Spring is here and so is the long over due maintenance.

[J44EAG]

Last night I was pleased to have completed wishbone bush fitting. During the evening for some reason I became uneasy. The fit of the rear bush tubes looked wrong. Rather too short. The bush would get crushed before the through nut and bolt could be tightened directly onto the ends of the central compression tube. That would lead to a very stiff suspension, wear and unsatisfactory operation.

As I watched a You tube video my worst fears were confirmed with the guy showing a virtually seized MX5 suspension. The bushes had been jammed into the subframe location and the suspension was almost solid. The issue was that the bushes were incorrect in several ways but the most likely cause was because of incorrect length of compression tube.

This morning I stripped down one wishbone and remeasured the compression and the two top hat bushes per register. Installed the bushes appeared to be 5mm longer in total length than they should have been. Not so good so I phoned Powerflex for guidance.

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They were most helpful suggesting that I may have inadvertently left a steel thin wall bush within the register. Close examination revealed that a pair of lipped steel tubes resided in rear register. I was fooled into thinking the lip section of the OE tube top hat section inserts were untrimmed aluminium flash. Look very closely here. Spot the difference!

In the foreground is a wishbone which still has these two steel inserts still fitted. The bush behind has had the steel top hat inserts removed and bushes refitted correctly. The inserts have a wall thickness of around 1mm ie 2mm reduction across the register diameter.

These shell tubes MUST then be removed from the small lower front wishbone register before fitting Powerflex type bushes.

That 2mm made it difficult but not impossible to fit a bush onto that register but in squeezing the bush in tightly, the excess had to pump out elsewhere. Hence the two bushes installed with the steel inserts inadvertently left in place causing the exterior ends of the bush to swell and grow in overall length by 5mm!

So here is one of the reworked bushes fitted into a wishbone which has had the shell tubes totally removed. Total length of bush is now correct and the crush tube just pokes through the bush by about half a mm either end to ensure a good in service running clearance. The flat surface of the bush face has also been slightly relieved by sanding to ensure a pent roof effect so that the outside edges do not pick up in service and cause the suspension to jam up as described above about the MX5.

Yip, not too proud to admit I got it wrong. All corrected now. Just a bit of dented pride to repair.

So the wishbones are now finished again. This time correctly and are back with the car. Thats the good news.

The next hurdle is front ARB bushes. In theory easy enough but in practice not so. Space is incredibly tight and early appraisal suggests that dropping the the front cross member will make for easiest access. There is less space in the area with the V8 motor when compared to the V6. Having spoken to Martec we think the cross member being lowered would greatly help obtain access to the ARB clamps. As it is, the job looks quite impossible. I can put a 13mm socket on a bolt but there is no room to attach the ratchet.

These cars present a great number of difficulties for DIY types. Even experienced engineers can get themselves in knots with these cars. The above is the sort of caper you can expect when a car hits the 90k mile mark after thirteen years use and is non garaged.

There we go. We will operate such complex toys. More shortly. Nice day threatened tomorrow so will try to tackle the cross member drop and ARB bush fitment.

Brian will be back to comment shortly but is recovering from an eye operation and is presently unable to read. Very much looking forward to hearing Brians views again in due course. A great guy and a brilliant engineer.

Mike

[J44EAG]

I`m glad I had a chat with Brian yesterday. He had recently worked the front end of his early S-type and so knew the area well. Particularly so the front cross member, the heater valve and the ARB clamps.There is very little space to access the the front ARB clamps, their four 13mm bolts and the ARB bushes themselves in the V8. The V6 perhaps may not be quite so cramped. Both however share identical installation arrangements for the afore mentioned items.

My apologies for the rather low quality of attached images. Photography is not easy laying flat on your back or covered in copper grease! So here are todays efforts.

What we have at the front is a steel box section cross member held up to the horizontal chassis legs by four long 15mm bolts which locate upwards through the bottom surface of the chassis leg and engage in what I believe to be a floating steel longitudinal plate which perhaps has captive nuts affixed to it. It is impossible to see into the chassis leg so for fear of the internal threaded plate being displaced. We decided NOT to remove the cross member bolts completely in my attempt to lower the member and create more space in which to remove the four bolts which secure the two ARB bushes via an on top clamp to the member.

Before beginning to lower the cross member we used cable ties to secure the top of the radiator to the bonnets slam panel. This was to stop the radiator dropping down with the lower cross member into which it engages two pegs through a rubber grommet arrangement in the member. immediately under the radiator.

