Graham, As long as you are this far, dismantle the left front completely and have it checked. If it's ok, then put it back and figure the other side is fine also. If it was my car, I was keeping it and I was doing the work, I'd check this NOW. If you don't, it could deteriorate in a few years...if you check, you'll know if you're good for 10 or 20. Why risk duplicating the work in a few years if you can check now and know? FWIW, I did rebuild the entire front end of my 1973 Berlina and I'm glad I did! Stevan Thomas 1973 Berlina
In a message dated 11/28/2010 10:28:08 AM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2010 12:21:06 +1300 > From: Graham&Joan Hilder <[email protected]> > Subject: [alfa] ALFADIGEST - 105 GTV front wishbone bushes > > Greetings all, > > Finally started on refurbishing the suspension of my 1750 GTV. Have > dismantled most of the front left side, so that the only items still on > the > car are the two halves of the lower wishbone (A-arm for our USA friends, > is > it?). I've removed the lower ball joint so the two legs of the wishbone > are > free to be moved around separately. My query is, can I assess the > condition > of the inner bushes while the arms are still on their pivots on the car > body? I don't want to dismantle and rebuild these pivots if there's > nothing > wrong with them. > > They seem OK to me so far, but I don't know exactly what to look for when > checking these assemblies. Here's what I've done so far (separately on > each > half of the wishbone): > - - Swung each arm up and down around the range of its pivot, and > confirmed > movement is completely smooth and even, and with what I feel is a nice > gentle amount of friction (i.e. not at all sloppy but not overly tight). > - - Grabbed the outer end of each arm and confirmed no detectable free > play > when pushing in and pulling out at right angles to the pivot. > - - Holding the outer end of each arm, moved the end gently from side to > side, > to apply a rocking movement to the pivot. In this test, there was some > free > play in the pivots, allowing the arms to swing about ten degrees either > way > from their natural rest position. > > Any advice or comments please? > Many thanks, > Graham Hilder, > NZ (GTV, 156, Alfasud ti and Sprint). -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
