right there has been a couple of threads with regards to the durability of the powertrix upper arms.

now i thought i would tell you my story. i have had squeaking and clunking coming from my z for a LOOOONNNG time from the suspension on the front. its passed 3 mot's so far because at the time it wasnt making the noise, i was unable to duplicate the clunk or squeak when stationary so trying to source the problem was a long and tedious task.

 

well last weekend i decided to check my upper link arms. (i regularly check them and grease over them to stop them from rusting up.

to my suprise when i removed the arm (still in the main bracket) the arm was stiff to move. after stripping it down i found that the bearings were to put it bluntly f**ked. also the spacer sleeve inside between the bearings was not long enough to support the pressure when tightening up the bolts torque. this was putting side load onto a ball race bearing (accelerating wear!)

as a temporary measure i made a spacer up and cleaned and thoroughly greased the bearings. i have now completely eliminated a serious clunk from one side of my suspension!!! also the arm moves freely up and down through its full travel in the bracket once torqued up to spec.

 

i have ordered new bearings and i will make new spacers . this should sort out the squeak the other side too!!

 

 

just thought i'd let you know. if it squeaks or clunks check your upper link arms.

In reference to what you've experienced, I posed a question to Charles Park of Powertrix and got this response. I am probably going to go and see Charles when I am in San Diego next month as mine have made a bit of a clunk. I've always sworn by Powertrix. They are track tested to destruction on Charles' own Z32 and they have a very very low failure rate in the US (their main customer base).

 

Here are some helpful tips:

 

 

 

On only a couple of rare occasions have we experienced what you have described and have found that the end of the camber arms started to come unscrewed and the working back and forth of the threads can cause noise and the play that is happening. The ends that bolt into the inner bracket is most likely the culprit. This is an easy remedy but requires the de-installation of the arms from the car. The ends of the camber arms that the long bolts go through are comprised of 3 main body pieces that all screw together. To fix this, once the arm is de-installed, you will find that those parts in question are slightly loose and you can manually start to unscrew them. They won’t come undone all the way and will be tough to unscrewed completely due to the thread lock applied during initial assembly but what needs to be done is to work them back and forth until they do unscrew completely. Once this is done, clean the threads and apply Locktite (Red color – high strength thread lock and reassemble.) This cures the issue instantaneously and permanently.

 

 

 

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of further tech assistance.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Charles Park

 

POWERTRIX

 

Performance & Styling

 

http://www.powertrix.com (NOW OPEN)

 

Office 858-566-5060

 

Mobile 619-944-6055

Edited April 11, 201015 yr by FunkySi

had exactly the same thing with mine, always clunked when cornering or hitting a bump, in the end the dam thing snapped!!

 

changed to SPL and no clunk

 

never buying powertrix again

Might be a daft question but are you talking about the front end of the car? Reason I ask is I've got the powertrix rear adjustable set. I haven't fitted them yet, but what's been mentioned has got me a tad worried.

he is but, i have had powertrix front upper arms, tension rods and drop links. ALL of which have failed. i dont want to scare you off, or anyone else off for that matter but, personal experiances sure as hell were not good.

Edited April 11, 201015 yr by silverbullet