front suspension

[wooly350i]

Hi all,i have been checking measurements etc on front suspension today and comparing both sides to each other,its been an issue for a little while in that the offside has been sitting about an inch lower than the nearside,we checked packing between body and chassis and addressed that but still have an issue with it being lower.My question is can a ball joint or associated front suspension joints and bushes suffer from lack of movement or seizure and prevent full movement with result of causing car to sit lower or perhaps in some cases higher,i feel a front suspension rebuild coming on but working it out first may help with the job,cheers for now,wooly.

[Wedg1e]

If you did have a seized balljoint, you'd get some bloody horrible noises when driving. More likely a spring that's taken a set but you won't be easily able to measure until you remove them.
Couple of hours' work should see the whole rusty mess on the floor

http://www.wedgeneering.co.uk/TVR%20390SE%20p10.ht...

Think I got new top and bottom arm bushes and a full set of balljoints from South Wales Propshafts (their website isn't as easy to use as it used to be) and wheelbearings from an Ebay seller.

[wooly350i]

Thanks Ian,noises and generally an orrible driving experience so a strip down soon. Are you in the market to knock up one of those steering column bushes with an oversized plate,how did you seat and secure the outer part of baring to plate? Wooly.

[Wedg1e]

wooly350i said:

Thanks Ian,noises and generally an orrible driving experience so a strip down soon. Are you in the market to knock up one of those steering column bushes with an oversized plate,how did you seat and secure the outer part of baring to plate? Wooly.

The original bearing sits in a hole drilled through the footwell: the new bearing is smaller so the mounting holes would IIRC break the dge of the centre hole, if you floow. I used a slab of alloy plate to cover the original hole, retained by the original bolts, then rotated the new bearing 45 degrees or so and drilled two new holes through the plate and the footwell wall.
It was an off-the-shelf bearing complete with elliptical mounting plates from local suppliers, I doubt if it was more than a tenner; the only issue being the diameter of the column (14mm?) which isn't a standard bearing bore size so I sleeved it with a bit of brass.
Probably takes me longer to type this than it did to fit the bearing