Hi

Am after some advice re Global West trailing arms.

there is $70 difference between the TBC-10 and TBC-9 arms.

One is offset and one is normal.

The offset ones have Teflon lined spherical bearing and the normal one poly.

Any opinions on which ones are better.

I will only be fitting 18" x 8" rims at this stage so don't really need the offset but if the Teflon lined spherical bearing is a big difference is it worth getting them.

 

The front of the control arm needs to move up down and side to side a little.

I'd use a spherical instead of Poly.

 

I believe they are both offset. Both control arms are the same. The only difference between the two are the bearing/bushing. Spend the extra money and go with the bearing set up.

 

I have them installed on my Vette. A couple things you need to be aware of. Due to the placement of the parking brake bracket on the TAs, the brake cable will be about 4" too long.

Also you will need to check for clearance to your shocks. Mine rubbed on both sides.

 

Thanks for your replies guys.

After a lot of reading it does seem...

1) the spherical bearing is technicaly a better option providing much smoother movement in the arm and no binding.

2) the issues with the park brake cable have been resolved by revisions in the arm gussets.

For those with the spherical bearing how mush extra harshness does it add over using the poly bushings.

 

I haven't noticed any extra harshness.

 

I have a set of these under way. Any special installation tips & tricks I should pay attention to? I have a stock length composite spring and the GM type rear torsion bar, same as Kid Vette has.

 

I've never agreed with that... Awhile back my control arms, with poly bushings, were only attached at the front and they moved in all directions very easily. Yes, the were properly tightened.

 

I was an early adopter and went with the spherical mount. At that time with no opinions available I didn't want to regret not getting the spherical bearing. There will always be some twisting on the poly and the long term effect is ... who knows?

The emergency cable was a big problem, I had to hog out the through hole GW first provided. The debris you see in the picture is a couple of hours with a grinder. Complaining about this was my first post on this forum and I remember KidVette commiserating. Ah, the memories!

GW offered to exchange my arms to their credit when I complained but they were already installed when I discovered the problem. The brake cable does go through some contortions as well and I had to shorten it to get the emergency brake to work. I don't know what the fix is and haven't seen a picture. As you can see, the flange on the cable really doesn't sit all that flush on the body mount.

Like Kid Vette, I have Willwoods and discovered some issues with positioning the calipers and bleeding them. Basically I couldn't get a torque wrench on the mounting bolts until I changed to a 12-point smaller head bolt, so it was easily resolved. I can't remember if it was the brakes or the arms that gave me the problem but probably the former so you will likely be OK with stock calipers. I also vaguely remember a clearance issue with my shocks that was resolved with a couple of spacers. No show stoppers, but you'll want to look over your installation carefully.

 

I have the GW spherical trailing arms and agree with the above comments.

- the e brake cable mounting tab needs to be opened up with a die grinder. Pro Tip: Do this before installing the rear spindles and dust shields
- the opening where the bearing hub comes together and bolts on fit the casting so tight i had to sand the powder coat off and emory cloth until it would accept.



Im also running the GW strut links and waiting on a van steel 760 spring to complete the rear end rebuild.




Has anyone run into issues with the OEM bump stops? It seems like they will hit the half shaft flange instead of the trailing arm body.

 

Kind of an old post by me in there and here is an older one:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ficulty-2.html

As to the bump stops, , I do know I extended mine. I believe I did it for shock travel. I think I have a picture somewhere. Since you don't have a spring installed, seems like you could jack up the arm and see where the bump stops end up.

If you want replacements for those Photobucket pictures, let me know.

 

Thanks for the link to that thread ignatz, I too wrestled with the brake cable and had the same thoughts about why such good looking / well designed parts needed modification. I'll post a picture of how mine is routed but its very similar to yours now.

After eye balling the bump stop position with the arm all the way up, looks like it needs to be moved out at least an inch.. Did you also move it down for travel reasons?

 

The only check on bump stop position still in my head is the vertical. I padded the bump stop down because the shocks I installed had less travel than the Bilsteins I had. Math said I had to do that, The shocks are still in there and are adjustable and I have them set a bit soft. There is a tell-tale o-ring on the shock shaft and I know that gets to the travel limit. So it is entirely possible that "out at least an inch" is necessary and is something that I never checked for. At some point with a wheel off I may look to see if there are any scuff marks on the arm but that's not for today.

As was said, we are all Beta testers with these after market redesigns. I will add one more thing to watch for, there were some hiccups with fitment when I installed Wilwood.

You can just see the extra material and the o-ring here. That "other thing" is just a screw driver.

 

Interesting, tell us more about the willwood hiccups.. or if you have a link to a thread with them! I have the same calipers in the box that i'm about to tackle next, any wisdom is greatly appreciated.

 

Here you go, read carefully

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-brakes-2.html

A lot of good input from Kid_Vette. I don't see him on this forum anymore.

 

I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this thread to keep it going! This could be the primary thread for GW arm information.

I recently began the process of installing my GW offset arms with rebuild bearing assemblies from ZIP Corvette. Similar to other experiences, I had to do the following things:
1. I had to use my dremel tool to remove the paint on the inside of the 4 bolt holes AND the inside of the large hole for the wheel assembly.
1.1. In addition, I had to spend a few minutes with the dremel tool opening up the large hole of the driver's side trailing arm a tiny bit (less than 1mm) because it would not seat against the bearing support.
2. I had to use the dremel tool to open up the bracket for the parking brake. This involved removing the paint, and some of the metal.

As far as I can tell, I do not need to clearance the gussets in the trailing arm itself to make space for the parking brake cable, but I will have to see when I actually install them. I will also give feedback on the parking brake cable length when I install them as well.