Torque Arm For the Cobra
 

I have been wanting to get a Maximum Motorsports torque arm for the Cobra for a long time now but at $650 for the heavy duty one I just can't afford one. So I have been thinking about building my own. My first idea was to use the bushing and mount from a radius arm of an Explorer or Ranger. However, after talking to Guy one day he offered up his Maximum Motorsports HD one for me to copy.

I then spoke to GTR about ordering the hardware kit from Maximum Motorsports to make it easier on me. The hardware kit comes with the poly bushing, bolt, spacer, U-bolts and everything else that I would need to install it. That way I only needed to build the torque arm and cross member.

I've been slowly working on it for the passed few weeks because I'm still in a cast with a fractured ankle. I already had a 2.5 x .250 square tube left over from building the bumper on the Explorer. So that's what I used for the arm. It's thicker wall than the Maximum Motorsports one but with the way I drive I didn't think that was a bad thing.

Here's mine next to the MM piece. Mine is the same length and the bolt mount is at the same angle.





I still need to make the axle mounts and the arms that go between as well as the front mounts but I'll need to do that on the Cobra.

Next I started making the cross member. I started out with a 5ft piece of 4in x .250 plate that I bought for $15. I traced the MM cross member onto the plate and then cut it out. This took me a long time (about 10 hours) since I was using a sawzall, angle grinder, drill and jigsaw to cut them out.

The tools I used.









Front and back pieces shaped together.

















I still need to drill and tap it for a zerk fitting and then install a freeze plug to the back of the center tube.

Little late now, but John is not far from you and AFIK has a plasma cutter.

He does, it was a Harbor Freight one. I have a couple of friends that have them too but I didn't want to bother anyone and I don't mind the work. Besides, Amy wasn't all that happy about me welding with my cast. I couldn't imagine what she would say if I told her I was going to go use a plasma cutter.

I got a little done today. First, I measured where the zerk fitting was on the MM cross member. Then I drilled and tapped mine in the same location. After that I deburred the hole, sanded the inside of the tube and installed the zerk fitting.



I then drilled the holes in the axle mounts. I used a set of leaf spring mounts that I bought for the Explorer when I did the solid axle swap and ended up not using.

I didn't notice that the front of your arm is that much deeper than the MM one. I know on the gray car I scraped it on a few steep driveways, nearly stalled it a few times. Just a heads up.

Nice work!

Thanks. I went to the doctors today and my foot is healing nicely so I got the cast off. I still can't run yet but he said I can start walking but not to over do it. He has me in a brace for four more weeks but said after that I can start running again. That also means I can't drive the Cobra for four more weeks because of the boot I'm in. That works out though because I need to pull the intake to have it machined anyways.

We still on for Saturday?

Yes. Speaking of that, if you tack the subframe connectors on make sure that you sand the paint off the areas to be welded first. It's hard to do that once they're in place.

Nice job Ron! Wanna make me some? lol

Do you even drive your car? :pot_stir: