My hatred of tunnel mounted torque arms

I wanted to post something about how horrible these things are.

I have a UMI adjustable tunnel brace mounted torque arm and it gives me absolutly no ground clearance. I cannot even pull out of my driveway with out smashing the crap out of that thing. Also note I have stock ride height to. I gonna go back to the old tunnel brace and a transmission shaft mounted torque arm again.

Also stay away from lockers in your rear axle, it will break.

Don't mind me I am angry about my 350 buck crappy torque arm.

Did you have the straight crossmember or the one with clearance for after market exhausts? get the trans crossmember with the built in torque arm mount.

I am gonna get the trans mounted set up now. The Tunnel brace was for cars with long tube headers which I have on the car, but it amounts to a blistering 2 1/2 inches of ground clearance right in the center of the car. Small bumps and hills cause it to smash. it looks horrible, I pulled it off last night. Not to mention if someone had one of those and had a lowered suspension lol.

But let this be a warning tunnel brace mounted torque arm's are not worth it, unless you are going to trailer that car to the track and thats the only driving you are going to do.

Which part number did you get? I have the crossmember mounted short torque arm and I don't scrap anywhere with my 1.25" lowering kit.

I also run a UMI tunnel mount and have had no problems. It transmits a certain amount of noise from my 12 bolt into the cabin, but other than that it is a very nice unit that does what it was designed to do. How about some pics of your setup?

I had talked with UMI yesterday about this exact subject. We discussed what I was looking for, current mods, & future plans for the car. He had me run out and check the clearance for the ORY due to many ppl reporting clearance issues of late with the Tunnel Mount Torque Arm Kit. After checking he confirmed that there would be no way for me to mount that kit unless I redid all of my exhaust. So he came up with this as a solution:

F-Body Torque Arm Relocation Kit - Manual

1998 - 2002 GM F-Body Torque Arm Relocation Kit - Manual [2207] - $249.99 : UMI Performance, Inc.


I get a full length Torque Arm and still remove it off the tail cone of the tranny. Plus it will work with my future plans like a new rear when the time comes.

silly question... but are your sure you installed it the right way??? got any pictures???

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Originally Posted by Spaz

silly question... but are your sure you installed it the right way??? got any pictures???

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+1 pictures would help. Im pretty curious too

I had the same problem with mine. I got the long tube kit, that hangs a bit lower. With a 1.5 " lowering kit, it would drag over everything. I switched to a trans mount, with the relocation mount after two months.

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Originally Posted by Lunatikgixxer

+1 pictures would help. Im pretty curious too

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http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...7/DSC01159.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...7/DSC01160.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...7/DSC01147.jpg

The fact that its right in the center of the car and so low is what makes it a pain, you cant do the trick like with LT headers where you hit speed bumps at an angle to clear them.

Wow that does hang low, and the center of the car for low hanging parts is the worst spot.

I could see where that would be an issue even at stock ride height. No way we could drive ours like that. My wife would have that ripped off in no time. :chuckles:

What do ya know that does hang way low. I have the one for Kooks LT's and it looks nothing like that(luckily) or else I'd get stuck on every speed bump. Personally, I'd just swap the crossmember instead of going back to a tailshaft mounted torque arm. Especially if you plan on making a considerable amount of hp over stock.

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Originally Posted by HOBS

What do ya know that does hang way low. I have the one for Kooks LT's and it looks nothing like that(luckily) or else I'd get stuck on every speed bump. Personally, I'd just swap the crossmember instead of going back to a tailshaft mounted torque arm. Especially if you plan on making a considerable amount of hp over stock.

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Thats what I am looking at doing for sure, my trans x member is ready to get swapped that a fact lol. It just bums me out that they would advertise this stuff for street cars when clearly the only street it can drive on is the really really flat ones with no speed bumps drive ways or road kill (imagine having to scrape a raccoon out of that thing). but you live and learn I just want to spread the word to the forum that the tunnel brace torque arms should not be used for street cars.

