Easy enough to have a qualified professional weld a new tab in place, or just swap the control arm?
Is that common? Just feeling around I can't tell if there was some rust involved or not that weakened it - the car is remarkably rust free for a Nebraska car, but, Nebraska car.
Makes me wonder about the other side, too.
I thought it was more common on the front. I know somebody makes thicker tabs to weld in place.
I didn't know it was common for either end. I ran XIDA 800/500 with the BIG bars and didn't have an issue.
The only car I really remember it being an issue on was the rear of E30s when running soft rates and big bars.
IIRC it happened to a few cars early on in the life of the NB, when they switched the front arm from a dual-shear mount to a single-shear one. Racing Beat sold a weld-on bracket to beef it up at one point, not sure if they still do.
As for the rear -- if you're going to weld it on the car, that's probably easier. If you're taking it off to take it to someone to weld, then it's easier to just put a replacement on if you've got one for cheap.
I've heard of it happening, but never seen it. Usually the end links rip in half first :)
Welding on the car should be fine. Loosen the alignment cams (mark them first) and remove the outer long bolt and it'll drop down nicely.
Or, and this depends on what you use the car for, just don't run a rear bar. I don't and my NA is very happy to not even have one.
That's going to depend on your spring rate setup as well as your alignment settings. Generally, running without one makes the car less playful but it will be faster around the cones.
The LF lower control arm on my '90 had the U tab replaced with a single piece of angle iron, sometime after the horrific crash it must've suffered in the past. It looks really janky and I should replace that some day.
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