My rear suspension has chrome-plated drag links, lower arms, and top links. It looks great, but now I'm thinking about taking it apart to address two potential concerns, one that I'm aware of and another that I'm not sure is a problem.
In Engineer To Win, Carroll Smith wrote that he doesn't like chrome-plated suspension pieces (he didn't say why) but went on to say that when he does encounter them, he he washes the tubes out with a mild baking soda solution to neutralize any residual plating-bath acids, dries them thoroughly, then sprays liberal amounts of WD40 inside to inhibit corrosion. Mine don't appear to have been treated in this manner by the former owner of my kit (who arranged for the chromeplating), and the pieces appear to have come straight from the plating shop. There was significant corrosion on the female threads that I cleaned out with a tap before I could thread the rod ends in. I did spray the insides with WD40, but did not use any sort of a solution to neutralize residual acids. I didn't worry about it too much because I would think that, in the absence of any more moisture, the corrosion would have progressed to where it is now and stopped.
Then a few weeks ago I was advised that chrome-plated suspension pieces should be heat treated after they are plated to provide "embrittlement relief." Again, I doubt any such heat treatment was carried out by the previous owner. If this is a genuine concern, I'll address it, as rear suspension component failure is fundamentally an issue of safety.
I'm hoping that someone can provide me with some solid tech on embrittlement relief and the need for post-plating heat treatment.
In Engineer To Win, Carroll Smith wrote that he doesn't like chrome-plated suspension pieces (he didn't say why) but went on to say that when he does encounter them, he he washes the tubes out with a mild baking soda solution to neutralize any residual plating-bath acids, dries them thoroughly, then sprays liberal amounts of WD40 inside to inhibit corrosion. Mine don't appear to have been treated in this manner by the former owner of my kit (who arranged for the chromeplating), and the pieces appear to have come straight from the plating shop. There was significant corrosion on the female threads that I cleaned out with a tap before I could thread the rod ends in. I did spray the insides with WD40, but did not use any sort of a solution to neutralize residual acids. I didn't worry about it too much because I would think that, in the absence of any more moisture, the corrosion would have progressed to where it is now and stopped.
Then a few weeks ago I was advised that chrome-plated suspension pieces should be heat treated after they are plated to provide "embrittlement relief." Again, I doubt any such heat treatment was carried out by the previous owner. If this is a genuine concern, I'll address it, as rear suspension component failure is fundamentally an issue of safety.
I'm hoping that someone can provide me with some solid tech on embrittlement relief and the need for post-plating heat treatment.