Front suspension, tie-bars

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Front suspension, tie-bars

Hiya all
I am hoping to do the job this weekend, so will let you know the outcome, if only for some amusement!

One sideline to doing this job is to hopefully reduce the amount of reaction of the front wheels when hitting potholes, en route to work around the afluent area of St Albans. (With all of the posh houses and shops in the area, and being classed as a City, you would think the roads might match - quite the opposite!!)

I've got a theory that the tie-bars are currently not doing as much 'tie-ing' as intended, and the wishbones are allowed to move fore & aft too much. Of course, the bushes in the wishbones might also warrant replacement - not this side of Christmas!
Cheers
Mike

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Front suspension, tie-bars

Weekend Up-date: tried to remove tie-bar on one side, and regretably gave up! Two reasons: 1)un-did 2 nuts & bolts on wishbone, and large areo nut on front - turning steering wheel backwards and forwards, the tie-bar seemed just a half inch too long at the front to come out of front housing; 2) might have persevered with removal, except at thi stage it was apparent that the 'old' front bush was blue, and was a different shape to the new Ford items. Rear bush was black, but also shaped differently. Think maybe an earlier owner fitted nylon bushes? Decided to leave well alone for time being!
Cheers
Mike

[macdonald.dm]

Re: Front suspension, tie-bars

Hi Mike.

In what way were they shaped differently? They will, of course, have been squished to a different shape simply by being compressed, but looking at your photo above, they do indeed look as though they could be a different material; the soft 'doughnuts' that I used (and which you seem to have now) end up with a rounded circumference by the time they've been compressed, whereas your current bushes look as tho' they have quite a 'flat' outer edge and could be a harder material. (Why is it that it's always the most 'straight-forward' jobs that turn out to be the most awkward...?)

I WAS able to remove my tie bars without slackening the inner nut (which would have made the job easier), but it did involve a LOT of rotating of the bar along with lots of lock-to-lock steering movement. It was very awkward tho', and a further mm of length would have made it impossible, so perhaps you might not get away with this!

Hmm, your bushes are very dark black/blue - could they be Superflex polyurethane bushes?

Once you released the inner wishbone bolts to free the bar, was there any noticeable play in the bushes, or were they quite firm? I just wonder if you really DO need to replace them - not what you want to hear...

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Front suspension, tie-bars

Hi Donnie
In answer to your query about the shape of the bushes, the edges of them appeared to be moulded to a positive chamfer to fit the shape of the large washers. Also, the centre of the bushes had a small protrusion of a few mm which went through the middle of the washers. Whereas the Ford versions are completely flat, with no protrusions or chamfers.

To have removed the tie-bars, I would have had to disconnect the steering-rack ball-joints. SOD & his law had made the tie-bars just about 10mm too long to remove, despite much turning of steering wheel. To have pressed on with this, I was also in danger of inflicting some damage to either the copper brake pipe and/or the lower swivel joint.

Finally, I reached the conclusion that the blue/black bush combination was in reasonable nick and firmer than the Ford replacements. So I reassembled the tie-bar and made sure that it matched the other side of the car in terms of No. of threads protruding through both front & rear nuts. You will recollect that in my original enquiry, the rear nut on one side had worked itself loose, while the other 2 nuts on the other tie-bar were rock-solid and could be assumed as a good datum. Now I have done all of this, I will be checking the toe-in/out according to Haynes. I have a telescopic gadget which makes this job fairly easy. In future, I will obviously keep an eye on the nuts, and ensure that I don't inadvertently drive around as before with a loose tie-bar.
Cheers
Mike