Baja 5B 5T front upper A arm brace mod

[Polar_Bus]

One of the weak points I noticed while looking over the front bulkhead assembly was the fact the upper control arms are well braced at the front with an aluminum bracket. However if you grabbed both the front arms and applied twisting force you can get them to flex pretty easily at the rear . I wanted to add some type of brace to the rear mount of the upper control arms which are really unsupported. I came up with the idea to use an additional front aluminum bracket, flip it upside down and mount it at the rear of the upper arms. But as always not so simple as a bolt in. The problem is the pins do not have enough length to allow the usage of the 2nd bracket and get the C clips installed. After a mock up and careful measurements I needed to somehow subtract .090" of material from the upper A arm assembly overall width. So I was able to machine off .030" from each end of the upper control arms, so that got my number to -.060" still needed a minimum of another .030" . I did not want to remove any more material off the A arms, so I decided to remove some material from the bracket at the mount holes. Pretty simple mod thanks to my mini mill, and honestly this is a mod anyone can do with a drill press and a file.

Used a couple block to secure the Arms in my vise. I used the control arm pivot pin in a drill chuck to correctly locate the arm in the jaws.


Removed about .030" off each end :


To make the numbers work I removed another ,040" from the aluminum bracket :


And finished. The rear brace makes a BIG improvement adding some stiffness to the front a arm assembly:




Maybe in the future I might even add brackets and bolt the rear brace to the front upper aluminum bulkhead bracket. See how this mod works out.


Making positive progress, she's looking like a roller instead of a big box of parts !

 

[Z.hb71]

One of the weak points I noticed while looking over the front bulkhead assembly was the fact the upper control arms are well braced at the front with an aluminum bracket. However if you grabbed both the front arms and applied twisting force you can get them to flex pretty easily. I wanted to add some type of brace to the rear mount of the upper control arms which are really unsupported. I came up with the idea to use an additional front aluminum bracket, flip it upside down and mount it at the rear of the upper arms. But as always not so simple as a bolt in. The problem is the pins do not have enough length to allow the usage of the 2nd bracket and get the C clips installed. After a mock up and careful measurements I needed to somehow subtract .090" of material from the upper A arm assembly overall width. So I was able to machine off .030" from each end of the upper control arms, so that got my number to -.060" still needed a minimum of another .030" . I did not want to remove any more material off the A arms, so I decided to remove some material from the bracket at the mount holes. Pretty simple mod thanks to my mini mill, and honestly this is a mod anuone can do with a drill press and a file.

Used a couple block to secure the Arms in my vise. I used the control arm pivot pin in a drill chuck to correctly locate the arm in the jaws.


Removed about .030" off each end :


To make the numbers work I removed another ,040" from the aluminum bracket :


And finished. The rear brace makes a BIG improvement adding some stiffness to the front a arm assembly:




Maybe in the future I might even add brackets and bolt the rear brace to the front upper aluminum bulkhead bracket. See how this mod works out.


Making positive progress, she's looking like a roller instead of a big box of parts !

Very nice work as always polar! Will have to do this to mine.

 

[Milo]

Use reinforced bolts instead of hinge pins then you can make the perfect length have the best strength and for a few quid.

 

[Z.hb71]

Use reinforced bolts instead of hinge pins then you can make the perfect length have the best strength and for a few quid.

+1 or use sumin like this

 

[Milo]

Exactly I use heavy gauge 12.9 tensile bolts. Hardest steel for this application.

 

[Z.hb71]

Exactly I use heavy gauge 12.9 tensile bolts. Hardest steel for this application.

nice. add that to the list of stuff for when i rebuild my baja lol

 

[JVT73]

One of the weak points I noticed while looking over the front bulkhead assembly was the fact the upper control arms are well braced at the front with an aluminum bracket. However if you grabbed both the front arms and applied twisting force you can get them to flex pretty easily at the rear . I wanted to add some type of brace to the rear mount of the upper control arms which are really unsupported. I came up with the idea to use an additional front aluminum bracket, flip it upside down and mount it at the rear of the upper arms. But as always not so simple as a bolt in. The problem is the pins do not have enough length to allow the usage of the 2nd bracket and get the C clips installed. After a mock up and careful measurements I needed to somehow subtract .090" of material from the upper A arm assembly overall width. So I was able to machine off .030" from each end of the upper control arms, so that got my number to -.060" still needed a minimum of another .030" . I did not want to remove any more material off the A arms, so I decided to remove some material from the bracket at the mount holes. Pretty simple mod thanks to my mini mill, and honestly this is a mod anyone can do with a drill press and a file.

Used a couple block to secure the Arms in my vise. I used the control arm pivot pin in a drill chuck to correctly locate the arm in the jaws.


Removed about .030" off each end :


To make the numbers work I removed another ,040" from the aluminum bracket :


And finished. The rear brace makes a BIG improvement adding some stiffness to the front a arm assembly:




Maybe in the future I might even add brackets and bolt the rear brace to the front upper aluminum bulkhead bracket. See how this mod works out.


Making positive progress, she's looking like a roller instead of a big box of parts !

Nice mod & a fellow re-loader as well?

 

[crankestein]

I either don't bash mine hard enough or been lucky, mine have not broken yet in two yrs.