Having Tipexed around the for cross member mounting bolts, I wound out the bolts as far as I dared. Sounds of disintegrating rust were heard. Obviously quite corroded and no Copper Slip applied when the car was constructed. This shot is of the near side two bolts and the front mounting detail for the front register of the wishbone. Two slots can be seen and again Tipex was used before we removed the wishbone from the car. These front slots allow caster or set back angles to be adjusted. It is imperative these marks be applied prior to removing a lower front wishbone for replacement or overhaul.

Two similar slots are also found in the rear most aluminium cross member which take the rear wishbone mountings either side of the car, controls camber angles and provides mountings for the steering rack and the front engine mounts.The slots are again visible at 10 and 2 o`clock towards the top of the image.

After the cross member is lowered some limited access is permitted to both ARB mountings clamps bolts and bushes. It is a nasty job removing these bushes for replacement. The N/S is best tackled first. The rear most bolt can be spannered out but the front clamp bolt must be accessed from above using two or three long socket drive bars with ratchet, universal joint and a 13mm socket. Moving the air filter box top, the airflow meter and the air trunking then allows good access to the front clamp bolt. Non of mine were corroded which was a a nice find. The two bolts removed, the clamp can be taken off and the old ARB bush removed. The ARB which is 31.5mm OD is then free to move in all directions within a range all round of about 50mm. That is useful.

Removal of the O/S ARB bolts and clamps is rather more difficult. The rear bolt can be removed using a 3/8 ratchet and a tall 13mm socket. However above the forward clamp bolt is sited directly below the hated and difficult to service five pipe electrical heater valve. That is mounted on a bracket directly above the front ARB bolt! Who ever thought of that should be shot. I failed to remove the heater valve and managed to bend the clamp up sufficiently to remove the old ARB bush and replace with a Powerflex, harder and hopefully longer lifed bush set. This shot shows the ARB on the O/S, bush removed from the bar and the slightly lifted clamp which allowed the bush to be changed without removing the front clamp bolt or the accused heater valve.

This shot is of the N/S ARB with bright mark clearly showing from rotational contact with the old ARB bush, The slanting black plate to bottom left of the image is the bottom bush base mount on a raised open steel sheet plinth. Only just visible are the two mounting bolt holes below which thankfully captive nuts have been welded.

If your have to fit new front ARB bushes I suggest the following sequence which worked well for me. If using Powerflex or similar poly bushes, copper grease the internal rifled grease retaining bush bore and grease the running surface of the ARB as well. Open up the split part of the bush and jam in a large socket to spread the split part as far open as possible. Fit the split facing towards the rear of the car. Wriggle the bush onto the ARB and persuade under the clamp until it touches a raised washer like metal stopper/locator. You will be covered in copper grease at that point! The Powerflex ARB bushes are well designed with no raised portions to stop easy manouevering of the bush on the ARB bar. Well done again, Powerflex.

Repeat for the N/S bush which is an easier job as the clamp is totally removed at that point. Take the clamp and fit over the bush and fit the bolts. Tighten a few turns an engage the clamp details into their mating detents in the new bush. Tighten down little more, return to the O/S bush, bend the clamp back down ensuring the clamp and bush are mating correctly. Refit the clamp bolt and tighten down until the clamp is about 5mm off the base mount on the cross member. Return to the N/S clamp bolts and tighten down fully ensuring the bush is well located. Finish off by tightening down the single bolt on the O/S bush mount. Check the ARB is capable of movement up and down. It will be stiffer with the new bushes fitted.Job done. Have a coffee or stronger if your are done for the day. You will be pleased that job is done. Tighten up the cross member bolts to 103Nm ensuring the bolts line up within the Tipex marks.

Some images now of old and new ARB bushes. My original factory fitted items were worn out at 45k miles. They were replaced but I think the garage I employed used an improved product which was harder and had a very evident graphite inclusion on the running surfaces. The bushes removed today were still serviceable, about 0,5mm ovaled and somewhat flattened with use. No thumping in service had been noticed and I imagine these bushes might have lasted another 10k miles. As I was overhauling the front end of J44, these bushes were replaced together with the lower front wishbone bushes as part of my maintenance and general improvement program.

J44 now has the O/S wishbone reinstalled and with the new Powerflex bushes fitted earlier this week. Detached from other parts of the suspension and with 200Nm of tightening force applied via the cross member bolts having ensured correct location on previous Tipex index marks, the new bushes are running like a well oiled machine. No pick up points noted and the work tonight finished with the newly reconditioned hub carrier, ball joint and wheel bearing also linked up. The brakes are back on and damper, steering arm, ball joints ect all torqued up.

Weather permitting the N/S wishbone needs to go back into the car and then the jobs should be finished.

