Early and late S2 front suspension...help needed

[Steve Carpenter]

I’m restoring a 1970 S2 which has the early front upper wishbone setup with the top trailing arm going inside the chassis alongside the top shocker mounting. I’ve just discovered that chassis I’m using for the rebuild  is set up for the later upper wishbone where the top trailing arm goes outside the chassis.

My question is this... since I have available 2 of the late S2 trailing upper arms (1 for each side) that go outside the chassis and everything seems to line up, can I utilise these with rest of the early suspension wishbone arms/set up without any problems? I appreciate I’ll need the longer top bolt, but I’m wondering about the clearance to the body where the top bolt goes through into the cabin, the body is off the chassis at the moment so I can't see everything in place to judge.

Basically I want to change the front top early trailing arms for the later trailing arm so I don't have to modify my new chassis.

Comments please, thanks

[jbcollier]

AFAIK, you'll be fine.  The leading arms remained the same just the trailing arm changed (and the bolt as noted).  Also easy to transfer the spacers on the old chassis to the replacement.  I can't comment from personal experience with regard to the body clearance but it was common to fit the later chassis to an older body so it can't be that much of an issue.

[Steve Carpenter]

Thank you for posting,  have now had my early S2 body moulding shape checked against a late S2, as far as we can tell they are the same in the area where the trailing top arm pivots. I'll put it all together... I'm hoping to re fit the bodyshell late summer, I'll post up here if I encounter any problems but it should be ok.
Thanks again