Wanted: RCR40 Mk1 Lower Rear Control Arm (Early Design)

[Michael]

Hey guys, I know this is a stretch, but looking for an early style lower rear control arm to match the one on the left identified by red arrows. As far as I've been able to determine from speaking with RCR, the one on the left was for early narrow fender cars like mine. The one on the right was produced later on for +2 fender cars and somehow ended up on my car, hence my search for the correct matching part.

Both of the arms pictured are now an outdated design, so RCR no longer produces them. They currently provide a design that is standard for both narrow and +2 fender cars. I can only hope someone may have converted an early narrow fender car to +2 configuration along the way and still has the original arms on hand? Who knows, worth a try, right? For obvious reasons, I'd prefer to find a single replacement if possible, rather than purchase a matching set of the newer design parts.

 

[Joel K]

Michael,

Good luck in your search. In the meantime is it possible to machine the forks on the right down so you can get all three holes in the Rod ends to match. To me, the rightmost fork in the picture is a bit longer and the face of it could easily be machined down and still have plenty of threads on the rod end.

 

[Will Campbell]

The newer one looks beefier, and so might be preferable to the older design in any case. If it were my car, I'd upgrade to the newer design. Polished up, the old one would make a great wall ornament!

 

[Terry Oxandale]

Good luck in your search. In the meantime is it possible to machine the forks on the right down so you can get all three holes in the Rod ends to match. To me, the rightmost fork in the picture is a bit longer and the face of it could easily be machined down and still have plenty of threads on the rod end.

Here is his photo on the truck bed, and using the bed grooves as a grid (enhanced by my yellow boxes), you can see that the front part of the right arm is too far forward, thus the arm has to be pushed rearward at the wheels, which rotates it (yellow arrow), causing the need to extend the rear Heim joint in order to make it work. Shortening it would make it even worse.

So....with that said, would a stout 1" or so spacer placed between the frame and the inner joint (thus pushing the entire arm rearward), allow you to rotate that arm back in the opposite direction, shorten the rear Heim, lengthen the front Heim, and get you back on the road? In other words, the arms would then be installed similar to how the original photo was taken, but with the Heims adjusted correctly (except the one arm would be spaced further back than the other side arm. The suspension would not know the difference. I know this is single shear, but that appears to be what it was originally. Yes, there is some cantilever with the spacer, but a wide spacer, and high quality bolt should be fine.

 

[Morten]

Hi, an option if you cannot get them is to make a jig from the good one, and have new arms bent and welded up in 1in CDS tube and make a new pair

Best of luck, hope you get it sorted.
Any luck with Fran or Bill at RCR parts dept?

Morten