This overhaul and mod session has has been a lot of very hard work. We spent eight hours on the job today. Glad I`m not paying out for a garage to do it!

And the battery is now discharged. Inevitable, I suppose.

More tomorrow perhaps.

Mike

[J44EAG]

This is an interesting find and very relevant to the work I`ve been carrying out recently. In fact this afternoon.

This company produce camber/caster washers to lock off and ensure security of set angle to ensure there is no possible movement in service of the lower front wishbone. The wishbone bolts pass through the cross member mountings and despite 150Lbs.ft or 200Nm of torque, there could be a situation where the bolts do slip along the slots in the cross members. Perhaps only in race, track or rally situations but there is a possibility never the less.

The odd thing is that the pressed out lugs shown in the cross members in this pdf are actually present on our cars. There has seemingly been no attempt to make use of them as a locking device other than perhaps to stop the bolts or nuts from moving too far in the event of a slippage. But then the length of the slot would act as an emergency stopper, would it not?. Any ideas?

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... GU&cad=rja

Mike

[J44EAG]

Down and under again today. It has surprised me how much time has been spent getting this latest run of jobs sorted. My speed of action is much slower than it used to be ... so things take longer to do. Rather too long for my liking. I`m just glad Dave enthusiastically continues to do the hard bits for me. Working on the ground does not help.

The front suspension is now all built back up again. Looks nice and clean. It is quite obvious that many components have been replaced as a job lot. All torqued up, Tipex blobs on threads and nuts and index marks on new bushes to detect and possible rotation in service. The wishbones both lift and lower like a well oiled sewing machine parts. No tightness in operation detected. Bushes in wishbones rotating nicely around the centre inner bolt tubes and nothing picking up anywhere. All critical nuts and bolts torqued off and the tightening torque figure marked in Tipex adjacent to the nut or bolt nearby for future reference.

The most difficult aspect of rebushing is the inevitable geometry datum changes that occur over time due to a variety of adjustments and deterioration of those bushes.. As each new bushing is fitted, a loss of datum point can occur. In my ownership J44 has had three tracking adjustments made as mileage increased. With that mileage comes a gentle softening and deterioration of soft rubber components which get factored out as tracking sessions offer a quick fix remedial action, all be it with many bushing deterioration defects still in place. No one bush on an early S-type takes so much punishment as the large 68mm front bush in the lower front wishbone. A direct axial thrust occurs down the line of the bush with an element of inwards and outward tension and compression reversal being induced during rough road use. More so when dropping into a pothole. That can really screw that front bush.

Although I had Tipex marked the four long bushing bolt locations in the front and rear front cross members to show wishbone bolt location, these are hard to work to when build back time happens. The Tipex is easily rubbed off cross members and accurate bolt replacement is not so easy. The front bolts are difficult due to the bush hole being offset and the new Powerfex bushes fitted to my car are from a non O/E from a non standard source. I am satisfied that rear cross member concentric holed bush can be tightened back on its marks reasonably correctly but the front bush is more of a conundrum as regards its location in the front cross member is offset and will react differently to the original bush which has a great deal of material removed during manufacture. I torque off those wishbone bolts with the suspension loaded and the full weight of the car in that corner being supported on trolley jack under the hub carrier ball joint.

Tonight J44 sits with the steering wheel level with the O/S wheel showing too much positive camber, a small amount of toe out but the wheel looking equidistant in the wheel arches. On the N/S, camber looks fair, wheel is equidistant in the wheel arch but a large amount of toe out is present. So Dave and I will probably be correcting that over the weekend. We need to correct these issues for obvious reasons.

I certainly didn`t expect to have a perfect job at this stage. Tearing out this volume of components and referbishing is bound to alter general geometry and is not something one can expect to get right first time. Alterations are possible so this end of the car can be realigned hopefully when Dave shows up again shortly. Two heads are better than one. I`m exhausted so tomorrow is a day of rest.

I`ve now driven the car and despite the above mentioned geometry maladjustment, the car does drive straight! What of the bushes themselves? Driven over my local suspension test ground kindly laid down by the local council. I have a road laden with speed bumps and other traffic calming measures which prove ideal for finding defects and for assessing newly fitted components. Five minutes spent driving over these obstructions has been very revealing. I expected the usual noises from slightly worn ARB bushes and a small vibrating resonance felt through the steering column. Result...nothing! Very nice indeed and totally beyond my expectations. Remember I have the hard Black race use Powerflex bushes installed. Overall impression? Damned near perfect! Quiet, no vibration and not in anyway harsh. I would recommend these Black Powerflex to anyone - even if they wanted a comfort suspension. The Blacks are obviously a good choice and really do keep that previous nasty resonance (NVH...Noise,Vibration and Harshness...industry terminology) at bay. All in all at this early stage...very pleasant indeed. More testing once we have straightened every thing again.

