Bent wishbone - upgrades available?

[mph.52]

Whilst trying to fling myself up Prescott hill yesterday the offside bottom wishbone buckled under heavy braking.Before I splash out on a new set I wondered if anyone has any experience of the Racing Green upgraded wishbones ( or any others ) ?

[poorpeet]

I have seen ones made from round tube advertised. Not sure where but I'll have a hunt around when I get a minute. In the meantime do a search on here. I'm sure it's been talked about in the last 6 months.

Pete

[V8 GRF]

I has been mentioned to me more than one or twice that round tube wishbones whilst strong and ideal for racing are probably too strong for road use as they are more likely to damage the chassis if they hit a kerb for example, rather than buckle as the standard ones are designed to do.

Proper maintenance of standard ones is probably they way to go I'd suggest?

[Bluebottle]

V8 GRF said:

I has been mentioned to me more than one or twice that round tube wishbones whilst strong and ideal for racing are probably too strong for road use as they are more likely to damage the chassis if they hit a kerb for example, rather than buckle as the standard ones are designed to do.

Proper maintenance of standard ones is probably they way to go I'd suggest?

I have heard similar.

SC Power's offering look very good quality when I saw them, I have no idea how they compare on price tho;
http://www.sc-power.co.uk/SC-Power-Wishbones.html

[aerospoke]

Just ask the Monster:

http://www.tvrmonster.co.uk/store/index.php?act=vi...

I think RacingGreen do some and I have seen rather nice ones from Grantura Engineering. Powers just look like new normal TVR-ones to me.

Cheers Jens

[spend]

V8 GRF said:

I has been mentioned to me more than one or twice that round tube wishbones whilst strong and ideal for racing are probably too strong for road use as they are more likely to damage the chassis if they hit a kerb for example, rather than buckle as the standard ones are designed to do.

Proper maintenance of standard ones is probably they way to go I'd suggest?

The standard rear lower wishbones were tubular the last time I looked?

[mph.52]

Thanks for your comments - as ever these decisions are never straight forward and at the moment I'm wavering towards standard although to have one go at the point of entry to a hairpin is character building! So strong and unbreakable sounds good too! Ho Hum.

[V8 GRF]

spend said:

V8 GRF said:

I has been mentioned to me more than one or twice that round tube wishbones whilst strong and ideal for racing are probably too strong for road use as they are more likely to damage the chassis if they hit a kerb for example, rather than buckle as the standard ones are designed to do.

Proper maintenance of standard ones is probably they way to go I'd suggest?

The standard rear lower wishbones were tubular the last time I looked?

Maybe the bottom one needs to be stronger to take the power with the top one being sacrificial?

[shake n bake]

the wishbone that failed must have had heavy corrosion on it?? its rare for a complete failure that severe.

[GreenV8S]

V8 GRF said:

round tube wishbones whilst strong and ideal for racing are probably too strong for road use as they are more likely to damage the chassis if they hit a kerb for example, rather than buckle as the standard ones are designed to do.

More to the point, they cost a little more to make than those nasty cr@ppy open section wishbones. If the tubular wishbones transmit enough force to bend the chassis, there was something wrong with your chassis.

[mph.52]

Well, the perceived wisdom is that although the wishbone may have been weakened by corrosion or damaged by pothole etc the replacement by tubular is not recommended as there is a degree of sacrificial design in the original TVR wishbones to protect the chassis from damage. - on a personal note the car did 15 years on the originals including 5 years of sprints and hillclimbs so replacing with the originals should take me to 2023 by which time I will probably need a V8 mobility scooter! Thanks for the interest.M.

[Taraka30]

Absolutely. I was on a Car Limits day earlier this year and bent the same one - front offside lower. I asked the same questions when getting it fixed and the response I had was that in the experience of the mechanic it wasn't a widespread problem and the part must have been weakened for it to go like that. The tubular versions, while stronger, had an increased chance of causing chasis damage in an accident which I thought was a terrible compromise. Silly as it seems, we all know how easy it is to clip a kerb in the wet. Why would I want to write off my car for the sake of replacing a £200 part?

[Chassis 33]

John Reid also offers tubular front wishbones. http://www.readmanracing.co.uk/parts4sale.php
Regards
Iain

[RWDKurt]

Did my OSF lower wishbone at the weekend on an event also - perhaps 3 of us in 1 weekend tells us that there is a problem with the standard units when used enthusiastically...

Saying that, mine was pretty badly corroded when I wire brushed and painted it on the car recently - I'd guess a nice new standard unit would have been fine.

I would guess also that the concerns raised about the risk to the backbone chassis of using the stronger tubular units is more theoretical than empirical. Most Locaterfields use tubular wishbones and their spaceframe chassis are of much smaller section steel.

[spend]

RWDKurt said:

..more theoretical than empirical...

Comparing the section sizes and triangulation I would have thought even that would be flawed theory, @40mm tube vs @100x50mm box with lots of x-members (only lower is compression and lesser tension in upper I imagine) . Maybe if by design the upper chassis rails were rusted through to start with? Sounds much more like 'not invented here' scare mongering to me..

You would be surprised by the difference with that less floppy wishbones actually makes as an upgrade, well I was. Are they worth the extra money, if you believe that your chassis is more like a rigid box rather than a string bag then probably no

Oh, and you might be much less likely to hit a kerb with them.

[GreenV8S]

Taraka30 said:

The tubular versions, while stronger, had an increased chance of causing chasis damage in an accident which I thought was a terrible compromise.

Nice theory, but could your expert point to a single instance where a healthy chassis had actually been damaged due to the wishbone being 'too strong'? Seems to me that he was telling you what you wanted to hear - that you should stick with the type of wishbone you have despite the evidence that they are weak and suffer terribly from corrosion.