B@man did you ever get your rear bearing issue sorted?

[mrcrappy]

Hi, did you ever manage to sort out your rear wheel play issue last year? was just reading through some old posts and I think I had a similar problem. My 350i used to fail its MOT most years on rear bearing play, I used to replace all rear UJ's and both bearings and still no luck, then I replaced all the rear bushes with poly bushestoo , back to MOT station still no luck, in the end I rang TVR explained my problem and they basically said it could be a design problem, if the car was jacked up it had no weight on it and the play was just vertical movement because it was the way the UJ's work (a little bit in one UJ one way and a bit of play in the other the other way ment the whole carrier was lifting slightly, if that makes sense), if the car had a top wishbone it would not happen as this should stop all excess play. I explained this to the MOT guy, showed him the play was not in the bearing and he seemed happy when he had had a good look, Ive taken it back to the same place since with no problem. wish I could have sorted it because I know it'll rear its ugly head some day, Ive not had the car on the road for a few years and the MOT guy has now left. fingers crossed.
regards
Jon

[B@man]

Hi Jon

In a word..... NO

My last bodging attempt was a full tube of loctite 660 but as you can't twist the bearing as you push it in the bearing just pushes out the loctite.

As the second suspension upright I bought unfortunately suffered from the same problem as the original so I now have a spare one to play with. I plan to get it machined out to take either a slightly bigger bearing a sleeve, I'm going to let my local automotive engineering workshop have a look at it and see what they come up with. I know the bigger bearing method works as I spoke to someone else last year who has done the same thing on a late 350i I just need to figure out what bearing is just a little bit bigger.

I'm not sure about the "design fault" as my nearside has no play at all and you can see the outer drive shaft yolk move as you apply pressure to the wheel.

Luckily the MOT (last week) was no problem at all, I spoke to the tester and he said that you are allowed approx 10mm of play at the top of the wheel, mine is nowhere near failing the MOT it just annoys me as it vibrates a bit at over a ton (off the queens highway naturally) and clunks on the bumpy stuff (on the queens highway). The garage I used also told me that the XJ6's suffer the same problem as the bearing makes the hole in the (ally?) upright bigger over time.

When I eventually fix the thing I will post details of how !
Good luck with the MOT, mine flew through and only needed one headlamp adjusting and that was at my usual garage who are not TVR specialists.

Edited by B@man on Tuesday 13th April 18:55

[mrcrappy]

Thats good that you got it through the MOT, hopefully mine will be as easy. I seem to have play on both sides but it is definately more lift than twist. Ive just got my body off so I'll have a good look at the suspenstion while i recon it all, was thinking of some of Richard Thorpes nylon A frame bushes to replace the poly bushes I got from Peninsula, according to Richard the bushes should be a solid pivot rather than a soft bush, Im now a bit worried how this solid bush will move though,I think it will either clamp or spin on the outside, Dont want to spend another 200 quid until Im dead sure, the last lot of bushes were supposed to be the best. gutted.
anyway
all the best
Jon

[Wedg1e]

mrcrappy said:

...according to Richard the bushes should be a solid pivot rather than a soft bush, Im now a bit worried how this solid bush will move though,I think it will either clamp or spin on the outside, Dont want to spend another 200 quid until Im dead sure, the last lot of bushes were supposed to be the best. gutted.
anyway
all the best
Jon

None of the suspension bushes are actually 'pivots', ie the bolt should not be able to turn inside the bush, nor should the bush rotate around the bolt, nor should the component ritate around the outside of the bush. Rather, the compliance of the rubber between inner and outer sleeves is (allegedly) a design consideration in the suspension response, apart from vibration damping. Some people think it's utter cobblers and certainly from a mechanical engineering point of view, you'd imagine that making all the pivots 'proper' pivots and addressing suspension movement using just the spring and damper would be a better way to do things - for a start, it takes out the effects of ageing on the bushes.
From what I've seen of the various polyurethane bushes, the components are not bonded together in the way that a rubber 'Metalastik' bush is, consequently there is nothing stopping the various parts from rotating relative to each other... quite what that'll do to the polyurethane over time one can but guess.

[mrcrappy]

Yeah, thats exactly what I thought, I work in gas turbine manufacture, so usually try to look at things from an engineering point of view, I do often confuse myself though with what is correct and what has been done in the past. Took me 2 years to pluck up the courage to fit the princess style brake calipers, some experts said they wouldnt fit, not the ones TVR used etc, they fitted straight on no probs, just wish I had bothered to work out the piston surface area as they are not really ay better than the standard (as the calculations proved)Ive got some mondeo ones kicking around, might give them ago.
all the best
jon