And for the future? Replace the rear outer non spherical bushes in the lower rear wishbones, then replace all four upper rear wishbones complete or rebush the old units in present use, fit Powerflex Black to those units and salvage the bushes for reuse when the ball joints eventually fail. The bushings in the upper arms push in and out easily. One bush in the rear upper wishbone would be fitted with a bobbin type bush. To salvage that one might mean breaking a wishbone register with the bench press. I would expect that to fracture and crush break at around six tons per square inch. These wishbones really are tough characters! Destroying an old wishbone with a worn ball joint is no crime. The ball joints are non replaceable.

So tonight I am very pleased. It has been a long hall but in my opinion, well worth the effort.

Mike

[Martec]

Just a quick one as I get eye strain very easily at present.

The four dowl pins to locate the rear subframe are 25mmOD and the hole in the bush is 34mm ID!!!

Best wishes

Brian

[J44EAG]

That gives 9mm of free play or theoretically 4.5mm all around the dowel of we assume the car has a perfectly built chassis.

That gives a huge amount of potential subframe alignment potential. Massive would not be an understatement. That would include the possibility of being able to shift the subframe sideways as well as for and aft.

It might help us greatly to know the original methodology of installation when the car was originally built. I`ll see what I can find out.

I expect Brian, you are very keen for the post operative effects of having your eyes fixed to wear off and settle down. Must be rather frustrating for you. Looking forward to hearing you have had a positive result.

Mike

[oldtimer]

Mike/Brian,
Am still following this thread with great interest.

Brian, hope the eye is on the improve, best wishes

P

PS Don't think they could make a good one out of the three of us

[J44EAG]

I had considered that, Phil, but which one of use would be the recipient of the good parts from the others?! Hope you are feeling rather better, Pal.

A day of rest after my minor epic over the last week. However my regional Hon Sec has just been over and had me remove his damper bushes. Two tons needed to remove the worst one. When they first move, they go with a hell of a bang.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Dave Rex and I spent today re-aligning the front suspension following the new bush installation in the lower front wishbone and at the front anti roll bar.

Not a particularly easy job with much wheel removal, jacking, bush location. measurement and re=tracking required. One must be prepared to adjust, measure and check effect many, many times. For any small bush location movement, large amounts of "effect" can occur. One must accept that one might have to adjust a bush location again and adjust several times. I recommend a helper to assist with wheel base length measurements.

The first thing we did was to check wheel base length either side. If you assume the rear subframe is accurately aligned and has not been lowered subsequently, then you may perhaps reliably assume that it is squarely located in the car. Any replacement of the rear adjustable radius rods must also be known to have been subject to a tracking check after fitting. Hopefully rear wheels are parallel which is vital to setting up the front end of the car.

It is desirable that the front lower wishbone bushes within the wishbone registers are set in the chassis mountings within Tipex markings that must be added before wishbones are removed for replacement or overhaul. Even if new bushes have been fitted, you may expect caster, camber and tracking checks will need to be carried out. Today, more by luck than design, Dave and I did not find it necessary to go back into my original O/S installation. Somehow that came out well and we have not had to touch it again. Best results are achieved with the anti roll bar, vertical links and wishbone all connected. Unconnected it can spoil toe corrections when you link them up.

The N/S suspension was a different matter. It was all over the place! In addition to wishbone bush location we also had to adjust the ball jointed track rod on the rack end rod. Whilst the car had been re-tracked last summer, the re-tracking included adjustments with 90k mile suspension bushes still on the car. The errors pile up due to age and mileage deprivation within components and these errors compound further over the years. The upshot was that the N/S front wheel exhibited marked tow out once the new bushes had been installed.

Sliding the front lower front wishbone bush along the front cross member slot can alter caster markedly. That is known as set forward or set back. Too much set forward places a road wheel too far forward in the wheel arch and too much set back allows a road wheel to sit too far aft. Moving that front bush in or out within the cross member slot by even only a couple of mm, can cause a large degree of set back of set forward to be achieved within a wheel arch. The point that is affected is the outermost extremity of the wishbone, namely where the hub carrier ball joint locates. The rear cross member location acts a bit like a pivot point as the front bush is slid in or out along the front cross member slot.

Camber is adjusted by sliding the rear wishbone bush and its bolt (The small one) inboard or outboards along its slot in the rear cross member. In my opinion camber angles are less tricky to adjust and one can use eyeball to help decide how much camber you have achieved as you build up the suspension. I have my car set with a little positive camber which can be seen sighting the angle of the front wheels against the plumb vertical angle of the rear wheel rims. Totally precise set up can be achieved by a good specialist chassis/wheel alignment specialist.

Our only toe angle adjustment today was made solely to the N/S track rod end to correct very obvious toe out. Dave and I used a long metal tape measure to run across outside and inside wheel rim edge points until all four rim edges touched the tape measure. We adjusted the N/S track rod end until all came well. Also repeatedly checked whist we moved bush locations within the cross members were the wheel base length between the front of the rear rim and the rear of the front rim.

Finally we had camber to our satisfaction, caster which dictates not only the position of the front wheels within the arches but also the distance between the front and rear edges of the wheel rims. Only when we were within a mm of difference between rims, with parallel front wheel tracking and reasonable camber, did we call the job satisfactory.

Whilst Dave cleared up the tools, I drove the car around the block and then we once again remeasured. Still just one mm difference. Good enough to allow use on the road and not to cause tyre wear. The car drives straight again, steering wheel is level and runs very well indeed.

The bushings are not at all noisy. Indeed noise from the front suspension is almost non existent and certainly quieter that I`ve ever known a used early model S-type exhibit. The steering stays on course and there is a definite improvement in directional stability. These Powerflex Black bushes are specially designed for the track or racing where keeping suspension as near to perfect as possible during stressful cornering manoeuvres. I consider the overall ride with the Blacks and Bilstein combination to be nothing short of outstanding. Noise, vibration, harshness, hardness and suspension spring back control are as good as it gets. No undesirable side effects at all.

The Purple less solid bushes are available but I would certainly have no hesitation in installing the firmer harder Black series on the S-type even for comfort road going vehicles. Neither the driver or passenger will find any discomfort with those fitted. The bushes that I shall be fitting to the upper wishbones front and rear together with the lower rear wishbone outer bush will be Black Series. If they are as good as those fitted in the front end of the car to date, I shall be well pleased with the whole project.

Thanks again to Brian for his views, advice and guidance. Invaluable today.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Off we go again. This time it is the lower rear wishbones I`m about to tackle. These are famed due to inner rear and hub carrier bush wear at high mileages and until Racing Green Cars came up with replacement bushes, were renowned for high repair costs. Only in 2010 did we become aware that bushes had become available on the after-market before which owners only had one option when the patent spherical bushes failed. Namely around £1200 for a complete new pair of wishbones, the old ones being rendered to scrap.

Gradually we also saw the arrival on the after-market scene of complete new wishbones at a more affordable £165 per unit. That also helped the repair situation.

I believe it was around March 2010 that I wrote a large article for our magazine pages which detailed the issues and the new repair options. For the purpose of that article, I acquired two used lower rear wishbones for experimentation. They came to me for very small money and both were described by the seller as being serviceable. One wishbone was an SC produced unit which had reasonable bushes. The other was from an unknown manufacturer but was essentially worn out. It was that wishbone which received a new pair of bushes for the article. Since that time, the two wishbones have been stored away pending use at some point in time. That time has now arrived.

Note that the rear lower wishbone has two spherical bushes fitted to each unit with a third Metalastic type rubber bush fitted at the forward subframe location in these three register wishbones. Interestingly because I obviously have acquired two units made by different manufactures, I noted that the third bush in each unit is different in each wishbone. One is a solid heavy duty type Metalastic bush whilst the other unit has a bush that has some compliance air gaps within the rubber which would allow more movement than the solid rubber bush and perhaps make for a rather less noisy and softer ride. geometry control may however may not perhaps be as reliable as the more solid bush.

This image shows what I am now dealing with. This wishbone is seen clamped to my bench press for further examination, assessment and suitability for reconditioning and re-use. Note the nut and bolt fitted to enable a bush to be turned to ensure full and free axial rotation which is required as the suspension moves up and down. The degree of looseness and radial movement can be assessed. Axial movement allows easy alignment within the subframe and also caters for rear tracking toe when it comes to setting the rear wheels parallel.

These two images show the possible radial deflection possible to permit rear tracking alignment.

Now to the third Metalastic type bush which measures as 56.25mm O/D. It is the sencond largest bush on the car suspension. Here are the two examples of the bush design I found today. Firstly the solid type without any compliance.

This second shot shows a similar design but details the very prominent compliance slots which might account for a softer ride. I would be interested to learn what was fitted to later models. with or without the compliance slots.

I need to detail what my plans are for planned fitment of reconditioned lower wishbones to my car. Firstly I have a wishbone which has new spherical bushes fitted. It would be sensible to fit that unit to the car but I shall be replacing the rubber Metalastic third bush with an uprated Powerflex poly type bush before I fit that wishbone. That unit will be a direct swap for the unit that is currently in the car.

The second wishbone does not have new bushes fitted. Their condition is looser that the new bushes fitted to the above wishbone. Dependent upon condition of the bushes presently fitted to the wishbone on my car presently, i intend to assess buth that wishbone and my spare to see which of the two is the better unit, The third bush will again be changed for a stiffer powerflex poly type bush.

Here is a link to the Powerflex replacement, after-market uprated unit. Again competition 95 Shore A compound to afford me the best suspension geometry stability that I can obtain. The 95Shore compound is claimed to be 25% more resilient to load deformation than a standard factory fit unit. This is the same material I have installed in the front lower wishbone bushes. Not cheap at £78.30 per pair. These have a metal outer case which will need bench press or a bush remover replacement kit to fit. I favour hydraulic bench press fitment where considerable fitting control can be exercised. http://www.upratedbushshop.com/product. ... _1998_2002_

Thats where we are tonight. More in due course.

Mike

[J44EAG]

A change in the order of bush installation. I took the cheapest option first!

Having installed a set of Powerflex Black poly bushes successfully in the lower front wishbones and being delighted and very pleased with steering response and total lack of harshness, reverberation or bone shaking ride, it seemed sensible to finish of the front suspension re-bush completely by next tackling the upper front wishbones. This is due to be carried out in a couple of days time with the assistance of my very great friend and Hon Sec of our Portsmouth Region, David Biscoe. David like me enjoys a bit of bush bashing and playing about with the bench press.

Now arrived and awaiting fitting is a complete front upper wishbone kit from Powerflex sold as PFF27-603BLK. Cost just under £100 from Upratedbushshop.com All four bushes are identical with leads to ease fitment of this bobbin type design. If at a later date the wishbone needs replacing due to ball joint failure, the bushes can be salvaged by breaking the old wishbone with a bench press and then refitting the bushes to a new wishbone.

A further set of upper wishbone bushes have just been ordered for the rear of the car. They will be fitted in due course.

Mike

[J44EAG]

An early start this morning with Dave Rex helping block and chock J44 prior to fitting the new Powerflex upper front wishbone bushes.

On the face of it a simpler job than the lower wishbone. Two inner nuts and bolts and the upper ball joint nut to remove. Oh yea?! To remove the two inner bolts, the ARB links have to be removed from the the ARB and the dampers taken from the car. Four 12mm nuts on the top mounts and the large nut and bolt at the bottom of each damper. The wishbone, hub carrier leg, brakes and wheel bearing cartridge then drop to the floor.

The front upper wishbone bolts are easy enough to dismantle having moved the brake modulator slightly on the OS. The NS front is no problem. The OSR is buried under the brake master cylinder but reasonably accessible. The NSR nut is buried under an over sized and over complicated metal bracket which is used to fix six or so multi-plugs in a rigid position. That bracket is secured to the car by three 10mm bolts, one of them being obscured from view with difficult access. The multi-plugs secure to the plate by Christmas Tree plastic fixings. Getting that lot apart is a cuss. The plate is now in our bin and cable ties will be used through redundant bolt holes to secure the plugs when the job is finished. I always hated that plate as it is a real back of the hand skinner, is completely obstructive and a total nuisance. Yet another inner engine bay mounting plate that will end up at the dump as a monument to over engineered folly.

The two upper wishbones were then transferred to the bench press for assessment as suitable for further use. Both forward register bushes could be moved around due to wear.

An identical scenario to that noted when I replaced front lower wishbone bushes recently. Also noted were the ball joint gaiters which were no longer attached to the ball joint threaded stub. The sprung wire captivation had let the gaiter break its neoprene seal and would be an immediate MOT failure if spotted by an MOT man. Rather than fork out in excess of£140 for a pair of new upper wishbones with a new ball joint and new standard wishbone bushes, I repaired the seal joint by fitting a small cable tie at that point. Another cable tie on that ball joint secured the gaiter to the ball joint housing. It is a greasy fiddly job but a life saver if the ball joint is in otherwise serviceable condition. I repeated the operation for the second upper wishbone. Even after 90k miles of use, the ball joints are fit for further use.

