Front Suspension Arms

[JetJackson]

The 5m is now back on the road and with its new found power its highlighted the inadequacy of the front suspension bushes... Also where the car is lowered the geometry is all to cock. The Sud is running late alfa 33 16v struts and outboard brakes.

I'm looking for recommendations...

I could replace all with new bushes, and make some adjustable top mounts to correct the camber, but will that be enough?
What experience do people have with after market bushes like powerflex?
Does anyone make adjustable front arms, or adjustable top mounts?
Does anybody have any arms with uprated bushes or rose joints they might want to sell?

Thanks!

[rsfruitbat]

I use powerflex on the rally Car and have had no problems..
GAZ and Compbrake both do adjustable top mounts that can be adapted to suit.
I would suggest speaking to John at justice for some arms.
At the other end of the market A H M sell a fully adjustable tubular front suspension

Rsfruitbat

[JetJackson]

Thanks for the reply.

Who / what is justice?

[KevJTD]

I'd think he meant John at Justsuds....
Autocorrect strikes again!

[JetJackson]

Ah! OK. Thanks. I will drop him a message.

[junior]

I have just done the rear end of the car with new powerflex bushes and what a joy, dead simple job, thank you Alfa romeo and decent product, thank you Powerflex.

Improved the car much more than I expected as the bushes did not seem too bad. Which along with cash flow problems is why they did not get done sooner.

[rsfruitbat]

On the nose as usual Kev.

Rsfruitbat

[Harry_p]

I’ve got some powerflex poly bushes to go on mine, I noticed the bushes looked pretty tired when I was under it doing the clutch. Be interested to see what they’re like and hope they don’t make it feel too stiff.

My usual tactic is to solid mount, poly bush and coilovers anything I can, but I’m trying to keep the sud more sensible...

[LooLooSud33Spider]

This has been a hot topic on the forum many times before that Fitting poly bushes to a sud is generally considered a Bad move. The std spec of the suds suspension is what give the car it’s sublime road holding and handling. When you start to mess with the bushes you lose some of the compliance and can actually spoil the road holding and ride quality.
It has to be said that Race car suspension is a very different discussion

[Crank]

I have never fitted polly bushes to the front arms but I would not recommend fitting them to the rear.
I remember when Suds had only been around for a few years and there were stories about the cars failing their first MOT on the rear bushes as they were so soft. But thats how they are meant to be to allow movement in the watts linkages.
That didn't stop me fitting polly bushes on the rear of my car on the advice of AROC members and apart from making the bolts holding the arms, to work loose. They, in my opinion, ruined the handling. As it lost that nice neutral feel ( for a FWD car that is) in the corners and would feel very twitchy. But I don't want to start an argument, thats my opinion for what its worth. There are plenty of people, in fact the majority judging by the posts I have seen, who consider polly bushes to make a big improvement to the Sud and that includes 'Wheeler Deelers' who put them on their car.
My car has been off the road for more years than I care to admit and still has the polly bushes fitted and so I will be giving away a free set of very low mileage polly bushes when I commence its fourth rebuild (is that a record?).

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Hi Crank
I’d be interested in the bushes for my race car when you eventually get to removing them from the sud. I’m like you I won’t use them on a road car but track only use maybe .
Lou

[junior]

This has been a hot topic on the forum many times before that Fitting poly bushes to a sud is generally considered a Bad move. The std spec of the suds suspension is what give the car it’s sublime road holding and handling. When you start to mess with the bushes you lose some of the compliance and can actually spoil the road holding and ride quality.
It has to be said that Race car suspension is a very different discussion

Very interesting. I fitted the blue bushes to the rear and as my car already has too large a tyres its not sublime, just masses of grip in my experience. I have never tried a well Sud saloon only a Sprint. In the rain that was quite amazing.

The improvement I am most happy about was the noise reduction with the new bushes, which I did not expect, but I did not have the full set of rubber washers on the sides of the bushes so that may explain that. It did sharpen up the steering but as we found a loose rear wheel bearing it could just have been that but i feel not.

Or is that just because i have spent money ?

[JetJackson]

Interesting points of view.

My sud is running 33 16v struts and outboard brakes at the front. I think the first thing to do is the sort the camber. At the current ride height it's nearly 3 degrees. Even with no toe it's all over the place under hard acceleration.

It seems options for correcting this are limited without spending many £££.

I think I will look at slotting 3 of the 4 mounting holes like we used to do on suds to get the camber back to spec.

[KevJTD]

Interesting points of view.

My sud is running 33 16v struts and outboard brakes at the front. I think the first thing to do is the sort the camber. At the current ride height it's nearly 3 degrees. Even with no toe it's all over the place under hard acceleration.

It seems options for correcting this are limited without spending many £££.

I think I will look at slotting 3 of the 4 mounting holes like we used to do on suds to get the camber back to spec.

This is said to be the best way to sort the camber out, less bump-steer over the top mount way of adjusting, as someone once told me. Could have been anyone who told me, can't recall now!

[JetJackson]

With 33 struts its not quite as straight forward as sud ones due to the thickness of the mounting flange.

I drew it up on CAD and to get back to 1 degree neg camber, worst case the top bolt needs to be slotted just under 4mm.

[Crank]

The polly bushes are yours Loo, if you can wait a year or two. I have just started sorting out my 2004 MX5 1.8S and I think thats going to keep me busy for a few months. I didn't realise how well they rust when I bought it, and apart from all the welding I need to replace all the suspension arms. One had split along the length of the bush mounting on another the bush mounting was starting to come away rom the arm, due to corrosion. After the MX5 then I want to finish my 75TS. The Sud with the polly bushes is on a hard standing in my neighbours back garden, where they used to keep their camper van and is wrapped up in several layers of waterproof materials which will hopefully keep it dry for a year or two.

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Cheers Crank
Much appreciated. I’m in no rush whatsoever. Just remember me at rebuild time.
Regards
Lou.