I won't break out the welder and fix it myself. I'm good, but not that good. I don't expect to take it off and send it back for repair since I drive it every day. I will likely take it to a pro welder locally and have him repair it.

I recall some years back someone pointed out that these end link mounts were a weak point. Hah, a search works wonders. It was GaBoySVO about 5 years ago, http://www.svoca.com/forum/showpost....1&postcount=41.

[BrianO]

do they even touch the sway bar area when they reman them? I thought it was just the ball joint area..unless it's cut and welded further back.

[tateg]

do they even touch the sway bar area when they reman them? I thought it was just the ball joint area..unless it's cut and welded further back.

These are Fatman Tubular replacements, not re-manufactured arms.

[Horsewidower]

Better check the other side too. If it broke on this one, it'll probably break on the other side. Bummer.

Bob

[tateg]

When I get the broken one fixed I'll have them do the non-broken one too. Teh welds were really solid, this is a result of flexing back and forth with the sway bar movement. I like GABoy's suggestion of a gusset being added.

[BrianO]

These are Fatman Tubular replacements, not re-manufactured arms.

ah, ok..I'm thinking of the others ones... robert2000 or whatever the name was..he just replaces the ball joint if I remember. fatman actually makes tubular ones.. Got it! thx

[svono50]

Yikes, that isn't good. With the way that clip is designed it is no wonder it broke. That clip will see front-to-back forces which will cause it to flex right were it broke. From the amount of rust on the edges it was likely cracked for a while before it finally let go. Of course your location doesn't help matters in any way...that fresh salt air will cause corrosion on virutally everything. FYI...we have history on our 304SS grills rusting badly in some costal locations. Salt can be a nasty thing to metal.

One other thing, the gusset should go from the back of the clip to the top of the arm (i.e.- away from the sway bar), IMHO. Good luck with the fix and post your completed pics.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

All the freeking mechanics, engineers and machinists here who own SVO's need to get together and hang together before we all hang separately. So few of you know what the other is doing.

The material breakage next to a weldment area is pretty much a given place to expect failure. That's the way it works on fabricated parts. No certified welder will dispute me on this.

What did you expect? Do you think that Fatman did 6 million duty cycles before putting a tubular arm out there? I think not.

At least it wasn't the ball joint weldment that failed. That could have hurt you as well as your car.

[tateg]

Certainly, any part is subject to failure, and OEM parts are no exception. About 30 years ago I had a '69 Torino GT that had what *would* have been a very catastrophic control arm failure. One day I noticed that it felt squirrely on uneven pavement so I raised it up to to check it out. It had stamped lower control arms like most OEM arms on Ford vehicles and the metal just isn't that heavy duty. It had a half inch crack in the metal on both sides of the lower ball joint starting at the outer edge of the arm and working it's way in; the strip of metal with the ball joint between the two tears/cracks was lifting up and away from the rest of the "A" arm. The other side was in identical condition. If either side had let go I would have been toast, or at least very unhappy about the condition of my car. Who knows how something like this happens? I sure don't. But this is why we regularly inspect our performance vehicles.

Fatman Fabrications has been doing custom suspensions for rods and antique cars for a LONG time (nearly 25 years). They're not a fly-by-night single room shop, but a large custom suspension parts factory that employs something like 40 folks. If anyone can do this kind of work safely, they can. But if they can't, then no one can.

I checked out the rest of the arms thoroughly and saw no other signs of damage or wear. It's pretty obvious looking at the sway bar link that this was a weak spot from the start. I just wish my foresight was 20/20 as well as my hindsight.

[tateg]

Reply from the Fatman (Brent) himself.

"Thanks for letting me know, I’m glad it wasn’t anything too hazardous. I suspect the sway bar bracket was flexing, which can cause fatigue failure. The sure sign of that is a “sugary” grain in the broken area. It looks like we need to bef up the thickness of the bracket, and add a gusset to prevent the flexing. I’ll take this right to the production area and change the design. Thanks again. How can I assist you?"


I have given him some options to get mine fixed that allow me to continue to drove the car daily. I have a good spare set of SVO arms that I can too on while I send these back for repair. We'll see how good the support is.

Anyone who has a set that isn't installed should contact Fatman Fabrications and get them to update your arms so that this doesn't happen to you.

[tateg]

Update!

Brent is building new sway bar tabs and sending them out to me. I'll get them welded locally without having to remove the arms.

I had the option of sending these back but can't keep the car off the road for sufficient time to get them fixed.