mancini tube upper control arm failure....
There's one thing everyone needs to realize...in the Mopar SLA front suspension, the upper control arm has very little load to support, especially in comparison to the lower control arms. If you look at vehicles with similar suspensions (torsion bar 4x4 trucks are a good example), you'll find the upper control arm is very small, and many times made of aluminum anymore. The lower is much beefier.
This is an upper control arm for a Hummer H3, which comes stock with 285 width 33" tall tires.
C4 Corvette (3000lbs and factory fitted with 275 width rubber)
On the stock ones...I've had the ball joint threads fail and the ball joint back out of the arm...does not cause an accident, and a cracked bushing hole I have seen as well. It happened when i removed the OEM bushing. The bushing hole crack would take a very long time to fatigue to failure if it ever did. Put one of the stock steel ones through an accident and it will bend like a taco, but it likely won't come apart.
The welds should NOT be breaking ever.
There's one thing everyone needs to realize...in the Mopar SLA front suspension, the upper control arm has very little load to support, especially in comparison to the lower control arms. If you look at vehicles with similar suspensions (torsion bar 4x4 trucks are a good example), you'll find the upper control arm is very small, and many times made of aluminum anymore. The lower is much beefier.
This is an upper control arm for a Hummer H3, which comes stock with 285 width 33" tall tires.
C4 Corvette (3000lbs and factory fitted with 275 width rubber)
On the stock ones...I've had the ball joint threads fail and the ball joint back out of the arm...does not cause an accident, and a cracked bushing hole I have seen as well. It happened when i removed the OEM bushing. The bushing hole crack would take a very long time to fatigue to failure if it ever did. Put one of the stock steel ones through an accident and it will bend like a taco, but it likely won't come apart.
The welds should NOT be breaking ever.