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Triumph TR6 - Should read: LOWER Wishbone

The manual is indicating 30 ft/lbs of torque on the 1/2" nyloc assembly, through the rubber bushing with steel sleeve, holding the lower wishbone arms to the mounting bracket and frame.

This amount of torque binds the steel sleeve against the pivot points on the mounting bracket.

Should the bushing be free to move around the bolt? Or does the vertical movement come from the play inherent in the rubber?

Seems to me that there should be some degree of movement but that would mean backing off on the nut/bolt.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

BC
73 TR6
Toronto
B Chamberlain

Hi Barry

I believe the rubber bushing/steel sleeve/lower control arm which is a form fit should be free to rotate up and down with the bolt staying stationary. So I would say if 30 ft lb is jamming the steel sleeve, I would back off on the torque. The only thing you need to worry about with the bolt is to keep it in the sleeve. The bolt is designed to resist the shear of the lower control arm on the bracket. That means the bolt has to stay in the sleeve. The nylock nut will do that purpose fine as it won't twist off with motion as long as it is tight.

If the sleeve is jammed I would expect your bushing to wear out faster as it will take the rotation and thus wear quicker.

It may be your bracket has been pulled in due to over torquing the bolt in the past thus it jams the sleeve. Stretching the bracket out again may allow you to torque the bolt to specification. Or the bushing sleeve you have is a little longer than the original if you have put a new one in not allowing the bracket to compress enough before jamming to the sleeve before you hit the torques setting .
Michael Petryschuk

Barry, it looks like Michael and I are giving you conflicting advice. His comments certainly hold for aftermarket neoprene bushings, but for the original type bonded rubber ones there is no provision for movement other than as taken up by the rubber. Movement requiring metal to metal contact would need lubrication. I checked in the official Repair Operations Manual and it simply requires that the bolts be inserted and tightened.


Tony
A. J. Koschinsky

I'm with Tony on this. As he stated in the "Ower Wishbone" thread, the stock bushing is intended to flex in rotation and should be tightened with the suspension loaded* to prevent preloading the bushings at your normal ride height which will lead to a shortened service life.

* There are a couple of different approaches to this. You can leave the fasteners slightly loose and make a very short run to settle the suspension. Then drive it up onto some ramps and do your final tightening. Another approach is leave the fasteners loose and jack up that corner of the suspension to your normal center of wheel to fender lip measurement at normal ride height, then tighten everything up. This last one is a bit "iffyier" as running stiffer springs may preclude being able to jack up that corner of the suspension without lifting the car off the other load/lift points.
SteveP1

Thanks all. I'm going to go with the specified torque. As noted, if the steel sleeve is moving against the bracket, it too would require some sort of bushing.

So I'll tighten assembly to 30 ft/lbs with road weight on the suspension and see how it goes. Now that I've figured out how to get the rubber bushings in easily (dish soap), I can always play around with it later.

Thanks again.
B Chamberlain

This thread was discussed between 29/05/2015 and 02/06/2015

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