I waited for others to reply but I haven't seen any yet so here goes. I've
rebuilt the front susp on my 'A twice over the past 25+ years. I don't think
the
thickness (or, in your case thinness...) of the hardened washers will be a
problem. The important point is the end clearance of the swivel link. The
distance tube must be clamped by the wishbone bolt so that movement takes place
between the distance tube's external dia and the inside dia of the bushing
(where the grease is supposed to reside when injected via the grease fitting).
I
did have a problem once with a distance tube that was too short. When the
wishbone bolt was tightened it clamped the swivel link to the wishbone.
I don't recall worrying about torque wrenches when tightening the suspension
bolts. Tight was the goal... My current wishbone nuts are nylok type, not
castellated.
You don't mention it but are the bottom wishbone arms to spring pan bolt holes
and bolts in good condition? Looseness here (or worn/rusted bolts) will allow
movement and rapid wear of the bolt holes. The bolts are a tight fit and should
be a high grade bolt. Don't trust ungraded hardware store bolts.
Last thing, tighten the wishbone pivot bushing nuts *after* the car is on the
ground with normal weight on the suspension (i.e. engine & body). These
bushings
don't rotate on the pivot instead the rubber flexes. You want to clamp them up
in the mid point of their travel so that they flex equally in both directions.
If you clamp them up with the suspension hanging free, all the flex will be in
one direction and the rubber bush will likely shear.
Eric <ejrussell@sprynet.com>
Bridgewater, MA
<copy>
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 10:18:47 -0700
From: "Clayton Kirkwood" <kirkwood@garlic.com>
Subject: 62 mga II front suspension q's
Having gone through the rebuild of my front suspension, I have a few
questions:
1. the case hardened washers are supposed to have very specific tolerances.
On all of mine, the inner and outer diameters were acceptable (and frankly,
to me, not that critical), but the thickness was off considerably (something
like .058 instead of the required .065 to .068, I didn't even worry about
the flatness which is supposed to be within .0005 in). How much of a
difference is this really going to make?
2. When tightening up the various nuts and bolts there are very few torque
settings throughout the book, and I am wondering what the correct settings
should be, especially when the above case hardened washers are too thin and
when there are castellated nuts. Any help please?
Clayton Kirkwood
|