Does anyone know the actual weight difference between the early steel trailing arms and the later aluminum ones?

TIA

 

The alli -arm is stiffer than the steel ones, The difference makes the swap a must.

 

Making the switch to aluminum arms results in increased track, I believe. If so, this would mean you may need to change to late offset wheels to avoid clearance problems.

Others may know better, though

 

I think the alum arms are the same the spindles are different( axles stubs)

 

Would still have the same effect, though? Correct?

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I think a lot of the ITS guys do this and also move to late offset front A-Arms specifically to get the wider track.

 

For some reason when I changed my early car to alum. rerar contol arms I had two sets of stub axles one set made the car track to wide for the wheels I had planned on using.
If you desire a wider track I think you need the later control arms or stub axles. not sure on years.

 

May also want to post this on the 944 cup board as people there have done it.

www.44cup.com

 

This will be for an IT car. We just got a 150lb. weight break and I am tryiing to balance out the best upgrades for the $.

 

I did this swap on my 944. Swapped the 84 steel rear suspension with the early alumuinum one.
Track was the same. However to do the swap you needed longer 1/2 shafts and spring plate was shaped different where it attaches to the trailing arm. Result was I had get into teh t-bars to change to later spring plate. Plus hard brake lines are different.

 

The weight for single trailing arms stripped of everything (no stub axles, hubs, bearings, etc) are as follows:

* Steel = 17 pounds each
* Aluminum = 14.5 pounds each

Therefore, you would have a weight savings of 5.0 pounds for a pair of trailing arms.

 

Thanks!