All that needs to be done with the sleeve is to hold it in place, no real forces are being applied to the weld. Thus no need to get quite that extreme. Unless of course drilling it is easier than getting access to a welder. In fact I bet you could get by with nothing more than a cotter pin.
Depending on what the bearing inside looks like, I wouldn't do any welding on a part like that. The steel isn't that thick there, and its close to the bearing. Looks like there might be some internal damage from welding. No grinding if you need to take it apart, either. Drilling and tapping the control arm makes more sense from all angles to me.
Not sure what you are saying......have you held one of these PSRS's? The sleeve is simply the interface between the arm and the bushing, nothing else. The sleeve slides right out of the bushing and slides right back in again. You tack weld the sleeve to the arm w/o the bushing in place and let it cool before placing it back into the bushing
On my PSRS I saw some marks from the set screw on the Al bushing housing. I don't think there's room for a bolt there at all. the photo is of the sleve with no deflection. I actually ground down the set screw head so it was a flush fit. I'm not sure that there is really no force on the thing. Any hit to the wheel, or any force at all, will pivot via the ball joint and put a lot of lateral force on this guy. That's why it makes such a racket if the screws come loose. Anyway, tack the front and the back, or go back to Chad's post from Detroit Tuned. He does a great explanation of how to weld the sleve. Matt
I don't mean to say that there are no forces at all, just that the forces are simply applied thru the sleeve to the bushing. As easy as the sleeve is to move around the bushing and as tight as it fits on the arm, I can't see where there would be much to cause the sleeve to separate from the arm.
No one is trying to push anyone here to use the PSRS but those of us that have spent the money, foolishly or otherwise, are trying to make the best of the situation. I don't have the skills to work on my car, I'm not mechanically inclined. You Lynn, don't have the skills to write, you are not a natural writer. I don't care to learn the ins and outs of wrench turning and you don't care to learn the ins and out of effective communication. See, we all have our various skill sets and we often put them to best use. With that in mind I needed to make the best of the situation. I really don't want to purchase yet another set of bushings that I really don't need and pay someone ~$80 hr to install when for $20 I can get them tack welded. The OP asked what brand was used, we were sharing experiences with brands allowing the OP to make an informed decision. This morphed in the direction of I you have the PSRS where do you weld. That's ok, it's all part of the experience of ownership. Alta has a mostly decent product with the PSRS, but like so many other things in life these days they stopped short of making it correct. Probably to save a few bucks. In the long run this will cost them as more and more people find thqat to get the PSRS to not clunk modifications are required sending people that want the right solution out of the box, not at the end of welding rod, to other sources.
The PSRS is a very well designed and developed product that suffers from a very minor flaw in the installation. This is easily overcome with a minor to a more permanent fix. Let me ask.......if the sleeve performed as designed, would you have a problem with it? As to the forces, again.....the sleeve is simply an interface. It resists no forces. It simply acts as an extension of the arm to the bushing. Think of it as a way of thickening the diameter of the arm. All of the forces are being withstood by the bushing.....not the sleeve. It is a very tight fit to get it on the arm. With the more than 20 installs I have experience with, I believe I have a much higher experience level than you do and this is not an attempt to try and justify a purchase. I would much rather have a "solid" type of bushing in this area than I would with an insert or a poly replacement, cause it feels really good!
So if it was not developed....what was it? You did notice I used the quotation marks around solid right? That means I was using it as a generic description. Please explain what forces are being applied to the sleeve only? And yes I have been a part of more installs than you.........surprising as that seems. And the reason so many of my club members have installed these is just because we all compared rides to cars with the poly inserts......most being the MM ones. What exactly about the PSRS don't you like besides the sleeve retention?
I have the Alta PSRS and have been extremely happy with my choice. I noticed no additional NVH over my worn and tired stock bushings. The amount of 'handling' i got back was unbelievable. Comparing the Poly (on a friends car) to the Alta (mine) i personally could not discern much difference in road noise. If there was much at all, i would have to say it was b/c of my tires and not the bushings. Also, i am missing one set screw which went MIA at install time, and this is after 7 Months and 10k miles of service. Red-Lock tite was used for the set screws.
This is somewhat a unique use of a solid bushing. it's not the one that transmits the weight of the car, and while it is subject to large forces because of the pivot around the ball joint (another solid suspension bushing), it's not really the source of groaning and the like the way putting a solid bush at the top of the strut would be. Also, best I can tell they use a pretty good material for the ball. Other than the sucky set screws, I like it pretty much. also, I'm guessing that it's not a Mini specific design, otherwise I would have made the ball fit the control arm out of the box, and just blown off the sleeve completely. No set screws, no sleeve, no welding, just a pretty good unit (and more articulation range as well). But I'm just guessing here. Matt