3rds arms

[brighty]

Anyone able to tell me which bushes they use in these where they connect to the chassis.

Mine are flogged out and need replacements.

Cheers.

[superzuki]

my ones tthat connect to the chassis is the teflon one with the two alloy clamps that came with my arms. other than that im runnin super pro for the rest. not much flex though thinking of going back to stock bushes and letting them shag out again

[Nelso]

You don't get much flex as the arm tries to rotate the diff forward on one side and backwards on the other when the axle tries to articulate. You can put a joint with limitless movement at the chassis end of the arms (as Third's have) and it will not improve articulation at all due to the torque applied to the diff housing from a 3 link radius arm set up.

These drop arms do improve on road performance but to get more articulation you need to a 5 link or similar set up that allows the diff to articulate without rotation.

[brighty]

Anyone able to tell me which bushes they use in these where they connect to the chassis.

Mine are flogged out and need replacements.

Cheers.

not really answering my original question kids.......

[beretta]

Best off to ring 3rds mate, I've got a set on my garage floor ready to go on, I had a look for you but they're not like anything I've seen before, they are a very simple nylon bush I know that much, maybe go to a bearing/bush joint and hunt around would be cheapest.

[ozy1]

give 3rds a yell, but i do believe their early arms were using a bearing or similar, and later on the changed to the nylon bush, so your best bet id say is to pull one out and give them a call,

[chabby]

Can anybody post the contact details for "3rds"

Thanks

[superzuki]

if your talking about the swivel bush its just a standard nissan/after market nissan bush the same as the front bushes on the diff.

[micka1]

i think he's talking about the little nylon white bush on the chassis end in between the alloy blocks that bolt to the chassis .

there contact number is 8814 9037 speak to fernando .

also i had these arms on the front of my gq and they tore the round ring that is welded into the chassis out , not much funso keep and eye out on the welds on that ring , its welded both sides and just tore the ring and welds out (cause they are solidly mounted with the alloy blocks).
wouldn't buy them again cause of this they were only in for 7000 klms and have heard of this happening quite a bit . wasn't much fun when on first day of holidays in the midle of the blue mountains .
that said there parhards and rear control arms are very good .

[chabby]

Do "3rds" have a e-mail or web address.I live in South Africa drive a MQ LWB and Nissan overhere no longer offer support.I need steering linkages/parts as per the drawing...well cant up load image????[/img]

[oondy]

also i had these arms on the front of my gq and they tore the round ring that is welded into the chassis out , not much funso keep and eye out on the welds on that ring , its welded both sides and just tore the ring and welds out

This happened to a bloke in our 4WD club while he was in the middle of the High Country (somewhere over there). He had to do a temp fix with straps i think then got to a town and welded it back up......doesn't sound like fun to me especially if it happens while barrelling up a hill.

cheers

OONDY

[micka1]

yeah mine happened under braking , i heard a big band and got out to see what was up luckily i stopped and looked . i used the winch cable the pull the diff forward and lock the bearing and peice of chassis in place and ratchet straps to hold the suspension and arm tight to try and stop the suspension moving too much and then a nice slow drive home to weld it back in . not fun at all

[beretta]

yeah mine happened under braking , i heard a big band and got out to see what was up luckily i stopped and looked . i used the winch cable the pull the diff forward and lock the bearing and peice of chassis in place and ratchet straps to hold the suspension and arm tight to try and stop the suspension moving too much and then a nice slow drive home to weld it back in . not fun at all

Anymore dramas after wleding it all back up? Was it just a factory strength issue, so welding it up fixed it?

[micka1]

na they braek because they are solidly mounted in two alloy round blocks so there is no movement or give over corrugations and bumps , really needs a rubber bush like factory in there . didn't have any problems put some big welds in there

[beretta]

Okay, cool, thanks for that.

[oondy]

Idealy a new radius arm mount should be welded on - like the cruiser mounts and eliminate the Pin mounting part.

cheers

OONDY

[toughnut]

Yes they do put a lot of strain on the chassis. I just welded a 5mm plate on the front side of the mount, inside the chassis. If you have the bearings in the knuckle then rip these out and replace with normal radius arm bushes. This will give you better flex and a smoother ride, not to mention less stress on your chassis mount.

[beretta]

Yes they do put a lot of strain on the chassis. I just welded a 5mm plate on the front side of the mount, inside the chassis. If you have the bearings in the knuckle then rip these out and replace with normal radius arm bushes. This will give you better flex and a smoother ride, not to mention less stress on your chassis mount.

So instead of the clamp sort of arrangement, just use the normal rubber bushes either side of the mount onto the body is that what you mean? I'm just about to put a set on myself.

[Nelso]

They originally went to the nylon bush because there was too much movement with the standard rubber bush causing it to flog out, so that's not an option. Basically it's a poorly engineered design that requires the radius arm mount to be reinforced or better still a new mount similar to an 80 series cruiser to be custom made and welded to the chassis so you can run the arms without the last little bit (from the rubber bush to the pin that goes into the chassis).

[oondy]

If its possible, you could shorten the distance from the centre of the axis on the first bush to the chassis - this would reduce the amount of force applied to the chassis mount but then your front diff moves back as well then.

cheers

OONDY

[Nelso]

Yes they do put a lot of strain on the chassis. I just welded a 5mm plate on the front side of the mount, inside the chassis. If you have the bearings in the knuckle then rip these out and replace with normal radius arm bushes. This will give you better flex and a smoother ride, not to mention less stress on your chassis mount.

Just realised what toughnut meant. Instead of running the bearing that comes in third's arms you should swap for a rubber radius arm bush the same as the two at the diff end. And strengthen the chassis. I agree 100%, the bearing transfers too much shock through to the chassis.

I did confirm the problem with running the rubber like Beretta asked today. When they first came out they were fitted like this and they did flex up quite well but they were a nightmare on the road and they did flog out the chassis mount.

What I meant about creating a custom mount was to keep the diff in the same position and just run the shorter arms to a custom mount a few inches in front of the original chassis mount. But again, swapping the bearing for a rubber bush.

If you are thinking about drop arms I think the snake ones are a better option. Just don't expect them to articulate like a five link, it won't happen.

[thwack]

HAve a couple of pics of the damage caused by the 3rds arm when they pulled the radius arm chassis mount out. This was from the high country trip that oondy was talking about.






The fix this night on the trail was to sandwich two large steel plates either side of the chassis. It was just luck that we had two new rated eyes with reinforcing plates under the front seat. that fit over the shaft.

The permanent fix for this was to weld in two 6mm steel plates over the original mounts.

[sudso]

also i had these arms on the front of my gq and they tore the round ring that is welded into the chassis out , not much funso keep and eye out on the welds on that ring , its welded both sides and just tore the ring and welds out

This happened to a bloke in our 4WD club while he was in the middle of the High Country (somewhere over there). He had to do a temp fix with straps i think then got to a town and welded it back up......doesn't sound like fun to me especially if it happens while barrelling up a hill.

cheers

OONDY

He said to me that the front axle almost drove away from the car

Can someone put up some pics of the cruiser mounts?

[muddyperils]

Have had mine over a year and they will be coming off very soon, always coming loose, vibrating that same chassis mount to the buggery, no better flex than a similar brand without the added bearing and the ride over the corregated roads is not what i was looking for in the first place.....OMG i think a snake just crossed the road......

[jimsaq]

Searched and found this thread - I bought my 5 degree 3rds arms a few months before this thread was created. Today I came searching for issues because mine have done exactly the same thing as shown in thwack's pictures. One happened before christmas last year, welded it back up. Now the other side has ripped out while I was driving to work, luckily I could hear it rattling and just pulled carefully over, as opposed to finding out by stepping on the brakes and veering across the road.

Pretty damn dangerous in my opinion.

I phoned up 3rd's to ask them what they thought of the issue and they blamed the nissan welds, which I'm not buying.

I'm removing these arms right away.

[hammey]

Hmmmmmmm.

that doesn't sound good. I read this thread this morning and had a bit of a think about it while i serviced my winch freespool.

It appears that these arms are the only aftermarket bolt in drop arm not utilizing the original Nissan rubber bushes.

why rubber? rubber has a memory and also give along all axis's of loading.that little company called nissan designed the gq to have its radius arms mounted to the chassis using rubber bushes.

the main reason i think for using rubber bushes as opposed to hard mounting with nylon or what ever is that the rubber is a DESIGNED weak point. the rubber is there to not only allow greatest flex but to intentionally flog out and be replaced long before the front diff tears itself away from the car.

If you have a look at thwack's pictures the welds have maintained their integrity, the socket has litterally torn itself and the weld from the parent metal. is this the same as yours jimsaq?

If this was a one off situation it could lend itself to speculation, however its not.........

IMHO if i had a set of these arms on my car i would be spending this weekend removing them and crack testing the metal around the welds.

cheers smitty