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Originally Posted by SMWS6TA

I had talked with UMI yesterday about this exact subject. We discussed what I was looking for, current mods, & future plans for the car. He had me run out and check the clearance for the ORY due to many ppl reporting clearance issues of late with the Tunnel Mount Torque Arm Kit. After checking he confirmed that there would be no way for me to mount that kit unless I redid all of my exhaust. So he came up with this as a solution:

F-Body Torque Arm Relocation Kit - Manual

1998 - 2002 GM F-Body Torque Arm Relocation Kit - Manual [2207] - $249.99 : UMI Performance, Inc.


I get a full length Torque Arm and still remove it off the tail cone of the tranny. Plus it will work with my future plans like a new rear when the time comes.

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Thanks for the link, thats more than likley the one I am gonna end up going with.

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Originally Posted by RichWS6

(imagine having to scrape a raccoon out of that thing). .

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That reminded me of something similar. Ever see the factory rear sway bars on 70-72 A-bodies? They hang under the rearend. I close lined a possom one night with my chevelle.

One even better, we were out in my 70 formula one night, again a factory rear sway bar that hangs under the rearend.

Going about 70 down the highway at night when the car in front of me hit a deer. Knocked it into my lane where it layed flat in the middle of the lane. All I could do was try to high center it and straddle it, I couldn't swerve anywhere. This car doesn't sit high at all either. So I figured it was going to be ugly, with splash pan damage and all.
To my amazement, it cleared the engine and transmission, but when it got to the rear of the car I heard a large BANG!!!!

I pulled over and looked all over and under the car with a flash light for damage, couldn't find anything, no leaks, so I went on home. The next day I put the bird up on the lift, there was hair all over the exhaust system clamps but the most damage was the rear sway bar. It must have clothes lined the deer, because it had pulled and bent the rear sway bar so far back it came out of the spring plate mounts :lol: Easy fix, I had a spare bar here. I suppose the rear sway bar is the lowest hanging part of the car.

Sorry for the ramble, carry on.

Dawn managed to driver over top of a deer with her Dodge Stratus 2 months ago. No undercar damage, but it cracked the bumper cover, lost a fog light cover and inner fender, and wasted the washer bottle. I was amazed -- thought for sure it had bent up the suspension.

I had the same problem you are having, only mine was worse becasue if being lowered in eibachs. I swaped out the mount with the stock/Kooks long tube mount. It doesnt hang nearly as low and it fit perfect.

yeah that thing is pretty bulky and low hanging. Im glad i dont have that on my car lol (i have sportlines)

I had the same issues with the BMR Trak Pak. My crossmember was a solid bar though that dipped down in the middle and is welded to each sub-frame connector. I ended up having a fabrication shop heat up the bar where it hung low and bend it upward so it's almost straight across now.

After looking at those pics I'm so, so, so, glad Jerry talked me into the setup I got. I'm going to send him a "thank you". If I had gotten that I might as well not moved the car. I would have hit every thing.

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Originally Posted by SMWS6TA

After looking at those pics I'm so, so, so, glad Jerry talked me into the setup I got. I'm going to send him a "thank you". If I had gotten that I might as well not moved the car. I would have hit every thing.

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Glad to hear Jerry could help you out!

And yes you guys are correct, the tunnel mounted set up for long tubes does hang low. However we do have good reason for this. There are so many exhaust manufactures out there anymore it is impossible to make our torque arm work with them all. Customers are running expensive units like Kooks to eBay no-name pipes... this is very difficult for us to work around and make something clear them all. The less expensive the y-pipe the lower it hangs usually, now many y-pipes are coming with merge collectors that hang even lower and are wider. That torque arm as low as it hangs barely clears with the TSP y-pipe uncatted with merge collector. A lot of customers are running the TSP set up because it is universal and designed to work with many header set ups. So this item needs to be this low to work with most set ups. I run this on my car with a lowered front and stock height rear with minimal ground clearace issues.

Right now we are working on a design that is lower than our stock set up but higher than the long tube set up. It will work with most long tube y-pipe set ups but still won't clear with all those low hanging ones..

No worries. I got on EBay almost what I paid for the unit, then bought UMI's relocation tranny mount. I believe this is the way to go with street driven cars.;)