So I'm driving 5 MPH in a parking area at my mother's assisted living facility.
As I go over the speed bump at 5MPH if that, I hear metal scraping concrete. I've been over that speedbump maybe 25 times in my 95. Never a problem

Pulled up to a few stop signs. Weird noise from back left at stoppage and launch. HEAVY thunking sound.

Pulled over to investigate.

---Body height relative to wheel -- OK -- strut still in place , though top mount could have worked the nuts loose and the strut mount could be bangiing off the frame.(thought process)

---pulled on pivoting arms. No play. Of course weight of car is on the wheels, but it's not sheared off.

---trailing arm: pulled on it from BEHIND. Seemed stable.

Got back in, drove 15 mi on the interstate, pulled into the driveway with a bit of a lip and heard huge thunk again.

Stood outside while wife drove over lip and then stopped.
The wheel and therefore the hub was moving forwards and backwards...

Put it on jackstands, took a peek and sure enough, the trailing arm had sheared clean off at the joint where it meets the bushing holding section of the overall assembly.

I did not detect this when I had pulled over because I could not see the break from behind the car and it is spring loaded so it felt sturdy.......

Yes this car spent 17 years in NJ and 2 in Wisconsin so it's seen its fair share of salt.
__________

Obviously, I will replace both trailing arms as he other cannot be far behind.
Hopefully the damage, if any, to the pivoting arm is minimal. It was not bent nor did it have excessive play at the frame..

My question is:

Can I safely drive this at all?
I know driving it means risking damaging the pivoting arm....
The hub is not going to fly off the car--it's stabilized by the strut and the pivoting arm.

I am trying to determine it I should:

---take this job on in my garage on jackstands
(I actually drive up on ramps, then set the jackstands to their highest stable settings, then jack each side up high enough to get the ramp out, and then rest the car on the jackstands--beats contorting the crap out of the car on each corner to get it that high in the air). This will suck due to the lack of leverage

----drive (or get towed)to my local shop about 5 mi from here and let them deal with it. They are cool about me supplying parts for these cars because no local auto parts stores carry them and it saves them the time of locating and obtaining parts (Rockauto)

----drive about 50 mi (all interstate) to by brother in law's friends's home garage which has a full lift. Working on those things mostly from below will get me a faceful of rust (yes I wear safety glasses and not a whole lot of leverage.

I haven't looked up the torque spec for the end nut that holds it on at the knuckle but I expect it to be high based on it's criticality in the suspension.

The bushings at each end come as part of the replacement trailing arm; I'm yet to find the end bolt as I don't know the correct name for it. Prob part of he knuckle.

So which of the three options above would you advise? Is it safe to drive?

 

Seems Dorman is the only one that make a complete assembly (trailing arm + bushings + washers + 24mm (yowsa) nut to hold it to the knuckle.
1 pair (L n R identical) cost me a tad under $150 from PartsTrain.

Rockauto did not have the version that came with the washers and nut. I could not find any other way to get a replacement nut. (shut up, Rube)

To go OEM would have meant buying a bushing set (which half the GM parts sites say are no longer available) and a trailing arm (which other GM parts sites said was discontinued). And I know from searching the web that for a while NOBODY was making them and the junkyard ( with a nice pair almost as rusty as your broken one) was the only option. So I was not about to start chasing "maybe" parts....

I would recommend that owners of older Saturn S Series vehicles that have lived their lives in the snow/salt belt inspect the trailing arms for excessive rust near the rear knuckle as this is where they tend to break off.

Seems like Dorman is sneaking into the Saturn parts world:
---Shifter cables (suck)
---Shifter cable bushing (some say crap, others last for 100K -- maybe design or material change)
---Trailing arms
---coolant reservoirs.....

maybe full DOHCs next.....

 

Personally, I wouldn't drive it at all, but that's just me. I'd just try to do the job in my garage if it were mine. Just make sure you have a long pipe to use as a breaker bar on that 24mm nut. Derf, I'm not saying anything about your comment. LOL

 

I agree with Rube here... Do NOT drive it... While the hub isn't going to fly off, the constant change in wheelbase will do some creepy things to handling, and if nothing else, wears excessively on your pivoting arm... Just do the ramp/jack stand thing you were mentioning and use a breaker bar/cheater pipe on that 24mm nut...

 

I swear I posted this morning....I thought I could just pull out the piece caught in the hub, but then I realized that there must be a pocket for the bushings to sit in and to cinch the nut up to. Should be fun......but i can fix the broken one then drive to my buddy's shop w the lift and get the 2nd one done w much more leverage.

As if this didn't suck enough, I think I broke the cable end loop off the main shifter cable backing the car out of the garage in reverse. Shifter limp and only moves forarward and back. Either that or cable/retaining clip issue. It's in neutral of course so I have to work on it in the driveway or find 4 neighbors to push it up the incline of my driveway into the garage. Prefer the latter. Don't like working on an incline........

 

It's good to get to know your neighbors. Especially the ones with air conditioned garages and lifts.

 

He's actually 40 mi fr me. My bil (brother in law) is going to borrow this guy's classic car trailer and we're gonna tow it up to his friend's shop. I WISH one of my neighbors had an airco d shop. I live in a house farm.

 

Good to hear its going to a shop. Much easier than the driveway.