I was getting a bit of creaking from my nearside upper arm bushes so I decided to remove them and apply some grease.


Previously I had positioned the shims between the top hat washer and the subframe but was never sure if this was correct. Is this correct or are they supposed to go between the top hat and the bush?

 

RD, the two I have done were next to the sub frame, a little more painful, but that's it.


Wayne

 

Here is the diagram for them...


Dave

 

Thanks for posting Dave, however the diagram doesn't actually show the shim washer position in relation to the top hat washers.


Also the shim position is different in different regions so readers should check on that too.


I put the car back together last night, it is really tricky getting the bolt in with all the shims in the correct position with only two hands.


I was lucky to find that I had a couple of brass drifts that were the same diameter as the bolt, I put one of these through each bush before offering them up to the subframe. Doing this was still tricky, the shims still wanted to slip out of position as it was so tight so next I used a tiny spot of superglue between each of the shims and the top hat washer and offered them up again, this was just enough to keep them all in position while pushing the bolt in displacing the brass drifts.


I then reattached the ball joint before torqing up the fulcrum bolt, BIG MISTAKE!

I had assumed that having smothered everything in copper grease that I had fixed the original creek, but on reassemble I did not think twice that perhaps I had not fixed it. Anyway I put the wheel back on and went for a test drive, the creak was as bad as ever.


I should have torqued up the pivot bolt first and then wiggled the control arm up and down first, that would have shown that it was still creaking as bad as ever.


So tonight I will need to strip it down again and try to understand why it is still creaking.


When I was stripping it down, as soon as I released the fulcrum bolt half a turn the creaking stopped, but it was stiff and creaked badly when I moved it by hand after splitting the ball joint. Hmmmm....

 

The shims go directly against the Crossbeam (arrowed in red). Selected during production, there's usually different number and thickness on each side of the Crossbeam



I use an old Fulcrum Bolt to aid assembly with a dab of Coppaslip to prevent the shims falling off.

Graham