This type of work takes a heavy toll on my right sciatic affected foot and long term standing becomes agonising. I have to limit my work to a great extend so finished today's proceedings by just removing one old bush and replacing with new. I regard a bench press as essential for this work used in conjunction with a bush remover/refit mandrel kit.

To remove an upper bush, press out the centre rubber and tube parts until they break out of the lining tube still left in the wishbone register.

Cut that ali inner tube length wise with a hacksaw taking care NOT to cut down to the ali wishbone itself. Cuts to the wishbone register will render such a unit to scrap. Such damage can lead to a stress fracture developing which might lead to catastrophic wishbone failure and loss of life. This proceedure is repeated for al four upper wishbone registers before a new Powerflex or standard bush is fitted to a used wishbone.

Fitting the new bobbin type Powerflex bush is not difficult given a bench press and a little soap as a lubricant. The bush is placed on a bench block, the unoccupied wishbone register is placed on top of the bush and pressure is applied by the press until the top of the bush pops out of the register and a lip on either end of the bush secures it permanently in position.

Allow £200 for fitting the eight upper wishbone bushes to front and back suspension. I`ll summarise all costs involved once the job is complete.

Tomorrow sees the arrival of my Hon Sec for a day of further bush and wishbone bashing. With luck the front upper job will be complete in a couple of hours. After that we shall strip out the rear upper wishbones and possibly the lower rear wishbones pending the arrival of bush supplies from Upratedbushshop.com and Racing Green who supply replacement patent spherical bushes as repair items for the lower rear wishbone.

I`m looking forward to getting this work finished now. I`m finding the going tough physically and it will be nice to call it a day for a while.

Mike

[J44EAG]

On the job again today with Dave Biscoe on bench hydraulics and air. Dead handy to have another set of hands when bush bashing. Removal of the old bushes can be tedious and frustrating. Pulverising the centre tubes and old rubber bushes out of the outer case is the way to do it. Then finish off with a couple of length ways hacksaw cuts down the outer bush case to allow it to slightly collapse and take the pressure off the wishbone register. A hammer, punch and cold chisel is used to remove the outer bush ali case after which the new bushings can be fitted with a little soap to ease their travel through the vacant wishbone register. That is the easy part compared with old bush removal.

With the new bushes fitted we transferred back to the car for fitment. Rather easier than getting the worn bushed wishbones off. The hardest part was after fitting the bush through bolts to the chassis. As predicted due to space constraints the two rearmost large washers with integral 15mm nuts were a cuss to relocate on tighten. 43Nm torque which is difficult to accurately gauge as it is impossible to get a torque wrench under the master cylinder and brake pipes on the OS. With multi-plugs separated on the NSR bolt, that nut was easier. The two front bolts either side are easy to torque.

Note that I was able to find wear in all upper four wishbone joints when the top hub carrier nut was removed. That done, the wishbone bush wear and excessive movement was very evident when I stripped out with the top ball joint separated from the hub carrier leg.This was not picked up at the last MOT only 1500 miles previously. Despite replacing bottom wishbone bushes recently, I noted that some noise from the front suspension was still present when on rough surfaces or on encountering bad road repairs. With the upper front wishbones now reconditioned and fitted with the Powerflex Black Series replacement parts, the front suspension is now TOTALLY quiet! Vastly better than I had expected and with NO transmitted road noise at all. This is quite remarkable when one considers I have fitted a racing spec bush compound which one would think would increase noise intrusion. All i can say is that I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Powerflex Black Series even to road going cars where an owner requires a smooth ride. This material really does do what it says on the box.

Once again I noted that the tracking was visually changed at the near side front following fitting new unworn upper bushes which have been carefully engineered and designed to allow minimal suspension softening compliance and to ensure minimum suspension movement in service. To my eye, which is now getting quite good at visually eyeballing tracking detail, there appears a tad of NSF toe out present with seemingly 1/4" wheel base length change from one side of the car to the other. All my previous measurements were carried out recently after replacing the front lower wishbone bushes only. That gave a serious measurement hard point for setting up after that job had been completed. Today with new bushes fitted to the upper wishbones, geometry not unexpectedly changed again and I therefore need to address that. This will occur AFTER I have fitted a set of new bushes to the rear upper arms and new patent spherical bushes to one rear lower wishbone together with two replacement Powerflex Black inner forward bushes to the lower wishbones. Those bush sets are expect to arrive with me over the next few days. That gives me a chance to have a rest!

A shot here now of some of the detritus generated during this mornings bush removal session>This is what you end up with after pressing the living daylights out of the bush internals with a bench press and a hack saw. As quick as it gets, brutal and non compromising.

