New bushes installed to lower wishbones, went in with relative ease, when installing sway bar I noticed the front wishbone moved about 10mm off bush.
thoughts, poor quality bushes from SJ? do I replace at more expense, add some bearing locker, also i note that washers should be installed both sides of the bush, my father did not do this, so is this a simple fix?
Poor fitting bushes has been reported in the recent past. I would do as you suggest and use a locking compound. Depending on the clearance I would go for a high strength retainer such as Loctite 638 (other brands available).
I have removed added the loctite, only got bearing grade. I was actually able to press it in a few more mm and is far more snug. Thanks
If I understand what you are asking…(assuming polybushes)
The bushes slide on the compression tube, not like the old , original rubbers. Not only is the compression tube free to rotate but also to move forward and backwards, unless washers are placed there. These need to be of a suitable thickness to avoid distortion and width to match the bush.
With washers on the turret side of the bushes, this may space out the wishbones and widen the gap at the trunnion end. You need to set up the inner end and look at the trunnion gap. In theory if you space out the inner wishbones, the trunnion gap may need spacing. In practice it depends on how straight the wishbones are .
I had the same problem and had to slit the eye of the wishbone and then tig it up to achieve a good interference fit.
…bushes came for Sue Miller, so it seems a universal issue
I dont understand the description of your problem.
If these are standard bonded rubber bushes then I cannot visualise where the 10mm movement come from.
Unless something is seriously wrong, the bushes are a tight push fit in the wishbone eye (should not need Loctite) so if assembling the two wishbones to the lower trunnion causes a wishbone to slide sideways off the bush then something is distorted.
Ian
As Ian correctly states the bushes should be an interference fit in the wishbone. Similarly the inner sleeve of the bush should be clamped by the fulcrum pin and Nyloc nut.
The original “Metalastic” bonded bushes are designed so that all the suspension movement is only taken by the rubber (torsional and axial).
If the bush is a poor fit in the wishbone or the fulcrum nuts are insufficiently tightened there is a danger the outer or inner sleeves rotate within their steel counter parts. This of course should be avoided at all cost.
the movement is sideways off the bush, original metalastic bushes, i did manage to get a better fit in press, but may look at ordering another bush…
Ignore my comment on polybushes, yours are interference fit. Don’t tighten up the bolts until the car is at ride height.
There is only a few mm of clearance between the wishbone and the chassis upright on each side so I still struggle to understabd how the wishbone moved off the bushes by 10 mm ?
cheers
Rohsn
Rohan,
i left out all bolts loose, when everything is tight i agree should be minimal chance of movement
I’m having a similar issue with SuperPro bushes on my front lower arms. I’ve had the right hand side forward bushing fail twice. It seems to buckle the inner washer on the bushing and then the inner shoulder on the poly bush fails.
When I run a straight edge down the arms they seem fine.
I’m wondering if the washer on the fulcrum pin bushing is failing when I torque up the lower damper bolt. I’ve checked the bushing in the damper and it does have a crush tube inserted into it so I would expect that to limit how much the bushing can compress when torqued. There are no washers on either side of the damper bushing though. Are there supposed to be?
The only washers shown in the manual (Section C diagram C8) and as fitted on my car are the thin ones inside the wishbones enclosing the rubber dust seals against the steering joint with its nylon bushes. The steering joint tubes contact the inner faces of the wishbones through that thin washer while the damper tubes (inside the bushes) are in direct contact and define the geometry. Both tubes are rigid and don’t ‘crush’ like the differential pinion spacer does!
However, I believe it is usual to fit washers under the nuts retaining the inner ends of the wishbones (to keep the bushes in place) and under the four bolt heads of the outer ends.
This applies to original pattern Elan suspension using two identical pressed steel items to form a wishbone when clamped onto the tubes. Non-standard suspension may differ.
An element of confusion has arisen into this thread (well its confused me!). The OP enquired about lower wishbone bushes (of which there are only two) on the inboard end of the two steel pressings.
I have not looked in the manual but with bonded rubber inboard bushes the only washers would be under the two Nyloc nuts. Putting nuts on both sides of each bush would spread the the two arms of the wishbone slightly (a totally insignificant amount, but why do it anyway)
Ian
Does anyone have a picture of upper and lower wishbones with/without washers installed, I recall when i was pressing my bonded bushes in one of them felt a little loose. (cannot remember if it was front or back though).
Could a bush with a slight amount of play create a knocking sound a slow speed of turning.
I checked all bolts etc. for signs of movement and everything seems okay, loosened and torqued wheel bearing, knocking still there.
A few pics here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/68999653@N07/albums/72177720311350611/
[Look towards the bottom of that page].
I may have something more specific, if there is something else you need to see.
