Yuck!Twisted rear trailing arms 400 lbs a bit too much

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Some bad news on my car.
The booster batteries have been riding with me for 3500 miles.

I have been noticing that I can't seem to get as much speed when using the E-wheel, and my un modified MPG has been suffering, more than the cold weather would account for. The brakes are freed up, so that was not it, but discovered that my rear tires are wearing on the edges.
After doing some front to rear eyeballing, it looks like the 400 lbs is begining to have it's toll. Both rear wheels are bent outwards on the bottom. I think that some of those bigger pot holes may have twisted the rear axles up.
Bummer.
I will have to start tracking down a new rear torsion arm. Anyone know where I can get one?
The 5th wheel is hanging in there, but has developed a squeak between the aluminum covers, that a file should fix, once I take it off for the winter.

[HafNHaf]

i coulda sworn i saw an axle beam on ebay a few weeks ago. not there now though

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

HafNHaf
That's too bad, I will have to start watching e-bay, and put out the word at some local junkyards. I would like to get a whole smashed Insight, so I can strip off a bunch of other stuff.

[Armin]

Hi Mike,

sorry to hear that about your car! That sounds serious! Any idea how to strengthen the rear end once you get a new axle?

Did you call these guys? They should be somewhat close to you in Wareham, MA. I got my new ABS controller there when my front end was smashed up. Seemed to have three Insights at the time, but that was years ago...

Good Luck!

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Thanks for the link Armin
I will give them a call next monday.

As far as how to make it stronger, I will probably look carefully at what bent when I get the old assembly off the car, and decide if it makes sense to try and reinforce the assembly, or to look into a lighter battery pack, as I was originally going to do with the Prius subpacks. The car still handles pretty well with the weight, but droping to 200lbs, and limiting my Ewheel range to 20 miles, or the battery boost to 30 minutes , would still fit into my normal driving pretty well. The car is still driveable as is, but the tires will not make it through the winter this way.
I am scheduled to demo the system to Trinity College and Ucon on Nov 9, so I will probably not try and fix it before then unless I get lucky with the rear end. The wheels look a little like this /-----\ compared to the front.

[kapps]

Hum, I know what that looks like. My Lotus Europa restoration in progress has exactly the same problem. I'm just not sure yet if mine is from worn bushings or something else. It's been sitting in the same place for the better part of 25 years.

[IamIan]

unfortunately most junk yards and salvage yards... and auctions and such... do not post on line yet....

I found 2 totaled Honda Insights on-line ... the best of the two looks like it just got rear ended and has under 50,000 miles for under $2,000 but it is in Texas....

http://www.ridesafely.com/inventory.asp ... =610044044

I haven't seen anything a reasonable distance from Mike in CT.... .... the most of it seems to be auto auctions and junk / salvage yards that do not have inventory on-line.... so searching would have to be the hard way face to face... If I see anythign I'll be sure to let you know... Best of luck.

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

IamIan
Thanks for taking a look for me.
It seems that most of the problem is on the heavier 5th wheel side of the rear, where most of the battery and extra wheel weight is located.

[Guillermo]

Mike,
Have you tried removing the 400lbs to determine if the rear camber goes back to normal?
This will determine if the rear is just flexing or if permanent deformation has occured.

[Guillermo]

Here is the best web site for finding parts from auto wreckers.

http://car-part.com/

The database seems to list the part as
"Rear Axle Beam (FWD)"
Lots of wreckers all over USA have it in stock.