Alan,
At 11:51 AM 3/11/2000 EST, Alan Kell wrote:
>installing steel/rubber A arm buhings on MGA. Moss catalog says Moly
grease on pivots. Is EP wheel bearing grease okay? How much torque on the
nuts when everything is settled in?
I'd skip the grease. There's nothing there that slips or slides like the
original rubber grommets. The inner steel sleeve gets clamped tightly on
the pivot shaft by the washer and nut so it doesn't turn. The outer rubber
part is a tight press fit in the arm so it doesn't slip, not supposed to,
so do not grease this part. When the suspension arm moves the rubber
bushing flexes rather than rotating. For ease of assembly you can dip the
rubber part in dishwash soap solution to make it slippery. Then when it
dries it isn't slippery.
What you really want to do is put anti-sieze compound inside of the steel
sleeve where it fits on the pivot shaft so you might be able to get it back
off again sometime in the future. Also one of the reported problems with
the steel/rubber bushings is that when you really tighten down on the nut
the washer squashes the end(s) of the steel sleeve a little, and that
sometimes makes it squeeze down onto the shaft, so it may be difficult to
remove later. I have these on my MGA, but I dunno yet, as I have so far
never tried to remove them.
Before final tightening of the big nuts you should set the weight of the
car down on the suspension and bounce it around some, maybe even drive it
around the block once to get it settled in. Then you tighten up the big
nuts with the car still sitting at normal ride height (yeah I know it's
hard to get under there without jacking it up). This secures the steel
sleeves onto the pivot shaft so they will not move during operation. After
that when the suspension moves and the rubber bits flex, it is intended
that they should flex about the same amount in each direction as the
suspension moves up and down. If you were to tighten the big nuts with the
suspension hanging full down, and then drive the car, the rubber parts
would be overstressed from having to flex too much at full sospension
travel, which may cause premature failure of the rubber.
I don't think you can overtighten those big nuts. They have 1/2" fine
threads and can take well over 100 lb-ft of torque. You can use a 1/2"
ratchet wrench handle and pull until your arms come out of their sockets.
Now you have to ask how to get the new bushings pressed into the arms.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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