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In more than 50 years of Dolomites, i've never once replaced a lower arm (much easier than changing the factory bush, it's a mare!) for a worn bush, though I have replaced a couple that were bent from impact
My experience is quite the opposite, Steve
and I think I have only totally stripped the suspension on three cars.
The water shields are a poor idea, they corrode and let water by……
I have had bolts rusted into the joints
had a bolt almost worn away to half it’s proper diameter and
on one joint there was play.
On my last two cars I have had to replace the suspension brackets because of wear to the TCA bolt holes
Ian
Must be those Scots roads mate! I've had a couple of tin plates dissolve, the ones from Herald trunnion kits are near perfect fit, never had a bolt wear away or rust in place, even on the several "field find" scrappers i've had. And certainly never had wear in the bolt holes. That all sounds like bad prior maintainence to me. But none of these is directly related to wear in the inner TCA bush which was the point I was trying to make.
Last year, I found the bolt snapped in half and half missing from the N/S/F lower shock mount on the Carledo during a routine inspection, which had me scratching my head a bit. But the broken end remaining showed classic metal fatigue symptoms so I guess it just had enough and gave up. Probably an original bolt form 1973 that I subjected to a tad too much load on local tarmac pothole fields. I would have renewed the nyloc nut as a matter of habit, when changing the shox to Gaz, but the bolts only get changed if they look iffy.
Steve