Rear arms life span….

[bl52krz]

I have a full set in the usual place..... the loft. They are the ones from DMRGS, with DMGRS stamped on them. They are from the second bundle he had commissioned by his company. The bracket for the drop links is central. Not fitted yet.

[biffa75]

Quite easy to tell the Indian made arms from the Chinese made arms...

The Chinese made arms have good quality powder coating, they are thicker steel and much tidying pressing of both the upper and lower sections and as said, the weight difference between all three is quite noticeable. They also have the "elephant" mark printed on to them.

[Arctic]

Hi Dave.
Do you know if the ones you have were part of a bad bunch that DMGRS had come to them, i think it is notified on here somewhere, so i can only reiterate what i said above.

( Regarding DMGRS having only read good reports about them, there is a but, supposedly the best on the market as far as anyone can say.

With the statement above it would always be wise to contact DMGRS because they too had a bad batch of arms, therefore careful consultation with them would be the best way forward, i don't know what happened to that bad batch of arms ? maybe they would like to let us know.)

Hopefully you have the decent ones from a good batch.

[bl52krz]

Hi Steve. Yes they were the good ones. I actually was in contact with Matt about them. He told me that he would inspect them himself when they arrived, and if there were any that were not correct, they would not be issued. I have inspected them myself and spot welds are correct. No flashing. ( I used to do spot welding myself as a job) and used to set up spot welders myself. The main problem with spot welding is not applying, or applying to much air pressure to the point of the weld tip, and applying either to much, or not enough amps of electric to the point of contact. To much electricity, and you get ‘flashing’ of the weld, which looks scruffy. And not enough air pressure and the metal will not weld the metal together properly. They are still in the box they came in, and have not been soaked in Waxoyle yet.

[Arctic]

Hi Dave.
If you do get them down before the meet it would be good to have a look at them

[CDT Player]

I have one Indian one and one DMGRS on my car, both painted with old engine oil, the Indian one (that's been on about 1-2 years longer) is showing some signs of light surface rust, the DMGRS one is perfect.

When I bought the Indian one it was the only arm available as DMGRS hadn't commissioned their new item.

I haven't had any experience with the Chinese ones but apparently they are good but not as good as DMGRS ones.

DMGRS ones have that stamped into the metal so easy to identify.

The Indian ones have nothing (the bag had made in India on a sticker on it)

The Chinese ones have a picture of an elephant on them.

[WillyHeckaslike]

Old engine oil I think can do more harm than good when brushed on to metal to try to deter rust. It can become quite acidic and devoid of much of its lubricating properties after use in an engine. In fact many moons ago I had some cheap supermarket oil fail in service before the recommended change interval resulting in stuck valves and an engine that would not start.

[sworks]

Originally Posted by CDT Player

DMGRS ones have that stamped into the metal so easy to identify.

The Indian ones have nothing (the bag had made in India on a sticker on it)

The Chinese ones have a picture of an elephant on them.

The only notification mine had that I saw were XPart stickers. I had no issue fitting them and the antiroll bar brackets and spring locations seemed to be where they should be. But, the car had been off the road for a few weeks as parts weren’t easily available and so I bought them and fitted them as soon as I could as I was more interested in getting the car back on the road

[CDT Player]

Originally Posted by WillyHeckaslike

Old engine oil I think can do more harm than good when brushed on to metal to try to deter rust. It can become quite acidic and devoid of much of its lubricating properties after use in an engine. In fact many moons ago I had some cheap supermarket oil fail in service before the recommended change interval resulting in stuck valves and an engine that would not start.

I know many people don't like using old engine oil but when painted onto surface rust it soaks in and stops it rusting any further (that's what I've found).

I may paint some waxoil or similar over the arms at a later date.

Another of my 75's has it's (presumed) original arms on which had surface rust on them I cleaned them up with a wire brush and coated them in engine oil. Hopefully they'll last a little longer, but if the car needs new arms it will have them done.

[DMGRS]

Originally Posted by vitesse

Exactly Steve, how do we know which of the Xpart ones are fit for purpose? We don’t.

If you look at the eBay adverts from Xpart there’s nothing which states where they are made, the only clues are visual ones. Are the mounting points offset? Is the spring cup centrally placed? Or you could just buy a much cheaper lottery ticket.

My SAIC ones were stamped “Made in China” although I can’t remember if it was just some Chinese logo or not but there was some identification.

Another factor which plays an important part in my mind is the ease of contact when things go wrong. When Xpart sent me the wrong headlights it took ages to sort out (thanks Simon), whereas Mat values their reputation and sorts things out immediately. A recent post about a failed shock absorber shows the value of dealing with “the little guy”.

It would be nice to know how many DMGRS suspension arms have been sold.

Keep well

Over 1,000 now and counting (with that number rising very, very quickly lately!)