Fitting radius arm bushes - question?

[Nick in Beds]

Hi Chaps, quick question, do the bushes mount on the outside as per picture or inside the chassis?  Mine were one of each when I got it so not sure which is correct?

Also you will see in the pic I have the Lotus polybushes - they seem softer than the rubber ones though, I thought poly should be stiffer?

Nick.

[BDA]

I don't remember how I did mine. I'm not sure it matters as long as you can set the toe without any rubbing. The "long" end has to be inside the frame, of course.

[jbcollier]

The mount goes to the outside of the chassis.

[LotusJoe]

The flatter side of the mount goes to the outside as illustrated below. Otherwise you would end up with excessive toe out.


I reviewed the workshop manual and found the following notes. It would appear that the bushing is mounted from the inside of the frame.

• Commencing at Chassis No. 2414, the rubber insulators located at the front end of the "Y" of the chassis have been relocated from the outside to the inside of the "Y". This modification has been made necessary to ensure that design toe-in () is able to be set through the use of size 7 (AN7) [3] packing washers between the inside of the suspension radius arm and the insulator.
  If difficulty is experienced in service on cars prior to that given above, the following procedure is recommended:
  • Remove the radius arm ('Section D.2').
     Remove the insulators by releasing the 2 bolts on each securing them to the chassis "Y".
     Replace the insulators on the inside face of the chassis with the plate located against the Y section and rubber insulator towards the center of the car, using a reinforcing plate (Part No. 054 A 0251) on the outside face of the chassis. Note that the bolts are assembled from the outside in the following sequence - bolt, plain washer, reinforcing plate, chassis, plain washer or spacer, insulator, large washer, nut.

Now I'm wondering if mine is assembled incorrectly 

[EuropaTC]

Well Joe, mine is similar to what you have shown in the last photo with the reinforcement plate on the inner side of the chassis leg. And as some of you will know, I have a stack of spacers outside to get the rear toe within spec. so if mine was assembled the way described, I'd need longer bolts to get all the spacers in 

The instruction was early on with the Europa and because of trouble getting toe-in correct, but from reading the various manuals it would appear to be dated around the change to the S2 ?  Again from the parts book, the S2 has a reinforcing plate shown outside, the TC has one of a slightly different design shown inside the chassis leg. The common theme seems to be that the chassis is sandwiched between the bush and plate but not necessarily how they're arranged.

So sometimes I think we've got to read the manual based on what we're dealing with on the ground, which is pretty much what BDA has said - the critical thing is getting the toe in correct. I think yours is correct but I'd be prepared to change things when I got a rough toe measurement.

On the polyurethane comment, these days I think we are getting different grades (as in hardness/flexibility) available in automotive bushes. Sue Miller (a respected Elan dealer) would never sell them because she thought them too harsh for road elans, but now she supplies a grade which is softer and more "road friendly" than the earlier materials. So maybe that's why yours seem soft ? 

Brian

[Nick in Beds]

Thanks for the responses, interesting reading as always.

My car is chassis # 1953 so in theory should have the mounts outside of the chassis.  However, I am quickly learning that nothing is an exact science with these cars, this is part of the fun right?   

Maybe the PO put one inside and one outside so at least one was correct 

Anyway, I will mount them outside and see what the toe in looks like.

On the poly subject, I think I will go back to rubber as the polys seem too soft to me.

[Bainford]

Just to add to the discussion a bit; When I replaced mine I messed around with the toe adjustment and found that I couldn't withdraw the pivot bolt all the way due to interference with the fiberglass body work adjacent to the mount. Withdrawing the bolt is required to add/remove adjusting shims. Everytime I altered the toe adjustment I had to partially remove the mount assy from the frame, which is a minor pain. I solved this by boring a hole in the fiberglass body work in line with the head of the centre bolt, and large enough for the bolt head to pass through. This alowed me to withdraw the centre bolt all the way and easily add/remove shims.

[jbcollier]

No need to remove the bolt.  You can just use "U" shaped shims.