Bushing material.....

All things oily!
Post Reply
Splat
Posts: 461
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:12 am

Bushing material.....

Post by Splat »

I just wondered what your collective thoughts are about whether or not 22K gold would be a suitable material to use in suspension bushing?
jonclancy
Posts: 942
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:30 pm

Re: Bushing material.....

Post by jonclancy »

Well, it wouldn’t corrode, I suppose... :D
Splat
Posts: 461
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:12 am

Re: Bushing material.....

Post by Splat »

Oh well! Given that Jon was the only one to bite, I best tell the tale.........

There was a tiny, but tell-tale vibration from the front end at speed. Almost certainly a wheel bearing. So I jacked the car up onto axle stands and started tugging at the wheels. Sure enough, a tiny amount of play in the offside front. With the MoT due, I thought that I’d best sort it.

I have the expensive, but reliable, face-centred SKF bearings fitted. There about £60 a pair, but unlike the cheapo bearing kits available from Moss et al, there’s never any play when they’re correctly fitted. Maybe I could just tighten the axle nut a quarter-turn in the hope that it cured it?

Wrong!

Initially hard to turn, it suddenly became rather easy. I’d stripped the threads. About an eighth of a turn between fine and f****d. Bugger!

Of course, unless you’ve an engineering workshop at your disposal, you can’t just replace the stub axle; It’s the whole reconditioned upright assembly, with new kingpins reamed into place. So with a new unit in hand, and a pair of new bearings too, I set about removing the old unit.

Recall that the Westfield does without the Spridget’s fulcrum pin/cotter pin set-up at the bottom of the kingpin, replacing it with a simple bolt through a phosphor-bronze bush (which is a sliding fit through the lower eye of the kingpin) and a pair of hard plastic washers bracketing it. But after 13 years, the bronze bushing was no longer a “slinging fit”, it being tightly in place. I tried gently drifting it out, but it’s a soft material and it deformed immediately. Work stopped until I could source a replacement from Westfield.

A phone call to the technical chap at Kingswinford and I had the part numbers for both the bushes and the plastic washers. In addition to replacing the knackered offside upright, I’ll eventually do the near side too. It’s absolutely fine, with no play or wear evident. Which always surprises me as the lower grease-nipple has never worked! It’s not the nipple itself; I’ve replaced it, but grease just doesn’t get through to the owner half of the kingpin. So I decided to order bushes and washers to renew both sides. Oh! And a couple of spare bushes too, for the spares drawer. I mean, they’re bushes, right? A couple of quid each.

Wrong again..........
Attachments
B7EE8549-29E8-4BC9-B731-F1486A3C47E3.jpeg
Last edited by Splat on Fri Jul 12, 2019 6:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
Splat
Posts: 461
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:12 am

Re: Bushing material.....

Post by Splat »

As ever, click/tap on the photo and it’ll enlarge, allowing you to read Westfield’s comedy pricing! So....... would gold be a suitable, slightly cheaper substitute?
Splat
Posts: 461
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:12 am

Re: Bushing material.....

Post by Splat »

And as an aside......

When I removed the hub from the stub axle, it just slid straight off with no resistance whatsoever. The bearings were completely intact. The semi-circular slivers of the stripped threads of the axle nut were held by the grease and I carefully fished them out using a telescopic magnet.

I reassembled the suspension without renewing the bearings, just in case it went back together without any play. Unlike disassembly, when the inner races of the bearings slipped off the stub axle without resistance, I had to use a plastic mallet to persuade the hub assembly onto the new axle. A new axle nut, torqued up to 46 lb/ft (writing from memory?) and there’s now no play again, confirmed by a test drive. So the new bearings are also for the spares drawer!
biggles
Posts: 314
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:10 am

Re: Bushing material.....

Post by biggles »

Christ on a bike, a tenner each for a v low volume machine tube might just about be acceptable, but four quid each for a nylon washer? Seems like there are two reamings required to fit a midget upright :shock: Even TVR ones are a quid...! Couldn’t our resident Nylon washer expert (jonners) hook you up?

Hope you are keeping well, cheers all, Tim
jonclancy
Posts: 942
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:30 pm

Re: Bushing material.....

Post by jonclancy »

Well, depending on the volume, four quid might be what the cost price is!

I would add that the service we got from our specialist supplier for the custom washers was superb. But these are still custom stamped parts. It would be better to bulk buy and store, but that’s a lot of up front investment for someone only for the rest of us to benefit. I suggest Splat! :D
Post Reply