Time scale. Allow Three hours to jack the car, remove road wheels, ARB links, dampers, top ball joint nuts and wishbone register bolts. Allow two hours for removal and fitting of old and new bushes and a further two hours to put it all back together again. Rear upper bush changes may be a little quicker to remove and refit as access is much better.

Mike

[J44EAG]

By myself again today and awaiting the last of the Powerflex bushes to arrive. The delivery of two RG109 new replacement patent bushes for the NS lower rear wishbone occurred. Very fast service from Racing Green Cars. Bushes are 54mm in length and some models need to have two additional 2.5mm packing washers inserted to make up the difference. No problem. Currently £60 for a pair of bushes from RG with VAT and post costs included. These replacement bushes fit S-type, X350 and XF and XK8 models regardless of model year.

My attention this afternoon centred on the OS rear lower wishbone I used for illustrative purposes in the article I wrote about the patent bushes in our magazine. I believe this was in the March 2010 edition. I had this wishbone fitted with two new RG109 bushes at the time and the wishbone then went into my stores awaiting later use. The third register was fitted with a standard Metalastic solid rubber bush which seldom gives issues. In line with my current bush replacement obsession, I`ve decided to replace the bushes in both lower rear wishbones with Powerflex Black Series bushes to match other bushings on the car. Not cheap though. Around £76 for the pair. Somewhat larger than the upper wishbone bushes on the car but not as large as those found in the lower front wishbone, front unit. The bigger the bush, the more pricey they are. Here is a shot of the standard lower rear, front inner bush.

This bush has a central crush mount tube, a mass of compressed rubber and an ali outer sleeve which sits in the wishbone register. For some reason, this bush was an obstinate brute to remove and fought me all the way. Here is a shot of the centre tube and the rubber guts extruding from the ali case during removal. As you can see there is a lot of rubber present.

I drilled a few holes lengthways down the bush to allow the rubber to sheer and tear more easily as I used a socket on the bench press to tear its way through the rubber and push the guts of the bush out of the mounting case. The more rubber that can be removed during that operation, the better. A hacksaw used is used carefully to cut the case several times and ease removal of the case tube from the wishbone register. Today this case removal operation was a nause. Despite cutting and use of punches and chisels, this case was a sod to remove. Here is what is left of it! I hope the other bush I still have to remove will be easier that this one!!

Finally a general shot of the wishbone, two RG109 bushes and another shot of the accursed ali bush case. Note my location depth markings to assist correct depth location of new bushings, installation markings and part numbers written on the wishbone to assist record keeping of parts fitted for future easy reference.

Further work tomorrow will entail fitting those new RG109 bushes to the lower NS wishbone which still has the old original bushes in place and once again doing battle with the other third register Metalastic bush. Play it again Sam! With luck UPS might even deliver the remaining outstanding bushes for the upper rear wishbones and the third register lower wishbone. More likely next week though.
I`m pleased I bought some second hand spare wishbones to keep in stock. These can be reconditioned at leisure making fitment on the day chosen little more than just a swap out and in process.
Once these lower rear wishbones are fitted, just the top upper wishbones to attend to and I`ll have new bushes, bearings, dampers and ball joints all in as new and in uprated spec condition. My workload keeping the car up together for the future will be much reduced which is really the primary reason for knocking this car apart so heavily over the past year. that done, I can focus efforts on corrosion control and rectification.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Some light action again today upon my floating workshop.

Fitted two new RG109 patent bushes to a spare NS lower rear wishbone I had in stock. A really easy job believe it or not with the press and a 1.3/4 inch hole saw with the teeth ground off to leave a flat surface. This thin wall hole saw has exactly the right ID to slip over the RG109 bush gaiter and clears the inside of the register when used as a removal or fitting tool. I expected the bushes would need a fair old push to get them removed from the wishbone. Not so. Only moderate pressure applied by the bench press to remove and fit a new item with no effort at all. Note it is essential to measure the offset of the old bushes in their registers prior to removal. I used an indelible marker pen to write the protruding bush material extent in mm prior to removal. Useful to have to dimensions easily visible when fitting a new bush.

Images here show some of the activity today.

So this evening both lower rear wishbones are almost ready to fit to the car. I`m awaiting Powerflex PFR27-610 BLK bushes to arrive hopefully on Monday and to also receive the two Powerflex kits needed to replace the four upper rear wishbone bushes. I`m hoping to fit all four fully reconditioned wishbones together to avoid having to block and chock the car off on two separate occasions.

I can do no more until the outstanding bushes arrive. in the meantime I`m off to skittles with the Portsmouth Region guys tomorrow lunch time.

Mike