Lower wishbone bearings

[marko]

I'm about to paint and replace the front suspension with poly bushes. The spare lower wishbones that I have have knackered bearings in them. Can they be polybushed or another bearing? What's the best quality to go for and what should I be looking at paying?
Mark.

[James467]

Rimmer's have NOS ones with the rose joints. I wouldn't put polyushes in there, they are rose jointed for a reason.

15% off at the moment I think.

[Toledo Man]

I've fitted Super Flex ones without any problems. As far as I can tell, they're a direct replacement for the original part in polyurethane so the joint should function as Triumph intended. Super Flex isn't much harder than rubber so it shouldn't cause any problems...

[James467]

The original lower wishbones are rose jointed. You cannot compare rose jointed wishbones to polybushed items!

Now if you mean the drag struts/arms, the arms that connect to the front of the subframe that's different.

[Toledo Man]

Maybe I shouldn't have opened this particular can of worms...

I'd better quit while I'm still not too far behind.

[James467]

Maybe I shouldn't have opened this particular can of worms...

I'd better quit while I'm still not too far behind.

[new to this]

I've fitted Super Flex ones without any problems. As far as I can tell, they're a direct replacement for the original part in polyurethane so the joint should function as Triumph intended. Super Flex isn't much harder than rubber so it shouldn't cause any problems...

Ive been looking into polyurethane rubber they measure it shore ratings,they do soft medium and hard,medium is 85 shore soft is 65 shore,rubber is about 40

Dave

[sprint95m]

I wouldn't put polyushes in there, they are rose jointed for a reason.

The reason being...?


thanks,
Ian.

[James467]

I wouldn't put polyushes in there, they are rose jointed for a reason.

The reason being...?


thanks,
Ian.

The rose joints allow the drag strut to be fitted and tightened up with relative slack manufacturing tolorences on the wishbone pivot. I need to draw a picture to illustrate it properly, as far as I can see a polybush with get worn quite quickly. I think Jonners explained it better than me. I'll try to find it.

[James467]

If you think about it a poly bush will only work positively up and down with flex fore and aft from the drag struts.

The rose joint will work positively up and down as wells as fore and aft. Giving you a more positive feel to the suspension setup.

Make sense?

[sprint95m]

Indeed there was a thread on this subject some years ago.
If Jon offered a conclusive reason I don't remember it.

Quite a few of us have used Superflex bushes without any problems.
These are not like rubber bushes in that their (stainless) steel ferrule is not attached to the bush.

The major downside to the OE rose joint arrangement is water ingress.
Alas, the water shields fail..... I have seen the both fixing bolts and the mounting bracket holes wear dangerously.
I had a short article highlighting this problem published in Dolly Mixture 128 (May 2008).




Ian.

[sprint95m]

If you think about it a poly bush will only work positively up and down with flex fore and aft from the drag struts.

The rose joint will work positively up and down as wells as fore and aft. Giving you a more positive feel to the suspension setup.

Make sense?

I need to think about that.
Being honest, that is rather theoretical for me but I will try.

My first thought is "what about the upper wishbone bushes?".
I don't know of another car that has a rose jointed TCA. Are there any?


Ian.

[James467]

Hmmm good point on the upper wishbone bushes.

Did the btcc cars have rose jointed TCAS? Someone must have done it.

[Carledo]

Don't know about the BTCC cars, but Toledo's DON'T have a rose joint on the inner end of the TCA from the factory. I've fitted quite a few polybushes to Toledos here cos the original rubber ones DO wear out and give some truly frightening symptoms of failure! Chris Witor does Poly specifically for Toledos. But i've hardly ever replaced a rose jointed one.

Steve

BTW, aside from real thouoghbred track cars, I can't think of anything else that uses a rose jointed inner TCA bush.

[sprint95m]

I have considered this and am thinking that whether you go for Superflex (or indeed another brand)
or use a rose joint is a mute point because
the weakness in the front suspension is the tie rod, or more specifically its bushes.

Previously I have used Superflex replacements for the OE type but now I am going to use
Superflex bushes of the ST type with their replacement tie rods, (these being of T2000 origin).




Ian.