Upper wishbone washers

[bergxu]

Hi gents,

Working on freshening the front and rear suspensions of my ‘80 Sprint whilst I await the arrival of my brake adjuster from Alun and had a question about the thick washers on the upper pivot bolt on the front upper wishbone bracket...

Per the Rimmers diagram, four washers are called for, basically one on each end of the two upper bushes, however the prior arrangement had only three, with the very forward-most one omitted, presumably for increased caster angle is all I can figure. In any event, when I went to put everything back together with new SuperPro poly bushes, I cannot get the upper bracket through bolts (the three at the top) to align with the holes in the inner fender well. If I remove the other forward washer, everything lines up fine, so I’m wondering if I’m ok to omit this washer and just leave the two on the rearmost bush or if none are to be used with polybushes or what? Seems that they ought to be in there, or at least some thinner ones if nothing else but wanted to ask the group before I button everything up.

Thanks for any ideas.

Cheers,
Aaron

[cleverusername]

Just had a look at the suspension on mind and it does appear the front washer is not present. I would caution that without taking it apart, I can't be 100% sure it isn't there but I couldn't see it when I went and inspected it with a torch on the offside (the side without the wing, made checking it allot easier).

Since I didn't get any unusual tire wear and neither can I remember wildly crashing into a tree because the car's handling was hopeless, it is possible Rimmers have got it wrong and that is the way it is suppose to be.

[sprint95m]

Early cars had four washers
later cars had three washers and a right angle bracket,
said bracket is at the front and secured by two set screws/nuts to a lug welded to the subframe.

It should all go together easily enough.
I am wondering if the bushes are the problem? I say this because over the years quite a
number of folk have encountered difficulties with replacement bushes.
On two cars I have fitted Superflex bushes and encountered no problems fitting it together.


Ian

[bergxu]

Thanks for the clarification gents, and Ian, thank you for noting the early versus late car arrangement. My car, being an '80, makes sense then. Maybe I'll have another go at trying to get everything to line up with three washers in place since that's how it's supposed to be. I guess I can also measure the length of the old bush tubes versus the SuperPro sleeves. I'd be surprised if they're wrong as I've always had fantastic luck with quality of their products but I do suppose it's entirely possible they could've had a bit of a manufacturing mishap. I'll report back with how things progress on that front.

Lastly, I'll be changing the lower arm bush as well of course, and I noticed it's of a 'rose joint' type design, but already had put it in my vise to try and press it out (wasn't happening) so will be using our pneumatic press at work to sort that out but in hindsight, had I not knackered it a bit already with the vise, I think I may have preferred to leave it in place instead of going poly, but I suppose if I don't like the performance with the SuperPro bush in place, I can order up a pair of new lower arms from Rimmers and go back to stock. It has always been my experience that a rose joint type bush is preferable.

Cheers,
Aaron

[bergxu]

Well, got done changing the lower inner arm bush for the front, what a pig that was. In hindsight, I’d definitely have stuck with the original arrangement of the rose joint type bush and in fact, almost binned the idea of fiddling any longer with it and was about to order a pair of new lower arms from Rimmers but figured I’ve come this car so may as well stick with the SuperPro and see how I like it and if it’s not satisfactory, I’ll go back to the stock arrangement on that arm.

I’ll note that while SuperPro bushes (the blue “comfort” spec ones) are typically pretty forgiving, the ones provided for the lower front arm are black in color and most definitely are a different shore specification (eg. much harder!). Chalk it up to the first product from them I’ve been disappointed in as their TR6 bushes are typically top rate, although I presume they’ve a reason for making that one bush harder compound but just be aware, anyone considering going poly in that spot, you might be well advised to rethink that one.

[soe8m]

Changing the lower rose joint by a rubber or poly bush isn't advisable. Dolomites do suffer already from a flexi front suspension. Having a flexible bush there makes it worse.

Jeroen

[Carledo]

It's very rare for one of the rose joint type bushes to fail, even on "hard life" cars. On the odd occasion one does fail I replace the arm and bush for a stock one, even though i'm involved in various motorsports. The only Dolomite model which has a tradititional bush and tube at the inner track control arm bush is the Toledo (if still standard and not upgraded with rose joint type lower arms). These fail pretty often and are a prime candidate for Superflex bushes.

Steve

[bergxu]

Right, well, it’s done now but I’ve learned my lesson for the future. As mentioned, the SuperPro polybush provided for the lower inner is quite hard in comparison to the others so I’ll be interested to see how the drive goes. Rimmers show plenty of new lower arms in stock if the poly arrangement isn’t satisfactory.

[IncaDolly78]

Following this with interest as I am in the same position, interesting about the 3 washes for wishbone bolt in older Sprints, I removed all the wishbones etc. as old bushes were well pass their best, but I added the extra washer at the bolt head, will remove this though, despite taking a billion photos prior to dismantling I obviously got confused! A local garage is going to remove the lower wishbone arm bushes for me tomorrow, again blue Superflex so I'll see how that goes.